The U.S. spring wheat crop will have higher protein content than it did last year, say analysts.Protein levels were dismal in 2009. The nationwide average was 13.4 percent for hard red spring wheat, about one percent below normal.Stuart McMillan, crop and weather analyst for the Canadian Wheat Board, toured spring wheat fields and elevators in North Dakota, Montana and western Minnesota last week and is forecasting a return to normal levels in this year’s crop.“Protein should be … upwards of a full percentage point above last year’s (levels),” he said.That means growers should expect a tightening of the spread between high protein and low protein spring wheat. That is already happening in some areas and McMillan expects the trend to continue throughout harvest.The premium for the top grade of dark northern spring wheat with 15 percent protein has been about $2 per bushel over the same wheat with 13 percent protein in elevators in northeastern Montana for most of the 2009-10 crop year.By contrast, the Canadian Wheat Board paid producers a $1.20 premium for 14.5 percent over 12.5 percent No. 1 CWRS wheat in 2009-10.Bruce Burnett, the CWB’s director of weather and market analysis, said there are many nuances that go into establishing protein premiums but it’s basically a supply issue.“Our market conditions were different because we had different supplies of protein compared to the U.S. last year,” he said.Erica Olson, marketing specialist with the North Dakota Wheat Commission, said harvest is only about five percent complete in her state but premiums are falling in the east where the crop is first coming off, which suggests that grain elevators are seeing rising protein levels.“They are seeing protein in some cases a point higher than last year,” she said.Ben Handcock, executive vice-president of the U.S. Wheat Quality Council, said growers were well positioned to produce a better protein crop in 2010.Representatives from the council toured 321 spring wheat fields in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota during the last week of July.The council expects those fields to yield 46 bu. per acre, almost identical to last year’s results of 46.2 bu. and it is anticipating a “very good” quality crop with high test weights and no vomitoxin issues.Handcock said it’s too early to know if protein levels will come in at the desired 14 to 14.5 percent range but he’s positive that levels will be better than last year.“Most (growers) have planted the varieties that typically have a little higher protein,” he said.“They also indicated that they probably had put on a little more nitrogen fertilizer. So if that’s the case, protein could be a bit higher.”McMillan said it’s too early to know protein levels in the Canadian crop. The abundant early season moisture in Canada would usually result in a lower protein crop but a warm finish to the growing season could drive levels back up.
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