Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Wooster, Ohio » Corn, Soybean and Wheat Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #266079

Title: Overseas Varietal Analysis 2009 Crop Soft Red Winter Wheat

Author
item Souza, Edward

Submitted to: Government Publication/Report
Publication Type: Government Publication
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/1/2010
Publication Date: 2/1/2011
Citation: Souza, E.J. 2011. Overseas Varietal Analysis 2009 Crop Soft Red Winter Wheat. Government Publication/Report. US Wheat Associates, Washington DC.

Interpretive Summary: Soft red winter wheat is exported around the globe and used for a wide array of products. All of the wheat samples were judged acceptable by the majority of the customers. The primary purposes of the project are to educate buyers, direct marketing, and provide feedback to breeders.

Technical Abstract: Each customer in the survey has a preference for specific protein targets. Grain shipments within those protein ranges may perform better than individual varieties that often have a wider range in protein than normally observed in pooled cargos of commercial grain shipments. The feedback on protein concentration and gluten strength should be used to refine targets for marketing to specific customers. In a number of the evaluations, the straight grade flour sample provided may not have been suitable for the product tested by the customer. In some cake comparisons, using patent flour samples would have improved the scores of samples. In other cases the low water absorption of the product resulted in excessive spreading of cookies and too small of stack height for the customer. Increasing flour extraction would correct these deficiencies and improve the profitability of the milling operation. This is an important marketing point for soft red winter, the optimum milling point for some customers in Asia may be at much greater extraction than the straight grade flour samples provided in this study and represent an advantage relative to non-US sources of low protein grain. Finally, predicting chiffon cake performance is difficult based on the current quality testing within the eastern US soft wheat region. The varieties ranked as best for chiffon cakes anecdotally known to be good for producing cake flour, but are generally poor for other soft wheat characteristics. Research is needed to develop rapid tests to identify wheat varieties suitable for the range of cakes that are made using soft red winter wheat.