Artisan Wheat Trial

From Matt Ryan, Penn State Crop and Soil Sciences

Over the past several years, interest in local food has prompted many bakeries in the northeast to find locally grown wheat flour for baking.  Many famers in Pennsylvania already grow soft red winter wheat, which is high is starch and is good for pastry flour and making pretzels.  However, hard red wheat is high in protein and gluten, and is considered to be better for bread flour.  According to Elizabeth Dyck at Cornell University, locally-grown organic hard red wheat can sell from between $12/bu up to $2/lb depending on the quality and market.  Being interested in the seemingly lucrative opportunities associated with non-traditional wheat production, we initiated a variety trial to test some different varieties of wheat to see how they compare to conventional varieties.  This year, we are testing seven varieties of soft winter wheat, three of which are organic.  One of the varieties is a soft white winter wheat (Frederick).  Varieties being tested are listed below.  

1. Frederick – organic soft white (Lakeview Organic Grain)
2. USG 3770 – untreated conventional soft red (UniSouth Genetics)
3. AH 9121– untreated conventional soft red (American Hybrids)
4. AH 9915 – untreated conventional soft red (American Hybrids)
5. WS 44 – organic soft red (Welter)
6. FS801 – conventional soft red (Growmark)
7. GH 4532 – organic soft red (Great Harvest)
8. AH 9643 – untreated conventional soft red (American Hybrids)

Wheat was sown on October 11, 2010 at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research farm by Mark Antle and Dave Sandy.  Crop vigor was evaluated on May 5, 2011 using a visual rating scale (1 = poor stand and 10 = excellent stand).