YielixGrain Moisture Shrink Calculator: Drying Weight and Water Loss
Estimate what wet grain will weigh after drying to your chosen target moisture. Enter your incoming mass and wet-basis moisture, then optionally include handling loss and your own price per metric tonne. Water removal and grain handling losses are shown separately.
Wet-Basis Moisture and Physical Shrink
At 25% wet-basis moisture, 100 kg of grain contains 25 kg water and 75 kg dry matter. Drying removes water, reducing the denominator as well as the water quantity. The remaining grain at 15% still contains water; dividing conserved dry matter by 0.85 finds its total mass.
A fall from 25% to 15% is 10 percentage points, not 10% mass shrink. The water shrink factor is 100 ÷ (100 − target moisture): at 15%, about 1.17647% of incoming mass per percentage point removed. Ten points therefore remove 11.7647% of incoming mass.
Physical Loss and Buyer Payment Policy
True water loss is the removed-water result. Optional handling loss deducts dried grain separately. Buyer pencil shrink, dockage and payment policy follow the contract and can differ from this physical balance; a payment deduction is not evidence that the same amount of water evaporated.
For an illustrative 2% handling loss on the example’s 8,823.529 kg dried mass, the deduction is 176.471 kg and marketable mass is 8,647.059 kg. Incoming mass reconciles as 8,647.059 kg marketable grain + 1,176.471 kg water removed + 176.471 kg handling deduction, allowing for displayed rounding. Do not add 2% directly to the incoming-mass water-shrink percentage.
Carry the Right Quantity into the Next Tool
Starting from bin measurements? Use the Grain Bin Capacity calculator with a representative bulk density you measured at the incoming moisture, then explicitly enter its estimated mass here. Prefer a weighed lot mass when available. Volume bushels alone are not a measured grain weight; drying does not provide a new bin volume without a new measured density.
Use the harvest loss calculator for grain lost in the field before it reaches this incoming lot. Compare the yield estimator with harvested inventory on the same moisture and mass basis rather than mixing wet yield with dried weight.
For grain going into feed, carry the appropriate mass and measured dry-matter percentage into the feed ration builder. The handling-adjusted mass here is not itself a feed dry-matter value.
Inputs Explained
- Incoming mass
- A finite grain weight greater than zero in kg, metric tonnes (1000 kg) or lb (1 lb = 0.45359237 kg). If starting from bin volume, explicitly estimate mass with a measured bulk density first.
- Incoming and target moisture
- Wet-basis water percentage of total grain mass. Both must be at least 0% and less than 100%; target cannot exceed incoming moisture.
- Handling loss
- Optional percentage from 0% to less than 100% of the dried mass lost during handling. Off by default; no buyer loss factor is assumed.
- Price per metric tonne
- Optional finite, non-negative price in your selected currency per 1000 kg. Leave blank to omit settlement; zero is allowed. Prices or results too large to display safely are rejected. Switching mass units leaves this price basis unchanged.
How This Calculator Works
Formula
Dry matter = incoming mass × (1 − incoming moisture / 100)- Dry matter is conserved through water-only drying.
Target-moisture mass = dry matter ÷ (1 − target moisture / 100)- Removed water is incoming mass minus target-moisture mass.
Moisture shrink (%) = 100 × (incoming moisture − target moisture) ÷ (100 − target moisture)- Shrink is a percentage of incoming mass, rather than moisture percentage points.
Handling deduction = target-moisture mass × handling loss / 100- The handling percentage uses dried mass as its denominator, not incoming mass.
Marketable mass = target-moisture mass × (1 − handling loss / 100)- Handling loss is applied separately to dried grain. Illustrative settlement equals marketable tonnes times your price.
Source
- Converting Wet Corn Weight to Dry Corn Weight (opens in a new tab), Purdue University Extension — Wet-basis dry-matter balance and the distinction between water shrink and handling loss.
- Corn Grain Moisture Discount: Why and How Much? (opens in a new tab), South Dakota State University Extension — Moisture shrink factor per percentage point and the difference between water shrink and total shrink.
Assumptions
- Moisture is measured on a wet basis: water mass divided by total grain mass, multiplied by 100. Representative incoming and target measurements describe the same lot.
- Water-only drying conserves dry matter. Target moisture cannot exceed incoming moisture; equal moisture gives exactly zero water removal, while separate handling loss can still apply.
- Handling loss is your assumed percentage of dried grain, applied after drying. It deducts grain containing both solids and residual water; the model does not predict that loss or its composition.
- No crop preset changes your target. The 15% example demonstrates the balance, not a recommended storage moisture or universal buyer standard. Calculations retain full precision; cards and tables round to two decimals.
Worked Example
10,000 kg at 25% moisture dried to 15%, with handling loss off
- Dry matter
10,000 × 0.75 = 7,500 kg
- Target-moisture mass
7,500 ÷ 0.85 = 8,823.529 kg
- Removed water
10,000 − 8,823.529 = 1,176.471 kg
- Remaining water
8,823.529 − 7,500 = 1,323.529 kg; dry matter remains 7,500 kg before handling.
- Mass shrink versus moisture change
25 − 15 = 10 percentage points; 100 × 10 ÷ 85 = 11.7647% of incoming mass.
Moisture shrink is 11.7647% of incoming mass. Calculations retain full precision; cards round to two decimals.
How to Interpret Your Results
| Condition | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Target-moisture mass | Dried grain still contains water at your target percentage. The composition chart shows this stage before handling; it is not absolute dry matter. |
| Handling loss off | Marketable mass equals target-moisture mass; only water is removed. |
| Handling loss on | Lost dried grain includes dry matter and remaining water, so it is separate from removed water. |
| Illustrative settlement shown | Marketable kg ÷ 1000 × your price per metric tonne, before contract deductions and costs. It is a gross planning estimate, not a buyer payment quote. |
Limitations and Cautions
- This is neither a bin-volume calculation nor a spoilage or safe-storage prediction. The model does not estimate drying time, energy, temperature damage, respiration or quality deterioration. Choose storage targets with local guidance for the crop, storage duration and conditions.
- Moisture sampling and scale accuracy affect the estimate. Uneven moisture, changing lot composition and losses during drying can make actual scale tickets differ from the water-only balance.
- Buyer pencil shrink is a contractual weight adjustment and may use a factor that includes an allowance beyond physical water removal. Dockage deducts material such as foreign matter under the buyer’s grading rules. Neither is automatically calculated or represented by the optional handling percentage.
- Illustrative settlement excludes buyer pencil shrink, dockage, grade discounts, drying fees, storage and transport costs. Payment policy can set a different moisture basis, rounding rule or discount schedule. Check scale tickets and the contract; do not add this tool’s losses to an already adjusted buyer weight without checking for double counting.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Calling a 10 percentage-point moisture reduction 10% mass shrink
Use the dry-matter balance; 25% to 15% moisture produces 11.7647% water shrink.
References
- Converting Wet Corn Weight to Dry Corn Weight (opens in a new tab), Purdue University Extension — Wet-basis dry-matter balance and the distinction between water shrink and handling loss.
- Corn Grain Moisture Discount: Why and How Much? (opens in a new tab), South Dakota State University Extension — Moisture shrink factor per percentage point and the difference between water shrink and total shrink.
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