Milling & Baking News - January 11, 2005 - 17

I N D U S T R Y

A C T I V I T I E S

dryland contracts to get higher protein content. And some elevators discounted hard white wheat to make up
the cost of segregation because of the
low volume of hard white compared
with other varieties.
Segregation, from seeding to milling, has been seen as an added cost
at each stage of the supply chain and
a drawback to the broader acceptance
of hard white wheat, the E.R.S. said.
For growers, additional costs have
been incurred for seed purchases, additional cleaning of farm equipment,
hauling farther to limited receiving
points and planting on summer-fal-

the successful production and marketing of feed barley and malting barley
and the segregation of hard red spring
from durum wheat as examples that
work.
While segregation also had an impact on exports, ample supplies of
white wheat in competing countries
probably have been the major factor
limiting any price premiums on the
world market, the E.R.S. said.
Asian noodle makers provide a major market for white wheat but have
generally filled their import needs
with Australian white wheat, which
has a more desired mid-level of pro-

low land to avoid commingling with
volunteer wheat, the report said.
For elevators and millers, higher
costs have included extra cleaning of
grain handling and processing facilities, more grain quality sampling and
testing, handing smaller volumes
and contracting for greater volumes
of hard white wheat than needed to
protect against lower production due
to bad weather.
Further, segregation restricts the extent of blending to meet requirements
of contract specifications, which is an
important source of a grain handler 's
gross margin, the E.R.S. report said.
However, segregation costs are not
insurmountable, the report said. Multiple pit elevators could substantially
reduce costs by designating a dump
pit specifically to hard white wheat.
Increased production of the class also
would reduce costs. The E.R.S. cited

tein that works best in the blended
flour used to make noodles. The color
and texture imparted by Australian
white wheat produce a stable noodle
color, while U.S. white wheat has
tended to allow noodle discoloration
because of higher levels of the enzyme
polyphenol oxidase, the E.R.S. said.
About half of the wheat exported
to Asia is used to make noodles, and
most of that comes from Australia,
which has tailored its wheat production to the type of wheat the Asian
markets want most, the report said.
Recent varieties of hard white wheat
released by Kansas State University
and other state universities or private
companies have been bred to compete
better with the Australian mid-protein wheat that is preferred by Asian
markets.
At the same time, Canada is developing white wheat varieties to better

18 / Milling & Baking News, January 11, 2005

serve the Asian market, which will
potentially limit increased export
demand and price premiums for U.S.
white wheat.
World preference for hard white
wheat was at least part of the driving
force behind the establishment of hard
white wheat as a new class of wheat
by the U.S.D.A. in 1990. It also was
seen by some as a boon to the domestic baking industry because of several
perceived advantages over hard red
winter, the most commonly grown
bread wheat in the United States.
A large majority of the plant breeders in Kansas were developing hard
white varieties in the early
1990s. At the same time, half
the breeders in Colorado and
Oregon also were developing
hard white varieties, along
with 20% to 40% of breeders
in Nebraska, Washington,
Idaho and Montana.
A Feb. 24, 1998, Milling &
Baking News article covering
a special hard white wheat
conference during the Wheat
Quality Council annual meeting cited a K.S.U. plant breeder as predicting that hard
white wheat would become so
popular that hard red winter
would "disappear from the
landscape."
Hard white wheat was expected to be preferred both
by millers and consumers, the
E.R.S. said.
Millers would prefer hard
white wheat - hard endosperm with white bran - because of higher flour extraction
rates that could result in 1% to
3% more flour per bushel of wheat than
any other class of wheat, when milled
to flour color standards, university
and industry research showed. Higher
flour extraction rates were possible
because more white bran could be included in the flour without darkening
it. This also would provide a higher fiber content. The higher extraction rate
for hard white amounts to about one
additional pound of flour per bushel of
wheat milled, assuming a 74% extraction rate.
"At the flour price of $10.25 per cwt
in Kansas City quoted as of Aug. 27,
2004, this extra pound of flour would
carry a market value of about 10c," the
E.R.S. said.
Hard white wheat's end-use characteristics were especially well suited
for whole wheat products, pan bread,
tortillas and certain kinds of oriental
noodles, the report said. It could be
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Milling & Baking News - January 11, 2005

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