POOR QUALITY WHEAT

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28629, 4 July 1958, Page 7

POOR QUALITY WHEAT

Tests Planned For Next Season Plans are being laid to prevent poor quality Arawa wheat reaching flour mills after next harvest. One of the methods which may be used is a rapid quality test. This was stated yesterday by the Director of the Wheat Research Institute of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Mr E. W. Hullett, when he commented on the discussion on wheat growing in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. Mr Hullett said that Aotea, the high yielding wheat that growers would be able to sow on as many acres as they liked next year, was only a little below Cross 7, the standard variety, in baking quality. Farmers in Cross 7 areas should not need any urging to sow this variety instead of Arawa because its good millihg and baking qualities would mean that it would be easy to sell to millers and its yield would be higher than that of Arawa. Arawa was also a high yielding wheat, but the facts did not permit it to be said that its milling and baking qualities were equal to those of Cross 7. The Wheat Committee had sometime ago advised brokers that because of the better quality of Cross 7 and Hilgendorf no difficulty would be experienced in placing these wheats with mills conveniently situated, but if a large quantity of Arawa had to be handled some delays might arise in mills accepting delivery of it. Arawa was not a popular wheat with millers, said Mr Hullett. and they would be much more ready to accept it if they could also obtain Hilgendorf and Cross 7. “It is important to remember, however, that wheat quality is affected by seasonal conditions,” he continued. “For example this season widespread sprouting has damaged the quality of many lines of Arawa and people are tending to judge Arawa from this experience. Many lines of Cross 7 were also damaged but ideas of the quality of Cross 7 are based on many years’ experience with it.” Rapid Quality Tests If Arawa happened to be of poor quality next harvest there could be difficulties in flour mills and perhaps in bakeries, but various measures were being prepared to reduce this trouble. One of these was a plan under which rapid quality tests would enable merchants or millers to recognise lines of low baking qualitv and to exclude them from flour mills. The institute now had a method for determining the extent of sprout damage. Sprouting this season had provided ample material for a critical evaluation of the test on flours.

At present Mr T. A. Mitchell was examining the value of the method with wheat samples that had merely been ground instead of being milled. The method involved the preparation of a wheat “porridge” from the ground whnat under carefully controlled conditions of soaking and heating. This preparation was then tested in an instrument which allowed an observation to be made of the distance that a weighted cone sank into it in 10 seconds. The depth of pene- < rat ion for a sound wheat was 7 to 8 millimetres and for a badly sprouted wheat 40 to 50 millimetres. Tin’s was a copv of a method developed by Dr. S. Hagberg, of Stockholm. A major difficulty in applying any tests of this kind before wheat was sold was that wheat lines came in at a very rapid pace at harvest time so that there was great difficulty in drawing samples and having them tested before it had to be decided where ♦he wheat should go. Storage of wheat on farms would give more time fo’’ this examination. Mr Hullett said that it was proposed to have discussions about the possible application of these tests with the Wheat Committee, merchants and others directly concerned as soon as plans were completed.