Grain Moisture Settlement
Adjust sale weight.
Estimated reading time: 1 minute
Purdue Extension explains that corn’s weight includes water. Moisture-adjusted sale weight differs from the truck’s wet-grain weight; handling losses are a separate consideration.
Fictional delivery: 47,600 pounds of corn at 20% moisture. Assume settlement at 15% moisture, 56 pounds per market bushel, and no dry-matter loss.
Dry matter is 47,600 × 80% = 38,080 pounds. At the target moisture, dry matter represents 85% of total weight. Adjusted weight is therefore 38,080 ÷ 85% = 44,800 pounds, or 800 bushels.
The five-percentage-point moisture reduction removes 2,800 pounds, about 5.88% of original weight—not merely 5%.
At a fictional $5 per adjusted bushel, gross proceeds are $4,000. Dividing wet weight directly by 56 would produce 850 bushels and a misleading $4,250 forecast: $250 too high.
Confirm the buyer’s moisture basis, shrink schedule and charges before using proceeds in a borrowing plan. This water-only calculation excludes handling shrink, drying charges and other deductions. It does not determine a real settlement, recommend storage conditions or establish cash available for debt payments.
