Method and apparatus for estimating quality of grains

An apparatus for estimating a quality of grains to be harvested from a grain plant in the future, during a growth period prior to the harvesting, said apparatus comprising:

• a light source means for irradiating light having predetermined wavelength regions on a leaf of a grain plant;
• a light receiving means for receiving at least one of transmission light and reflection light obtained by irradiating light on the leaf of the grain plant presently growing from said light source means;
• a storing means for storing a quality conversion coefficient for estimating a specific quality of the grains after the harvesting, said quality conversion coefficient having been calculated from absorbencies obtained by irradiating light on a leaf of a grain plant in growth at a predetermined time during the growth period of the grain plant and the specific quality obtained from the same grains after the harvesting;
• a calculating means for calculating the quality of the grains from said quality conversion coefficient and the absorbencies converted from the received amount of light obtained by said light receiving means from the leaf of the grain plant presently growing at the predetermined time;
• and
• a display means for visually displaying the results of the calculation made by said calculating means.