Monitoring of a maize seed processing unit

Abstract- The objective of this work was to evaluate the processing open pollinated varieties corn seeds, to identify faults and technical limitations at the corn seed Processing Unit (SPU). The process of drying, cleaning, sorting, bagging and storage of the seed were monitored. The company follows strict regulations in the processing seed, providing a product with high quality because the beneficiated lots presented a purity of 100%, germination between 90-99%, and percentage of infested seeds less than 3. The processes performed in the SPU were efficient in the cleaning undesirable products and preservation the physical integrity of the seeds. It were pointed out the need to increase the productivity and sanitary quality in the seeds production fields, the substitution of manual threshing by mechanics, the introduction of standard display for the standard ears corn selection, and the adoption of sieves test in the classification phases to ensure physical uniformity of the lots benefited.