DAMAGE TO WHEAT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 114, 25 February 1936, Page 7

DAMAGE TO WHEAT

MR H. E. WEST’S ESTIMATE. THE EFFECT ON MILLING. (Special to the "Guardian.”) CHRISTCHURCH, February 23. Damage to the wheat crop in Canterbury, caused by the rains of the pas fortnight, was conservatively estimated by Mr HI E. West, chief chemist to the Wheat Research Institute this morning at £500,000. This represented the drop in price-from the return winch would have been received hac the wheat been sold for milling, the price which will be gained when the grower sells for wh.at he can get. The estimate was based on present day values and Mr West emphasised ■ that it was very conservative. The barley crop has also suftered seriously, one expert stating that a large portion of the crop which had not been threshed would be useless tor malting. He added that he considered that about one-third of the total crop would be damaged to some extent but it was impossible to estimate how serious the damage would be. Mr West made an inspection of the wheat areas yesterday. He explained that he did not inspect those fields which had been swept by the floods from the River Ashley, but examined 'the portion of the crop which was damaged by the torrential rains. He considered that over 10 per cent of the stooked wheat had sprouted and more would take place to-day. He considered that more than half the crop had not yet been threshed. For the past fortnight the grain had never been really dry and the damage extended throughout the grain area. There was no guarantee how much of the grain would be suitable for milling. In making his estimate of the damage Mr West based his calculation on an area representing 4,000,000 bushels being damaged. The effects of the downpour were much more serious than the townsman imagined. In some stooks which he had examined the sprouting was showing green on the side which had been exposed to the rain. Mixture impossible. Millers could not use more than 1 per cent of sprouted wheat in flour mixture, explained Mr West, and there was not enough grain in store to make this mixture possible. If more than 1 per cent was used the baker was unable to use the flour. In the Leeston district the farmers considered this was the worst catastrophe for forty years. Another aspect of the situation was that much of the wheat would never be low enough in moisture content to allow it to be passed as wheat suitable for milling although it Had not sprouted. Referring to the wheat which had not been cut, Mr West declared that a great proportion of -it would be so badly reduced in bushel weight that it would not reach the 611 b per bushel fair average quality milling standard. He explained that this standard was based on a bushel measure. The heavy rains would cause much of the standing wheat to swell and it- would fail to contract later. While this would not reduce the weight of the total crop it would make wheat, which a fortnight ago would have been 611 b to a bushel fall to 591 b or less. This swelling would occur with all standing grain and he would be very surprised if one quarter of the crop at present standing would conform to the standard. Swollen grain, added Mr West, was hard to mill and reduced the extraction. It was difficult for the miller to secure a profitable extraction with grain of this nature. Taking a normal mill using a normal mixture, and if it was suddenly supplied with puffed grain, the extraction would be 1 to 2 per cent lower. The swollen grain was satisfactory from the baking point of view, provided it had not sprouted. The standard weight had been introduced to guard against shrivelled grain. Asked what would be the effect of the disaster, Mr West said that there would be heavy quantities of grain thrown on the feed market, and there were not sufficient animals in the country -to absorb the supplies available. Quantities of wheat which, under normal conditions, would have been sold as milling, would have to be used for feed under the present grading system. He added that to qualify the regulations to suit the season would be possible to a limited extent only. He thought that some of the mills had from one-third to one-half of their requirements in store at present, but others had less than one-quarter. Barley Growers’ Plight The barley growers are in much the same position as the wheat growers. A leading expert declared that a large proportion of the crop would be useless for malting. In the Leeston district, where a large percentage of the crop was grown, there had been ,12in of rain in the past fortnight, and this, coming in the middle of the harvest, was unprecedented. Approximately one-third of the crop had been threshed before the rain, but the remaining twothirds must be damaged to some extent. The greatest rainfall that this expert remembered during the harvest season was 4in. The probability of the gbit of cereal foods is causing concern. It was pointed out this morning that the duty on imports of barley for feed had been taken off by the Government in 1930. Firms which have advanced manures and sacks to farmers are wondering how they will stand. A fortnight ago there was every possibility of a recor.l harvest, but the position has now been comi>letely reversed. A leading wheat expert stated this morning that farmers might save some of their crops if care was taken. In much of the stooked wheat the principal damage had so far appeared on the southern end of the stook, and this was where much of the sprouting bad taken place. A great percentage o» the wheat, which might otherwise have been used for fowl wheat, might be saved if growers would separate the good sheaves from those which were badly sprouted when stacking of carting 'to the mill. 'When re-stooking it would be advisable to place any of the badly-sprouted sheaves by themselves, so that they might be threshed by themselves. This would avoid reducing the value of the whole sample. By this

means, lie considered, growers might mitigate their losses.