03/09/05 Pool marketing helps grain triticale

Farm and Ranch March 9, 2005 Compared to other cereal grains in the Pacific Northwest, the production of triticale is small, but in Washington at least this cross between wheat and rye has seen some hefty increases in production over the past four years. Nelson: "We've seen it grow about 200% every year but this year we have about 56-hundred tons. Next year we are looking at closer to 12-thousand tons, so we are seeing some pretty big increases in the grain triticale." That's Howard Nelson of Central Washington Grain Growers who handles the marketing of the triticale for a marketing pool. And that's been key to the recent success of triticale. Nelson: "Because you have to get a chunk of triticale put together so when you go to the chicken producer he has a block of feed that he knows he can have over a 12-month period. He doesn't want to change his feed rations all the time. He wants a guaranteed supply. That is why working together works so much better." The past three years triticale has averaged about ten-dollars more a ton than barley on a local basis. Nelson says in test plots near Wilbur, Washington winter triticale will give a producer a ten to twenty dollar an acre higher return than winter wheat. Nelson sees room for growth. Nelson: "We are just looking at the layer industry here in eastern Washington. We haven't even looked at the dairy industry in eastern Oregon. We haven't looked at beef feedlot demand." And Nelson says some research shows triticale will work for ethanol production. He says there are both winter and spring varieties with something for about every production zone. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.