Volume 38, Number 7 | March 12, 2012
$4.25
PRACTICAL PRODUCTION TIPS FOR THE PRAIRIE FARMER
www.grainews.ca
Make the grade with winter wheat Putting winter wheat into your rotation? Start planning now. Here’s what buyers are looking for, and some tips for growing high-quality winter wheat BY ANGELA LOVELL
J
ust like spring wheat, winter wheat products end up in our bread, our animals or our cars. Each potential market has specific quality requirements, and in a freer marketing environment for western Canadian wheat, those end-user needs will be increasingly important.
WHAT DO CUSTOMERS WANT? “I think grain companies are going to be reaching out to individual purchasers and looking at a more specific, characteristicbased pricing regime,” says Curtis Sims, a winter wheat grower from MacGregor, Man, and a director of Winter Cereals Manitoba Inc. “I think, over time, there will be changes in terms of what you’ll be paid for a specific sample of wheat, based on its characteristics as determined by the end user, just as producers do currently with edible beans or sunflowers or oats. I think the industry is going to be a lot more ambitious, aggressive and energetic.” For now, farmers have to rely on the Canadian Grain Commission’s lists of varieties and specific quality requirements each market sector will accept.
“With the upcoming changes in wheat marketing I think it remains to be seen how the marketers of wheat are going to handle what varieties are going to be acceptable for their target end use market,” says Pam de Rocquigny, cereal specialist with Manitoba, Agriculture, Food and aRural Initiatives (MAFRI). “Increased communication between the producers and the companies that are now buying wheat will be important going forward.” One of the biggest barriers for winter wheat milling varieties, Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW), is the fact that they provide high grain yields but often at the expense of protein levels. These can fall below the 11 per cent minimum set by the Canadian Wheat Board as the minimum milling quality for winter wheat.
CHOOSING VARIETIES The dominant variety in Manitoba has been CDC Falcon, a CWRW variety scheduled to be moved to the Western General Purpose wheat class in August 2014. Four other CWRW varieties, CDC Clair, CDC Harrier, CDC Kestrel and CDC Raptor are being moved to the General Purpose class in August 2013.
PHOTO: FAYE BRIAN BERES, AAFC
These trial plots were part of an extensive three-year winter wheat study recently completed at various AAFC research centres across the Prairies. Some farmers are moving to other varieties to try and achieve milling quality. “It’s been problematic, and farmers are starting to change winter wheat varieties to try for higher protein but are probably giving up yield,” says Sims. “I do see opportunities for a more streamlined market in the future, so maybe events will overtake the impact of these rigid structural changes on the actual
marketing environment, and we will end up with a fairer price for our winter wheat based on more than just protein.” Less commonly grown winter wheat varieties are often more acceptable in niche or alternative markets. CWRW wheat has excellent milling quality but is more suited to baking applications where a darker coloured end product (due to
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the red bran content of the wheat) does not discourage consumers. These include specialty, artisan-type breads and oriental noodles. The ethanol industry prefers lower-protein grain, but requires a higher starch content, and in particular, soft kernel white winter wheat varieties such as CDC Ptarmigan.
» CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Wheat & Chaff ..................
2
Features ............................
5
Crop Adviser’s Casebook
16
Columns ........................... 27 Machinery & Shop ............ 33 Cattleman’s Corner .......... 38
Long-term zero till study results GARRY ROPCHAN
PAGE 24
Backhoe attachment adds versatility
FarmLife ............................ 43
SCOTT GARVEY PAGE 34
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