09/24/07 A good quality wheat crop

Farm and Ranch September 24, 2007 The Wheat Marketing Center in Portland has issued its final weekly quality report for the 2007 Pacific Northwest wheat harvest. A total of 293 soft white wheat samples were received this year and Wheat Marketing Center executive director Dave Shelton says it's a good quality crop with test weights and protein levels equivalent to 5-year averages. Shelton: "We did get some hot weather in May but we still ended up with an average test weight this year of 60 pounds per bushel for soft white." Dockage was down from last year. Moisture content was up. Shelton: "We had a little bit more moisture than we did last year so we are seeing a little bit higher in the moisture content but 9.3% is still low and certainly adds some value to the buyers of our wheat because they have to temper the wheat, that is add moisture prior to the milling process. So lower moisture wheat you can buy more wheat less water and that gives us a competitive advantage to some of our other friends out there that compete for the world wheat market." It is usually desirable for soft white to have low protein. Shelton: "And this year our average protein content is 10.2%, and that is on a 12% moisture basis, and that is less than last year." Shelton says this year's club wheat had protein higher than last year at 10.5 percent, which was higher than the average for soft white. The Wheat Marketing Center is now doing milling and baking tests on the samples from this year's crop and all these results will be reported to potential overseas buyers. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.