What can North Dakota Grain Inspection and Illinois Official Grain Inspection do for you?

The accurate and consistent inspection of the agricultural products grown and traded in the upper Midwest is vital to the bottom line of the producer, merchandiser and buyer alike. Whether that grain has recently been harvested, is being delivered to a domestic processor, or is entering the export market, a federally licensed lab is the most dependable and precise inspection option available.

North Dakota Grain Inspection Service, Inc. and Illinois Official Grain Inspection are the federally designated laboratories licensed to officially sample and grade grain under the United States Grain Standards Act in their respective areas. While locally there may be other inspection labs operating, the USDA grants only one agency the authority to carry out and issue official inspections for that locale.

Serving the elevator and merchandiser....

Official inspections serve both the buyer and the seller of agricultural commodities. Any interested party can request that a lot of grain be officially sampled and inspected. The results of that inspection can be used to avoid disputes and resolve possible conflicts. When an official inspection is performed prior to shipment, costly transportation delays and the catastrophic expense of rejected lots can be avoided. When disputes over grain are at their worst, only when inspected by an official agency will the officers and courts of the United States receive an official certificate as evidence of the truth of the facts stated therein.

Serving the producer....

An inspection certificate issued by an official agency can be a useful tool for the grower of agricultural products. Given the very tight margins for profit created by the current farm crisis, the need to be sure of the quality of that product is of the utmost importance. This information, when provided to the producer accurately and promptly, can assist him/her in marketing for their greatest potential for earnings. During extended periods of storage, the cost of submitting a sample of grain for analysis can be returned many times over. With the help of an official grain inspection laboratory, a producer can continually monitor the condition of their product and often avoid the disastrous financial consequences that occur when a sudden change in quality comes about.

Serving the processor....

Many processors of agricultural commodities are now utilizing licensed inspection labs to provide independent sampling and inspections onsite. Official agencies can set up sampling and/or inspection service points at a facility. Under the United States Grain Standards Act these satellite labs are required to maintain the same strict quality control standards as the agency's primary laboratory. North Dakota Grain Inspection Service, Inc. and Illinois Official Grain Inspection maintain service points at Northern Sun-ADM in Enderlin, N.D., Cargill Oilseed Processing at West Fargo, N.D. and Siemer Milling Company in Teutopolis, Illinois and at various truck and unit train loading facilities throughout the Dakotas, Minnesota and Illinois.

What is an official agency?

While North Dakota Grain Inspection Service, Inc. and Illinois Official Grain Inspection are privately operated, unlike unlicensed labs they are required to follow stringent rules and regulations set forth by the USDA. All personnel employed at an approved agency must pass an examination and be licensed under the United States Grain Standards Act. Equipment at the labs must also meet strict federal standards. All are continually check tested and remain in service only if the results of those exams fall within the tight margins established by the Federal Grain Inspection Service.

Because both North Dakota Grain Inspection Service, Inc. and Illinois Official Grain Inspection are licensed under the United States Grain Standards Act, they are required to meet its tough standards. Customers can be assured of dependable and accurate grades when lots of grain are officially sampled by the official agencies or samples are submitted by the applicant. From the fields harvested in North Dakota and Minnesota, to the barges loaded on the Mississippi River while under supervision of the USDA, our labs can meet all your grain inspection needs.

What is an official inspection?

Two types of certificates an official agency can issue under the United States Grain Standards Act are the Official Certificate or “white certificate” and the Submitted Sample Certificate or “pink certificate”. The white certificate is issued to represent the grade on a lot of grain that has been sampled and inspected by the official agency's licensed personnel. The pink certificate is issued on a sample that was drawn and submitted to the official lab by the applicant. Because the official agency's licensed sampler did not take that sample, the pink certificate will represent only the amount of grain submitted for testing.

If either the buyer or seller of grain is dissatisfied with the results after an official agency has performed an inspection and issued an official or submitted sample certificate, the United States Grain Standards Act specifies several options. Interested parties can request a reinspection in the same laboratory, or because the original inspection was performed in a federally licensed lab, a request can be made for an appeal inspection. The local USDA Federal Grain Inspection Service Field Office and/or the FGIS Board of Appeals and Review in Kansas City would perform an appeal inspection.

Our history....

North Dakota Grain Inspection Service, Inc. has been doing business in the Red River Valley for 38 years, serving the inspection needs of eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota since 1968. In 1999 North Dakota Grain Inspection Service, Inc. saw the opportunity to expand the scope of its enterprise and purchased Southern Illinois Grain Inspection, which had been doing business in Illinois for 19 years. This acquisition has simplified the tracking of rail and truck lots from North Dakota and Minnesota, and barge and rail shipments from the St. Louis area to their final destination. Customers of North Dakota Grain Inspection Service, Inc. can be assured that origin grades on their commodities will continue to be valid throughout the shipment's journey, whether its final destination is a local processing plant or for export at the Gulf of Mexico.

The USDA website also contains a great deal of useful information about the federal grain inspection system and can be found at http://www.usda.gov/gipsa.

• Feel free to contact us through e-mail at the links provided below.
• Please check back to www.graininspection.com. Our site is updated often.
• Don't hesitate to give us a call at either location, we are here to serve all your inspection needs.