Development of safe storage guidelines for Canadian Flax

Shelf-life and quality of agricultural commodities is directly affected by their storage conditions. Therefore, producers and managers of grains and oilseeds relay on safe storage guidelines of the stored commodity to preserve the quality of these products. These guidelines are developed for specific commodities and are made available by producer groups and technical organizations to the agricultural community. Most of these storage guidelines were developed for different crops several decades ago and are archived in ASABE Standard D245.5 (Moisture Relationships of Plantbased Agricultural Products). However, plant breeding has since resulted in grains and oilseeds of different functional/agronomic characteristics, which directly affects their equilibrium moisture content (EMC) value, a parameter that governs storage life/quality. Our recent work with soybeans has established how important it is to update the safe-storage guidelines for the new varieties of grains and oilseeds. Recognizing the importance of this work and a lack of updated storage guidelines on flax, Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission (SaskFlax) has moved to update this information on flax grown in the Canadian Prairies.

Faculty Supervisor:

Jitendra Paliwal;Chyngyz Erkinbaev

Student:

Sristi Mundhada

Partner:

Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

University of Manitoba