With grain companies getting pickier and premiums paid for quality grain, taking good, representative grain samples is more important than ever, according to Sid Lockhart, a Camrose, Alta., inventor who's involved in a couple of family grain farms and also works for a grain company.

Lockhart saw the need for a new way to sample grain and came up with a "continuous sampler" that mounts on any grain auger and lets you take out a continuous "trickle" of grain so that you can get a good sample of an entire bin load of grain, rather than just a handful of grain from the back of one or two truck loads.

"The better your sample, the stronger your argument with grain buyers who may have a different reading on your grain because they took only a limited sample," says Lockhart. "Here in Canada, grain in bins is sampled by government representatives as part of support programs and they almost never get grain from the center of the bin -- only around the outside. This sampler can help you give a true picture of the grain you have in storage."

The device simply clamps to the underside of any 6 to 13-in. dia. auger. You cut a 1-in. hole in the auger. It'll mount anywhere but Lockhart recommends putting it part way up the auger so it won't get in the way. It has an adjustable spout that's 1 in. dia. and 3 1/2 in. long. You put a 1-in. dia. rubber hose over the spout and run it down into a pail. The sampler opening can be adjusted for everything from tiny mustard seed to corn, and the speed with which each sample is taken can be adjusted depending on how much grain you're moving. For example, if you're sampling 1,000 bu., you'll want to open it up wider than if you're sampling 5,000 bu.

"When I first got the idea, I was worried it might split beans and other seeds as they came out of the auger, but that hasn't been a problem," says Lockhart. He's looking for distributors and dealers in the U.S. and Canada.