SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) has launched a pilot program that soon may lead to elevators conducting their own monthly grain inventories. The Grain Inventory Accountability Pilot Program is intended to produce a more accurate accounting of both the quality and quantity of stored grain.

"The Department believes the implementation of the Grain Inventory Accountability initiative will result in greater control of not only grain quantities but also grain qualities," Agriculture Director Tom Jennings said. "It will provide timely, historical grain inventory data and serve as a powerful tool that the Illinois grain warehousing industry, the Department, licensees, auditors and lenders all will benefit from."

Through the Grain Inventory Accountability Pilot Program, the IDOA has proposed participant elevators:

1. Conduct a monthly grain measurement
2. Enter measurements in an ExamNet software program
3. Maintain a monthly measurement archive
4. Suggest changes and report problems

There are currently more than 19 volunteer elevators in the pilot program. For these elevators, as well as for future participants, the IDOA installs the ExamNet software and also provides training on how to record and archive entries.

"We feel this new program will save our examiners time when conducting an inspection, allowing them to spend more time on the financial wherewithal of licensees," Jennings said.

Business mergers and consolidation in the grain industry have made financial recordsmore complex. Companies now are much larger than they used to be, and the pilot program will allow upper management to monitor inventories from afar on a regular basis.

Depending upon results, the program could be fully-implemented across the state starting early next year. Meantime, the department still will conduct full inventory exams at other elevator locations around the state and do random spot checks at the self-examining elevators to ensure the accuracy of their inventories.

For more information about the program, contact Bureau Chief of Warehouses Stu Selinger at (217) 782-2172.