What’s Working in Ag: Measuring Grain Loss with Bushel Plus

Harvest efficiency has always been one of the biggest profit drivers on the farm—but it’s also been one of the hardest things to measure accurately.

In this What’s Working in Ag segment from Commodity Classic, we sat down with Marcel from Bushel Plus to talk about a simple idea that’s making a major impact: actually measuring grain loss instead of guessing.

For years, farmers relied on rough estimates—counting kernels on the ground, making visual judgments, or simply trusting experience. But as combines become more advanced with automation, sensors, and data systems, the need for accurate, real-world calibration has never been more important.

That’s where Bushel Plus comes in.

Their SmartPan system allows operators to safely and quickly measure exactly what’s coming out the back of the combine. With a remote-controlled drop pan, farmers can capture a sample during harvest, separate the grain from residue, and calculate true loss in just a few minutes. No guesswork. No unsafe methods. Just real numbers.

And those numbers matter.

Even a small amount of grain loss—just a couple bushels per acre—can add up to significant dollars across an operation. In many cases, farmers are surprised at how much they’re actually losing. Once they see it, they can’t unsee it—and more importantly, they can fix it.

The impact goes beyond just saving grain. Reducing loss also means fewer volunteer crops, less need for additional passes or herbicide, and better overall field management.

What makes this even more relevant today is the integration with modern combine technology. With John Deere’s recent partnership and endorsement, SmartPan is now being used to “ground truth” combine automation systems—helping machines calibrate properly and hit target loss levels more accurately.

Whether you’re running the latest high-tech combine or an older machine, the concept is the same: you can’t manage what you don’t measure.

And for many farmers, this tool pays for itself almost immediately—sometimes within the first few fields.

The bottom line: harvest is too important—and margins are too tight—to leave bushels in the field. Tools like this are helping farmers capture more of what they’ve already worked all season to grow.

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