NIS Handling and Sorting -

Kevin Quinlan

Processor Advances

2 October 2012

We are focused on quality

On-farm sorting trials

0.00%

0.50%

1.00%

1.50%

2.00%

After dehusk and first sort After Storage and resort

Kern

el

Reco

very

(%

)

First sort Second Sort

Reject NIS quality TKR

Weight of Purely Reject NIS (kg) removed per 1000

kg of NIS to reduce the reject level by 1%

25.00% 40

26.00% 38

27.00% 37

28.00% 36

29.00% 34

30.00% 33

31.00% 32

32.00% 31

33.00% 30

34.00% 29

35.00% 29

36.00% 28

37.00% 27

38.00% 26

39.00% 26

40.00% 25

It’s all about speed….

• Speed from the tree to being packed

• While growers are “sorting for quality” they

are potentially degrading shelf-life through:

• Holding NIS in inadequate storage

facilities

• Sorting while they could harvest

• Spending money that may not need to be

eg gas, electricity, wages

How to do it fast!

• We developed a system that allows

growers to deliver with some husk, trash,

FM and gross rejects (within limits) to

achieve speed

Technology is the key

1980 State of the art computer $10,000

2012 – “Basic” smart phone - $500

1980 2012

NIS sorter

Results

PV Values of MPC Kernel by Season

Quality by season - MPC

Saleable and Reject Kernel

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Year

Reject

Saleable

Grower Quality by season

Reject KR %

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Year

Kern

el R

eco

very

%

No on-farm sorting, only gross

rejects removed at MPC

Crop Removal Amount

0.0%

1.0%

2.0%

3.0%

4.0%

5.0%

6.0%

7.0%

8.0%

9.0%

10.0%

11.0%

12.0%

13.0%

14.0%

15.0%

16.0%

17.0%

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Year

% o

f c

rop

re

mo

ved

No on-farm sorting, only gross

rejects removed at MPC

What should you do with this?

a.Throw it out

b.Leave it in

Conclusion

• Focus on consumer quality

• Technology has allowed us to do more

• Growers are seeing a 10-15c/kg saving in on farm costs by using the full system

• Plus increased production per hectare

• How much kernel have we as an industry lost over the years???????????

• How much shelf-life have we lost over the years???????

Quality is made in the

paddock

We can only preserve it after that,

not improve it