Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards

The Department of Agriculture Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards, a sub-agency of USDA, procures equipment, laboratory services, testing, and analytical support for the federal grain-inspection and livestock-handling regulatory program. The office has issued 1,329 federal contract awards since 2003, with combined potential value of $60.1 million and $50.1 million obligated across 452 distinct prime contractors.

Contract activity has slowed materially in recent years. The agency awarded 12 contracts in 2022, 15 in 2023, 8 in 2024, 3 in 2025, and 7 year-to-date in 2026. The most recent award closed on October 15, 2026. The contracting footprint is highly fragmented — the top five primes by award count hold just 33 percent of recent awards, and the top five by potential value capture only 2 percent of combined potential value over the last five years. Waters Technologies Corporation leads by award count with four contracts totaling $283 thousand in potential value, followed by New TECH Solutions, Inc., also with four awards ($185 thousand combined potential value) and Human Technologies Corp with three awards ($160 thousand combined potential value). The long tail of 447 other contractors accounts for the majority of the remaining awards.

The agency structures its purchases overwhelmingly as open competition. Eighty-five percent of all awards carry no set-aside designation; 12 percent are Total Small Business set-asides, and the remaining 3 percent split across Reserved Small Business, 8(a) Sole Source, Partial Small Business, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, Competitive 8(a), and HUBZone awards. The low set-aside share reflects the technical and specialized nature of the contracting — laboratory equipment and analytical services often support regulatory compliance testing that does not lend itself to set-aside structuring.

No recent federal contract opportunities are recorded against the agency or its descendant offices.

The Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration was created to promote fair and competitive markets for the agricultural sector. It accomplishes this goal through standardization and inspection services.