Wheat quality is a bigger than expected challenge at harvest this year. North Dakota Wheat Commission Policy and Marketing Director Jim Peterson says the low falling numbers are concerning. “Traditionally, the falling number specification is 300 seconds. Typically, above that it is pretty sound wheat. There’s not a lot of enzyme activity breaking down the starch,” says Peterson. “Getting below 250 seconds, farmers can get lots of challenges in making specialty products. It doesn’t have the starch quality for those products.” Peterson advises farmers segregate the wheat by quality. “It’s going to be different for every producer, depending on what they have.”
