Getting protein levels on your grain used to be cumbersome. It involved a trip to the local grain elevator or sometimes weeks of waiting for results after sending samples into the laboratory.

This was far too slow, especially for growers who need these specs immediately to help them with storage and crop segregation decisions during harvest.

There are now numerous grain protein testers on the market, but when it comes to portability the Finnish-built GrainSense stands out.

WOODSTOCK, Ont. — A new Winnipeg company is betting farmers want portability in their grain testers.

Prairie Grain Analyzers has developed a new moisture tool that doesn’t require the grain to be weighed or have its temperature taken. It also doesn’t force producers to look up the results on a chart.

The MA-404 uses an Android portable-device operating system such as a non-Apple smartphone, a set of sensors, a rugged touch-screen interface and rechargeable batteries to provide instant moisture tests in the field.