Wheat Problem

Wheat Problem

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
A lot of Northwest wheat growers have a reason to be unhappy due to the fact that 2016 wasn't good because of falling number test results. Here is Executive Director of the Idaho Wheat Commission Blaine Jacobson: “We had low falling number of weeks in Washington and Idaho this year, a little bit in Oregon but mainly it was Washington and Idaho. 20% of Idaho growers were affected, mainly north of the Salmon River. Some of them had good wheat but then it got cold mingled with bad wheat. The same thing happened in Whitman County and a good part of Washington. When it has low falling numbers it means that the starch in the suite has been activated and then in the milling and baking process it doesn't perform the way that it should. You will have a lower volume loaf of bread, cookies that don’t spread the way that they should or without the strength of the starch, you end up with inferior product. It was a fairly significant issue in the two states this year. We are gradually working through that bad inventory. Our intent is to get some funding from Congress so we can put some research against this and try and figure it out for the long-term.” Someone who was very involved in that process is Eastern Washington representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers.
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