Falling numbers 1

Falling numbers 1

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
"The starch and flour slurry are down here and is being boiled. As the temperature is rising the starch begins to gelatinize. It's the same thing is throwing the flower and cornstarch into your gravy, a little heat, a little water, mix it around and starts thickening up. Same thing is going on in here. It is measuring how thick the slurry becomes. At the end of 60 seconds worth of mixing it's going to stop and put the weight on top of that bunch of starch and it's just going to wait and count how many seconds it takes for the plunger to fall... Hence the name, falling number." Food technologist Art Bedke explaining how a wheat measurement called falling number is determined. And that determines the price of the wheat. A measurement of 300 or above is good. Anything below 300 is bad news for growers.

Nez Perce farmer Justin Macleod. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of sprout damage but that falling number issue is a problem. Obviously below 300 you incur severe discounts and there are some people who are well below 200 and with the price of wheat today it goes to feed quality."

Farmers are facing up to 70% crop loss which will not be covered by any government emergency programs or private insurance. Idaho wheat commission executive director Blaine Jacobsen says the industry is working overtime to find alternative markets for the wheat with low numbers. "Idaho has a robust wheat industry and the industry will find a place to send this wheat but it will take a little time. US wheat is working on export markets that will take wheat with low falling numbers where there are markets with no falling numbers spec. There is both domestic and export feed markets and if you look at what happened in eastern Idaho, a good percentage of that crop went into the feed market. We are also doing a research project with Oregon and Washington through the wheat marketing Center in Portland to develop products that can use the lower following number wheat."

Farmers were already expecting prices below $4.90 a bushel because of a worldwide high yield harvest this year. The cost of transportation to the export markets in Portland coupled with the dockets because of the falling numbers means some farmers will be selling their wheat at $2.50 a bushel or less. That's one dollar below their break even price.

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