DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF AN AUTOMATED GRAIN BREAKAGE TESTER FOR DETERMINING CORN BREAKAGE SUSCEPTIBILITY

A newly designed automated grain breakage device, the Ohio Grain Break age Tester (OBT), is described. The design of this device is based on a previously reported modification of the Stein CK2M Breakage Tester ( SBT), which reduced the grinding time from 2 min to 30 sec and increas ed grain charge from 100 to 200 g. In the OBT, the grinding step has b een completely automated, but the sieving and weighing steps are still manual. Total time for determining breakage susceptibility (BS) is 3. 5-4 min for the OBT and 7-8 min for the SBT. A prototype model of the OBT was compared with the SBT on 235 commercial corn samples from a tw o-year period. Differences in BS values were not statistically differe nt. The correlation coefficients comparing results of the SBT and OBT were 0.91-0.98 for a comparison of 226 corn samples and 0.98 for a sma ll (five samples) comparison. This indicated that the two instruments measured the same parameter. The OBT had a greater precision than did the SBT as demonstrated by smaller standard deviations and coefficient s of variability. Particle size analyses by sieving showed.similar pat terns for both machines. The two machines were operated over a range o f grind times on com of wide BS differences. Slopes were similar. The OBT is a good replacement for the SBT because it is faster, more preci se, and, when combined with equipment to automate the sieving and weig hing steps, provides a rapid and reliable device for evaluating corn f or relative brittleness.