In this guide 6 sections
The mix up starts at the gate, when paddy from three owners enters one weighbridge register and one godown. Government paddy, farmer paddy bought for trade and the rice milled from each look alike once stacked. Keep a ledger with one owner column per bag lot, from the first weighment onward.
Three owners, one godown
A mill in Nizamabad or Karimnagar often runs three kinds of work at once. It mills paddy issued by the state civil supplies agency, it mills for private parties, and it buys paddy at the yard to sell rice on its own account.
All three arrive on the same trucks, cross the same weighbridge and land in the same godown. Gunny bags carry no owner on their face. That is where trouble begins.
The state paddy is not yours. Nor is the rice milled from it, which is owed back to the agency in a fixed outturn against a delivery schedule. Mix it with trade stock and you cannot prove what you returned.
- State issued paddy against a release order
- Private party paddy milled for a fee
- Paddy bought from farmers at the yard
- Your own rice held for trade sale
Where the mix up actually starts
Rarely at the milling stage. It starts at the weighbridge, when a slip is written with a vehicle number and a weight but no owner. By evening, nobody can say whether the forty-tonne load was agency paddy or trade paddy.
The second leak is the stack. A clerk puts new bags on top of an old lot because the floor is full. The chalk mark fades. A lot ticket falls off.
The third is the husk and the bran. Sales of these by-products bring in cash that gets booked to whichever account is open that day. Shortfalls surface months later, at stock verification, as a gap nobody can place.
A stock ledger that keeps owners apart
Build the ledger around the lot, not the godown, because a godown holds stacks that change owners on paper while the bags never move. Each inward load gets a lot number at the weighbridge, and that number carries the owner for life.
Paddy lots turn into rice lots through a milling entry, which records the paddy drawn, the rice, broken rice, bran and husk produced, and the wastage. It cannot be saved if the owner on the output differs from the owner on the input.
That one rule stops most blending. The screen refuses a trade rice lot made from agency paddy.
- Lot number, owner, variety and moisture reading
- Weighbridge slip number and vehicle
- Paddy drawn and each output booked in kilograms
- Stack position or chamber in the godown
- Delivery note number when rice leaves
Reading the ledger against the agency’s demands
Once lots carry owners, the monthly question gets simple. How much agency paddy came in, how much rice went out and how much is still owed? Three totals, one report.
The outturn check becomes routine as well. If a milling entry shows rice below the agreed ratio, the report flags it that day. The lot is still on the floor then, and the huller settings can be checked.
Broken rice and bran deserve their own rows. They are saleable stock with an owner too, and the agreement may say who keeps them. Husk follows the same rule. Boiler fuel used inside the mill is an issue entry, not a sale, and the ledger should show the difference.
Start with one season’s lots
Do not rebuild the whole mill in a week. Take the paddy now in the godown and write one lot sheet per stack, with the owner confirmed against the release orders and the weighbridge slips.
Run the next milling shift against that sheet, then compare it to the physical count. Gaps found now are cheap. Gaps found at audit are not.
Pin a ticket to every stack with lot number, owner and date in marker pen. Ticket and ledger must agree before the shift ends.
Lot ledger sheet for a mixed-owner rice mill
Single page, one row per lot. Columns: lot number, owner, grade, weighbridge slip, bags, kilograms, stack position, milled on, rice, broken, bran, husk, wastage and balance. A bottom block totals the balance by owner, so agency, private and trade stock never share a total.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Can one weighbridge register serve all three owners?
Yes, if every slip carries an owner field and a lot number. The register stays single, but each line belongs to one owner. Without that field the register tells you weights and nothing else.
What about broken rice and bran from agency paddy?
Read the milling agreement for who holds them. Whichever way it reads, book them as stock under the same owner as the paddy until a sale or a delivery moves them.
Who should enter the milling entry?
The shift supervisor, at the end of each batch, while the figures are fresh. The office clerk then checks it against weighbridge slips and bag counts.
Does this need new hardware?
Often not. A weighbridge with a PC output helps, but many mills start by keying slips in by hand and add a printer for lot tickets later.