June 1998
Aug. 3-7 Spring Wheat Tour to get facelift
By Tracy Sayler
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Prairie Grains is the
official publication of
the Minnesota
Association of
Wheat Growers,
North Dakota Grain
Growers Association,
South Dakota Wheat,
Inc., and the
Minnesota Barley
Growers Association.
The annual tour is sponsored by the Wheat Quality Council, based in Pierre, SD, which also holds a Soft Red Winter Wheat Tour and a Hard Red Winter Wheat Tour each spring.
Last year's HRS tour included 58 participants from all sectors of the wheat industry, including grain buyers, millers, handlers, producers, university officials, and the media. The tour stopped at 505 fields last year- 368 hard red spring wheat, 132 durum, and five winter wheat fields- mostly in ND, but also in northern SD and northwest MN.
Ben Handcock, executive vice president of the WQC, says there are three primary reasons for the tour:
1) Industry interaction. The tour offers a means for the industry, from producers to consumers, to come together to discuss wheat quality challenges. The miller gains a better understanding of why a farmer favors a particular wheat variety and vice versa.
2) To offer non-farming sectors of the industry a chance to see what wheat fields and grain farms look like.
3) To define each season's wheat crop, so the industry has a better handle of the yield and quality of spring wheat to be harvested.
It's that third reason which seems to create controversy for the spring wheat tour every season. Most vocal might be the North Dakota Grain Growers Association, which has criticized the tour for placing too much emphasis on yield and not enough on quality. Further, that the tour has overestimated yield potential, a claim which can be substantiated by the fact that the tour's average HRS wheat yield estimate has been higher than the National Ag Statistics Service's final HRS yield figure in all but one of the last six years. In 1995, the tour's HRS yield estimate of 32.2 bu/A equaled that of the official NASS yield.
"I'm tired of people accusing the tour of influencing the price. There is no one on this tour that tries to influence the numbers one way or another." He points out that on this year's winter wheat tour, it was buyers who made some of the lowest yield estimates.
"You can bet that the industry is going to do this (estimate pre-harvest yield) whether this tour is around or not. So if people are skeptical of our numbers, will they believe the numbers from a private grain buyer? I think the formula we use to estimate yield works; it works for USDA. But scab damage is hard to estimate."
Tour changes
The formula used by the tour to estimate yield includes a count of the number of heads in a row, the number of spikelets in the head, the number of kernels per spikelet and row spacing. However, Handcock, Lance Gaebe, executive director of the NDGGA, and Michael Peel, NDSU extension small grains specialist, are coordinating several changes to this year's HRS tour, including an adjustment to the yield-estimating formula.
"It will be modified to include a margin of error. For example, you might hear the explanation that 'we're 95% confident that average yield will range from 35 to 40 bushels an acre,'" says Peel. In addition, agronomists, crop consultants, and producers will brief tour participants about factors they see affecting the wheat crop in different areas, including the presence or lack of disease, insects, or weed pressure.
"I don't know how to measure quality of standing wheat, and neither does anybody else on this tour. Varieties aren't easily identifiable in the field. Baking and milling characteristics can't be measured until after harvest in the lab. But we can say that reports given by experienced crop scouts should be an indication of potential quality factors," says Peel.
There will also be a longer orientation session for participants at NDSU's Agronomy Seed Farm near Casselton, ND, before the tour starts. Crop scientists will explain which wheat heads and kernels should be included as viable yield, and which should not. Hands-on demonstrations and discussion will include background on HRS varieties, production practices, small grains diseases, weed control and pest management factors.
Tour participants will take part in a comprehensive training session that will provide identification keys, effects of disease on yields and training on how to use the yield formula. In an effort to better understand the needs of the buyers of HRSW, the relationship of wheat quality factors to end-use will also be presented.
"The key objective of the tour is to provide an opportunity for all sectors of the wheat industry to view the current wheat prospects. The involvement of the NDGGA will assist in developing greater dialogue between farmers and industry professionals regarding industry concerns, and the challenges that farmers face," says Allan Skogen, vice president of the NDGGA who farms near Valley City.
Handcock also hopes to see more farmers participating in the tour and interacting with tour participants. "Go with us and tell us what you think. I want these industry people driving from field to field with farmers in the car. If you want to talk to a baker or miller, now you have the opportunity. This interaction is the real thing to be gained by the tour," he says.
What does the WQC do?
The yield tour might be the most visible activity of the WQC, but it's not the Council's primary mission. "Our real lot in life is to test up-and-coming wheat varieties of all classes to evaluate milling and baking quality," says Handcock. He explains that flour samples milled from elite lines are tested for the functional and nutritional needs of food processors before they are released as varieties.
Results of these tests are then published and sent to all Council Members. These tests allow breeders to make adjustments in their potential varieties. They also allow millers and bakers to become cognizant of the milling and baking characteristics of different future varieties, and provide information about how each variety's processing performance can be influenced by environmental conditions.
Although wheat producers fund the WQC through the wheat checkoff, Handcock says 90% of the WQC's $220,000 budget comes from milling and baking industry members.
Farmers who wish to participate in specific legs of the WQC tour can contact Handcock at 605-224-5187, or the NDGGA at 1-800-932-8822. n