Two Midale-area farm families who came up with an invention to protect the integrity of their grain placed second in an inventors' competition in Brandon, Man.

Brian and Karen Carlson and Jay and Kim Gerry developed a sealable grain sample bag, complete with the requisite paperwork, called Sample N Seal, and won the $500 second prize in the Manitoba Ag Days' Inventors' Showcase competition.

The purpose of the grain sample bag is to be able to send a sealed example of one's grain to the Canadian Grain Commission, which will issue a certificate of grade and quality, in the event of a dispute over the grade of grain being delivered to a primary elevator.

Brian Carlson said it took the two couples about two years to reach this point, and word-of-mouth has spread the use of the product not only to farmers in the Weyburn-Midale-Estevan corridor, but into Alberta, Manitoba and the northern states.

"We've just nicely got going. I'm just a producer myself. Jay and I wanted to come up with something to help us with grain deliveries, and this sample bag and paperwork is the system we need," he said. "My hardest job is getting farmers aware of it. They just have to see it or hear about it and the word gets around."

The grain commission hasn't officially approved the use of this bag in writing, but they do allow it, and the elevators are anxious to clear up any errors they may have made in grading a producer's grain, said Carlson.

Accuracy can be particularly crucial in a large 30-40,000-tonne load in a B-train semi, said Carlson, noting one producer told him the sample bag saved him about $6-7,000 on a load of mustard.

Besides showing at Manitoba Ag Days, Carlson said they also had their invention at the Farm Progress Show in Regina, and word of the product is starting to spread widely.