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Wheat quality tour starts in North DakotaBISMARCK, N.D. (AP)--With yardsticks in hand, representatives of the wheat industry will be walking through fields and counting kernels in North Dakota recently. The wheat quality tour, organized by the region's Wheat Quality Council, starts in Fargo with a training session and car assignments,then heads to western North Dakota. "It gives everyone a good overview of the overall crop in North Dakota," said Kyle Martin, a spokesman for the North Dakota Wheat Commission. A special leg is planned for durum, a wheat variety used in pasta. Erica Peterson, a commission marketing specialist, went on the tour last year. "We actually do go out into the fields and we have a calculation we use to kind of come up with an estimated yield," she said. "Each group covers a different path throughout the state. We try to get each group to cover at least 10 fields so we can kind of come up with an average for the area and the state." In each field, the group counts heads of wheat, measures the length of the heads and the number of kernels. "It's proven to be fairly accurate," Peterson said. Last year, she said, the quality tour's estimated yield was off by less than a bushel. This year, North Dakota's wheat crop appears to be quite a mixed bag, she said. "The eastern part of the state is in fairly good condition. There's a lack of moisture in the west," she said. "In the eastern part of the state, we have lost acreage to corn and soybeans, however the yields tend to be higher." North Dakota's wheat crop this year is estimated at about 9.2 million acres, up slightly from last year. The total includes about 7 million acres of spring wheat. The Agriculture Department's initial production estimate put North Dakota's spring wheat production at 224 million bushels, down 4 percent from last year, and durum production at 44.6 million bushels, up 2 percent from last year. 8/4/08 Date: 7/29/08
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