11 June 2015 (03:05 UTC-07 Tango 01)/21 Kordad 1394/23 Sha’ban 1436/25 Ren-Wu (4th month) 4713
“We’re talking 1 to 2% is enough bad grain to lower the falling number of a whole load below what is acceptable. The damage was done.”-Cathy Wilson, Idaho Wheat Commission
“I expect a lot of growers are going to expect I am not telling them the truth, and they are going to be, unfortunately, very upset when they get caught.”-Don Wille, Thresher Artisan Wheat
Idaho farmers plant enough wheat to make The Gem State the 5th largest wheat producer in the U.S. However, new research is warning Idaho farmers that their crops might be worthless!
Agriculture researchers in Idaho have discovered that a single damaged grain of wheat can render entire harvests unsuitable for use by flour mills!
Food processors require harvested wheat grains to meet a milling standard (called a “falling number”) before being turned into flour. Many farmers have leftover wheat from their previous year’s harvest and save it for the next year’s harvest. They then mix in last year’s wheat with the newly harvested wheat before they sell it. That’s now a big problem.
Researchers with the University of Idaho discovered that many of the previous year’s wheat crops suffered sprout damage, which adversely affects the kernels. Damaged grains produce the undesirable alpha amylase enzyme. A single damaged grain can render 2-thousand 6-hundred good kernels useless for milling into flour!
Idaho Wheat Commission administrators are now urging farmers not to mix last year’s left over harvest with this year’s. They want farmers to sell-off last year’s leftover crops as feed for livestock.
This is a new problem for southern and eastern Idaho farmers as sprout damaged wheat used to be a rarity here. Sprout damage takes place when wheat fields remain too wet early in the season, and it can occur after harvest if it is left lying on the ground for too long before threshing. Southern and eastern Idaho have been experiencing lingering and late season rains for the past few years.
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When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a Black Horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not damage the oil and the wine.”