After implementing the soybean farm gate assessment in 2007, GIPSA began a similar program at export locations in 2008. Although GIPSA collects quality data for all inspected soybean exports, no data on foreign material composition is collected, and protein and oil determinations may or may not be made for each sublot exported. In order to capture this additional information so that results of the soybean farm gate assessment are directly comparable to soybean quality data at export, GIPSA initiated the soybean export assessment. Data collected for the export assessment is identical to the soybean farm gate assessment. Each sample receives an official grade, and includes additional factors of protein, oil, foreign material composition, moisture, and test weight.
The soybean export assessment collects approximately 400 soybean samples inspected for export, from all major soybean exporting field offices and official agencies during the months of September through January. The distribution of samples collected is based on each location's annual share of total soybean exports. Because there is an upper limit to the number of samples GIPSA collects for this assessment, each participating location was given a sampling plan in an attempt to correlate each location's sampling with their periods of greatest export inspection activity. These periods historically fall within the months of September through January. The soybean export assessment will continue for the duration of the soybean farm gate assessment, which is scheduled to continue through at least the 2011 soybean harvest.
Data Summaries