Sorting Efficiency and Grain Recovery from Deoxynivalenol Contaminated Wheat by Near-Infrared Transmittance Sorting (Bomill) is Impacted by Calibration Type and HVK Setting

Fusarium infection of wheat causes the production of the secondary metabolite deoxynivalenol (DON), which affects animal performance. Limited post-harvest sorting technologies are available to remove moderately infected kernels and improve overall grain recovery below 5ppm DON. Proprietary near-infrared seed sorting calibrations for fusarium damage have recently been developed by BoMill AB (Sweden) to achieve this objective. Two experiments were conducted to test the sorting efficacy of the BoMill IQ using the new calibrations. Wheat with 8ppm DON was pre-cleaned to remove debris and small shriveled kernels prior to sorting. The impact of HVK setting and calibration (fusarium and protein) was tested. Recovery of low fusarium grain using the fusarium calibration settings was 43.4, 50.3, and 44.9%, with rejection rates of 38.7, 29.0, and 22.7%, and average DON in recoverable fractions was 2.0, 1.7, and 2.4 ppm, using the HVK, HHVK, and HHHVK settings respectively. Using the protein calibration setting, grain recoveries were 46.2 and 51.1%, with rejection rates of 35.6, and 17.5%, and average DON in recoverable fractions was 1.6, and 3.0 ppm, using the HVK, and HHVK settings respectively. Therefore, it was determined the fusarium calibration using the HHVK setting was most effective, as it resulted in lower average DON with lower rejection rates. The second experiment examined sorting efficiency using the optimal setting on a pooled 6 ppm wheat, and a 15 ppm wheat. Grain recovery from the pooled and 15 ppm wheats were 69.0 and 46.1%, with an average DON of 1.3, and 2.2 ppm respectively. Sorting using a BoMill equipped with the fusarium calibration and HHVK setting will effectively sort a range of wheat samples, including pooled samples, into low DON fractions, increasing the grain value and minimizing any negative effects on the animal. 

Key words: BoMill, DON, grain recovery, near-infrared transmittance, sorting, wheat.

Published in the proceedings of the Animal Nutrition Conference of Canada 2020. For information on the event, past and future editions, check out https://animalnutritionconference.ca/.