Tony's Tech Tips: How many times should I probe a truck of grain to get a representative sample?

Learn from Neogen Senior Director Tony Lupo how many times to probe a truck of grain to get a representative sample.

Video Transcript

Tony's Tech Tip: How many times should I probe a truck of grain to get a representative sample?

Questions on probing are very, very common, but critically important to make sure that the sample is, in fact, representative.

So the USDA will recommend that a multi-tier probe be used and each of those probes have individual compartments or tiers within them.

Depending upon the size of vessel, the number of compartments can vary:

• for a hopper-bottom truck, anywhere between 12 and 20 compartments, which is generally about five to seven probes
• for trucks 11 or 12 compartments
• for boxcars 12 compartments
• for hopper cars 20 compartments
• and for barges and bay boats 20 compartments.

Following these recommendations by the USDA will ensure that you have a representative sample and the results that you generate are, in fact, reliable.