Does wheat protein disappear in the bin?
Phil Williams, a researcher at the Canadian Grain Commission, doesn’t know, but he intends to try to find out through a new study this winter.
During the past two years, Williams has talked to hundreds of farmers who have toured the commission’s Grain Research Lab as part of the Go with the Grain tours sponsored by the Canadian Wheat Board.
Williams said many have asked why protein content seems to disappear during storage over the winter. Farmers’ wheat may show 13.9 percent protein in tests in the fall, but when they deliver the wheat in January, it might have dropped to 13.2 percent.
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“So many farmers have pointed that out, that we decided we’d do a study on this.”
Hundreds of samples
His team will select several hundred samples from the harvest survey representing different protein levels from a variety of areas.
They will be tested now, then stored in the cold to simulate the grain bin environment, and retested in December, January and February.
Williams said many other factors could be affecting protein results, including moisture, sampling errors and instrumentation problems at grain elevators.
