Grain Quality Discount Calculator

The moisture discount here is priced at $0.05 per bushel for every point over the 15% base, versus $0.02/bu per pound of test-weight shortfall — so a 1-point moisture miss is discounted more heavily than a 1-lb test-weight miss. That reflects the real economics: excess moisture directly costs the elevator drying energy and storage risk (mold, heating), while low test weight mostly just means less usable grain per bushel by volume. These rates are the calculator's built-in assumption, not a law of physics, so confirm them against your elevator's actual schedule.

Shrink factor is (100 − your moisture %) divided by (100 − 15%), and it represents the fraction of your wet, as-delivered bushel that remains once it's dried down to the 15% base — for example, 20% moisture gives a shrink factor of about 0.94, meaning you're really delivering about 94% as much dry matter per bushel as the same volume at 15% moisture. The price discount is a separate, elevator-set dockage on top of that; shrink only matters directly if your specific contract pays on dried weight rather than as-delivered weight.

Damage and foreign material each have a built-in tolerance — 3% for damage, 2% for foreign material — below which no discount applies at all; only the portion above that tolerance is charged, at $0.01/bu per point over. This mirrors how most grain grading standards work: a small amount of damaged kernels or trash is considered normal and unavoidable, and only excess beyond the accepted grade threshold gets docked.

Not directly — the base standards hardcoded here (15% moisture, 56 lb/bu test weight) are specific to corn's #2 grade. Wheat, soybeans, and other grains use different base moisture percentages and different test-weight scales entirely, so running their numbers through this calculator would apply the wrong reference points and produce a misleading discount.