August 20, 2008

Kansas produces average quality wheat crop, better than '07

Kansas' 2008 wheat crop has a higher average test weight and protein than last year, but quality levels are about average overall.

The average test weight of the crop was 60.4 pounds per bushel, up from 59.3 pounds last year and the same as the average from 1994 to 2003, a report from Kansas Agricultural Statistics said. The report cited preliminary data from 11,245 carlot samples from 52 counties.

The average protein level is 12.4 percent, up from 11.7 percent last year and the 10-year average of 12.3 percent, the report said. Moisture content averaged 11.3 percent, compared with 12 percent last year and the 10-year average of 11.5 percent.

Millers are pleased with the quality of the crop after being disappointed with the harvest the last two years, according to a new release issued Tuesday by Kansas Wheat, an industry group. Protein levels were too low in 2007, when the crop was hit with a hard spring freeze and damaging rains at harvest, and too high in 2006, the group said.

"It's back to a normal wheat crop," Mark Fowler, flour milling specialist at Kansas State University's International Grains Program, said in the release.

Shrunken and broken kernels averaged 1.3 percent, compared with 1.7 percent in 2007 and 1.3 percent for the 10-year average, the report said. Average dockage for all samples was 0.6 percent, compared to 0.8 percent last year.