Wheat can score 50

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32838, 11 February 1972, Page 13

Wheat can score 50

What constitutes a high baking score for wheat, which is a measure of the baking quality of the grain? This question was put to the director of the Wheat Research Institute, Mr R. W. Cawley, this week following a report that wheat from the Tai Tapu district had given a high score of 48 this season.

He said that over the past few years there had been a small number of lines that had given a score of 50, but not over 50. Almost invariably these lines were of Hilgendorf.

A wheat giving this score would be a valuable wheat in anybody’s language, he added. The higher the quality of the wheat the more tolerance the baker had, Mr Cawley said. Flour from high quality wheat enabled the baker to make the loaf that he wished to make. He was not restricted and had more

options open to him. He could make a dense, coarse loaf or a large volume, fine-textured loaf. With flour from a low quality wheat the baker could not make an attractive long-keeping loaf. Where samples gave a baking score from 45 upwards, Mr Cawley said that they were of top

quality wheat. Anything over 40 was also obviously very satisfactory. At the other end of the scale, Mr Cawley said that some wheats were found to be “unjudgable.” Twenty-four was about as

low a score as it was worth putting a figure on. The minimum score required for a wheat to qualify as milling grade is 30 and Mr Cawley said that with wheat of only that score a miljer would not be able to make a satisfactory flour, although he could sometimes tolerate some 30 combined with better wheats.