About the Harvest Sample Program

The Canadian Grain Commission’s (CGC) Harvest Sample Program is a voluntary program that has been benefiting Canadian grain producers and the entire grain value chain since 1927.

In exchange for their harvest samples, producers receive a personalized crop quality report at no charge that they can use when marketing and delivering their grain.

The harvest samples producers send each year are essential to maintaining Canada’s grain quality assurance system, as they:

• allow CGC to generate quality and safety data that helps marketers promote domestic and international sales of Canadian grain
• help evaluate the effectiveness of grading factors, to make sure they continue to protect Canada’s reputation as a reliable source of high-quality grain
• allow CGC to conduct scientific research to mitigate grain quality and grain safety issues, and to help support the creation of new markets for Canadian crops 

The Harvest Sample Program is a voluntary program that benefits Canadian grain producers and the entire grain value chain.

When you sign up, you’ll receive a Harvest Sample kit annually that contains envelopes for sending in samples of your crop at no extra cost to you. For each sample, our inspectors provide unofficial grade and quality results at no charge, including:

• Falling Number for wheat and rye
• Vomitoxin (deoxynivalenol or DON) levels for wheat, corn, barley and oats
• Dockage assessment on canola and mustard seed
• Protein content on barley, beans, chickpeas, lentils, oats, peas and wheat
• Oil, protein and chlorophyll content for canola
• Oil and protein content and iodine value for flaxseed
• Oil and protein for mustard seed and soybeans

Quality results provided through the Harvest Sample Program are unofficial because samples aren’t collected by a Canadian Grain Commission inspector.