Who We Are

North Dakota Grain Inspection Service, Inc. "NDGI" is a federally designated laboratory licensed to officially sample and grade grain under the United States Grain Standards Act in their respective areas. While locally there may be other inspection labs operating, the USDA grants only one agency the authority to carry out and issue official inspections for that locale.

Our History

NDGI Service has been servicing the inspection needs of Eastern North Dakota and Western Minnesota since 1968. Steve Adams, Owner of NDGI, has always been an avid supporter of the official system, promoting the official inspection system to all that would listen and through published articles. Today, NDGI is a thriving family business. Steve's tenets to provide accurate results, timely service, and always pushing to improve the company, have grown the agency from its North Dakota headquarters in Fargo to operations in eight states.

In 1999 NDGI Service, Inc. saw the opportunity to expand the scope of its enterprise and purchased Southern Illinois Grain Inspection, now known as NDGI Illinois. At the time, Southern Illinois Grain Inspection had been doing business in Illinois for 21 years. In 2003, NDGI expanded its services to Dickinson, ND and to South Eastern Montana. Most recently, NDGI began operations in Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. With these acquisitions, NDGI now handles all forms of inspections from rail, truck, barge and containers.

After the different territory acquisitions, NDGI began expansion in servicing agricultural products for their customers. In late 2017, NDGI established sampling and grading for peas, lentils, and edible beans from their North Dakota office. This addition to services grew the North Dakota office to become full service. NDGI can now accommodate testing for over 15 various commodities throughout the regional offices.

NDGI has grown from 3 employees in 1968 providing service to a small local area to over 200 employees in 2016 servicing 8 states across the nation. NDGI prides itself in the important role they play in the grain marketing system. The intensity found in the grain marketing system rivals and exceeds most other industries, although those outside the grain industry rarely know this. A small mistake by the agency can have huge ramifications for commission houses, grain companies and the railroads. Steve Adams realized that being in this critical point, between all these forces required NDGI to continually look for better ways to provide timely service, and accurate results.

The USDA website also contains a great deal of useful information about the federal grain inspection system and can be found at www.gipsa.usda.gov.