First they’ll decide what kind of eggs they want and then they’ll figure out how to spot the chickens that lay them.
That’s the approach the grain industry is taking as it moves toward falling number testing of wheat at prairie grain elevators.
The industry will set falling number standards for grain grades and then find a way to test for them, a process that will take at least 18 months.
Falling number is not now part of the grading process, but it is a measurement related to the stickiness of dough and that is important to bakers.
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Currently, the grading process visually inspects for sprouted kernels, because sprouting sets off changes in the kernel that negatively affect the falling number.
The grain industry wants to be able to offer bakers a better guarantee of falling number levels and has asked the Canadian Grain Commission to explore a new way to grade wheat, including falling number levels.
The commission will come up with ideas about how to establish these new grades, which it will report to the industry’s Western Standards Committee this spring.
The industry will then have the bigger challenge of figuring out how to test falling numbers at prairie elevators, similar to the way protein levels are now identified.
Quick tests are available but have a potentially wide range of error that could lead to inaccurate grading and reduced income for affected farmers.
The current industry standard is the Hagberg Falling Number, an international system used for decades. The test measures the time it takes for a laboratory tool known as the Hagberg steel ball to fall through a flour-water paste that has been heated. If the ball falls quickly, it indicates there is a problem. The equipment is costly and usually found only in laboratories.
Grain quality expert Norm Woodbeck of the grain commission said it will be at least a year and a half before elevator driveway tests would be available.
“We’re not there yet,” said Woodbeck, who is heading up the commission’s falling number research.
“We’re not near there yet. We don’t have that rapid equipment for the front line elevators.”
The wheat board and some grain companies are now testing for falling number to segregate grain stocks so they can guarantee falling number levels to buyers.
Woodbeck said the earliest date for implementing falling number rather than sprouting as an elevator grading factor would be Aug. 1, 2006. However, he said that target would be difficult to meet because not only must better equipment be developed, but specialty manufacturers would have to produce enough machines to supply all the elevators before the system could be introduced.
Woodbeck said the industry wants to improve falling number testing because wheat buyers think it’s important.
“Falling number is what the end users want to know. Anyone who’s baking wants to know the falling number. They don’t want to know the sprout number,” he said.
