MANY PROBLEMS IN WAY

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32351, 17 July 1970, Page 10

MANY PROBLEMS IN WAY

Many problems would have to be faced before a scheme of payment for wheat on the basis of quality would become a reality, the acting director of the Wheat Research Institute, Dr P. Meredith, told a meeting of the Wheat Research Committee this week. Farmers continued to be interested in this proposition, he said, and were urging their elected representatives on United Wheatgrowers that the institute should be looking into the development of a scheme for payment on quality. Dr Meredith said that the institute could not get away from test baking. as this guarded against such occurrences in the crop as bug damage and sprouting,

so that any other ' quality testing would come on top of the baking test. The test baking procedure was not good enough to be used as a basis of payment. Consequently they had been looking at protein determination as a second test for those lines of wheat that survived the baking test. This, however, would not be done in a hurry. Protein assays could be done with a fairly high degree of accuracy but they were still faced with a sampling problem. Mr R. W. Cawley, the director of the institute, had been looking into machines to do the analyses while he had been overseas and the vexed ques-

tion would arise as to who would pay for this testing. There would also be a question of the basis of the price scale that would have to be set and he imagined that this would lead to some bitter debate. Different price scales would have tobe set for different varieties and these might not differ from yeay to year, except to meet the requirements of the Wheat Board and the Department of Industries and Commerce.

“There are many problems to be faced and there will be much bitterness before this comes about," added Dr Meredith, “but we are looking into the question as your sevants.”