07/22/08 Protein levels disappointing in early harvest results

Washington Ag July 22, 2008 The weekly crop progress report from the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service says just seven percent of Washington's winter wheat crop had been harvested at the start of this week. Tom Mick, CEO of the Washington Grain Alliance does not have any yield reports but says one disappointment in the early going of harvest are wheat protein levels. Mick: "Hard red winter is down from last year running around 11% in the Basin but up in the Horse Heaven Hills it is much lower, which is very disappointing. DNS acres were up but the contracts were based on 14% and most of the protein is coming at 13%. And the soft white was running 11% and we'd kind of like to see that closer to the 10% level." Mick points out however, that it is early in the harvest and hopefully protein levels will balance out in the long run. Too low a protein in hard red wheats and too high a protein in white wheat can negatively impact the end use quality of the grain. The 2009 Agriculture Appropriations bill has moved out of the Senate Appropriations Committee where Washington Senator Patty Murray added 1.87 million dollars towards the new ARS building at WSU and also funding for the ARS' Land Management and Water Conservation Research Unit at Pullman. I'm Bob Hoff.