Sprouted Wheat a good livestock feed

Kansas

Tens of thousands of bushels of Wheat from the 2004 Kansas Wheat harvest are graded with sprout damage making it often unusable by millers and bakers, who are the primary customers for Kansas-grown hard winter wheat. That's the bad news. The good news is that Wheat damaged by sprouting can work as a livestock feed. The damage became an issue because of the rainy period that began when the Wheat was mature and ready to harvest. In some parts of Kansas, harvesting of mature Wheat was delayed by as long as three weeks.

In a commentary published two weeks ago, Kansas Wheat Commission Administrator, David Frey, said, "Wheat is known for its high starch content, excellent milling qualities, and protein content, and enters the human food chain as the foundation for numerous food products. When undesirable growing and harvest weather causes Wheat to become unacceptable for millers, it presents an opportunity for livestock feeders."

Further compounding the wheat-sprouting problem for Kansas Wheat producers is the question of proper sampling protocols. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Adrian Polansky, said, "I am very concerned that some producers insurance claims for sprout-damaged Wheat are being denied because elevator employees combined samples to save time during an exceptionally stressful harvest." He continued, "They had no idea it could result in claims being denied, and there are examples in USDA's own handbook where average or lot samples are allowed to establish grain quality." Polansky's letter asked that the U.S.D.A. allow some latitude for the Risk Management Agency in applying the standards for determining loss adjustments for Wheat head sprouting.

At issue is the requirement that each load delivered to the elevator be tested and sampled with that sample kept separate and identity-preserved, so loss claims can be made on a load-by-load basis rather than a field or farm basis. These loss of quality claims would be filed under the producer's crop insurance plan.

Ray Crumbaker, who farms in the Brewster area of western Kansas, and who is a former President of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, reported on June 23rd that he was seeing a large amount of sprout-damaged kernels. Art Koster of Winona Feed and Grain, Inc., reported on June 24th that they were seeing a lot of sprout-damage, mainly in white Wheat varieties but also in some red Wheat samples. In the final KAWG Harvest Report on July 6, 2004, Tim Burr at the St. Francis Mercantile Exchange mentioned that sprout damage was bad in his area. In the same report, KAWG Director Roger Beesley at Quinter said that sprout damage had been running in the range of three to 10 percent in his samples.

In his request to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary Polansky said, "If we focus solely on form instead of intent, we're obscuring the entire purpose of crop insurance." And, he said, "I suggest that some tolerance be allowed to prevent an additional, unnecessary economic insult to producers." Secretary Polansky reminded Secretary Veneman that "The Risk Management Agency has not said that the quality assessments are inaccurate or that they are not representative, just that they did not follow the sampling protocol".

The KWC's Frey, in his commentary, said that Kansas State University Livestock Specialists Twig Marston and Joel DeRouchey have noted that many studies have been conducted on feeding Wheat to livestock and most report excellent animal performance when the wheat-containing diet is managed correctly. They pointed out that no matter its condition, Wheat still needs to be processed before feeding to livestock. That processing could include grinding, dry rolling, or steam-flaking to disturb the hard seed coat.

Brett Myers, Executive Vice-President of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, pointed out that these problems with quality come on top of nearly five disastrous years of drought in many areas of western and northwestern Kansas. He said those producers with reduced crops because of the drought and freeze critically need crop insurance settlements and alternative markets such as livestock feeding to handle the loss-of-quality issues.