08/31/06 2006 soft white wheat crop quality

Farm and Ranch August 31, 2006 With much of the 2006 Pacific Northwest wheat crop now in the bin what is the quality of this year's crop? The Wheat Marketing Center in Portland has so far tested somewhat over half the samples it shoots for each year and its executive director Dave Shelton says soft white wheat test weight is up from 2005 running at or over 60 pounds a bushel making it grade U.S. # 1. Shelton: "That bodes well. To be real honest when we had that shot of heat in mid-June I was concerned that we would see some low test weights this year, but apparently all that rain we had early on this year gave us enough moisture to carry the crop through that hot spell." For millers higher test weights mean you can get more flour from a given amount of grain, a significant economic factor. One negative compared to 2005 says Shelton is that soft white wheat protein is up this year. Shelton: "Last year we averaged for the entire soft white wheat crop at 9.9% on a 12% moisture basis. This year our average is 10.3 so far and we are looking at that to continue on a bit above 10 for our average protein this year." Shelton says moisture content is low and running about the same as last year at 8.7 percent meaning millers can add value by adding water during processing. Thousand kernel weights are up about 10 percent over 2005 and dry weather during harvest meant no sprout damage. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.