Wheat Quality
Wheat producers are well aware of the various effects that variety, soil and crop management practices, pests and weather may have on agronomic performance of winter wheat in the southern plains. All of those factors come together and interact to manifest a trait that is easily quantified – grain yield. Likewise, those same factors greatly influence the end-use performance of a variety, but end-use quality is not so easily quantified and may mean different things, depending on where one resides on the grain supply chain from wheat producer to consumer. When choosing a variety, producers will often consider one facet of quality—test weight, or in some cases protein content—but there is much more that determines how a crop or a single variety will perform in the mill or the bakery.
While cash price at the local elevator is not explicitly tied to milling and baking performance, the quality of wheat coming from a particular region or state can affect buyers’ willingness to source product from that area. Modern millers and bakers have numerous purchasing options and are generally unwilling to settle for a product that does not meet minimum industry standards. An area or region considered to have low quality wheat could see reduced cash price relative to current Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBOT) price, thus affecting the farmer’s bottom line. Therefore, wheat quality is everyone's responsibility.