Washington wheat farmers will get the latest on the new falling number rapid test during this season’s variety tours.

Project leader Amber Hauvermale and USDA research geneticist Alison Thompson will speak during field days along Highway 2 and in Lind and Walla Walla.

A falling number test measures the amount of pre-harvest sprouting and alpha-amylase, an enzyme that breaks down starch.

A low falling number indicates starch damage and affects the final end-use product. Farmers receive a lower price if their wheat has a low falling number.

The researchers will ask growers to guess which cakes come from a low falling number, and then run the same exercise using flour.

“A lot of what we deal with at the level of harvested grain in any given season with low falling number is something that’s invisible,” Hauvermale said. “You really don’t know what you’re dealing with until you take it to an elevator or testing facility and have that grain tested.”

“We don’t know anything yet,” about falling number in the current crop, Hauvermale said.

Commercially available

Hauvermale and Thompson plan to demonstrate the new rapid test, which the industry hopes will replace the long-running, “cumbersome” industry standard test, which has been criticized for its inconsistency.

The first version of the test, for soft white wheat, is commercially available. A version for soft red wheat is slated to become available within the next month.

EnviroLogix, which developed the test, is also working on platforms for hard market classes.Interest depends on a consumer’s ability to use the test, Hauvermale said.

On-farm storage

After a demonstration during the Spokane Ag Show, a grower expressed interest in the test to help decide whether to use on-farm storage.

“Especially if falling numbers go up over time in certain instances,” Hauvermale said.

Hauvermale and Thompson studied whether low falling numbers ever recover, and in which circumstances.

“As it turns out, our preliminary data says that in at least in one instance, they do,” Hauvermale said. “It takes about two months of storage for that to happen. It doesn’t always happen and it depends on the type of low falling number you have.”

The farmer talked about teaming up with neighboring farmers to purchase a rapid test, Hauvermale said. It would give them a good indicator of whether to store the grain or send it to the elevator immediately.

‘Broader elevator network’

Hauvermale will work with HighLine Grain Growers again during the summer to use the test in real time.

She’s spoken with grain elevators outside of the Pacific Northwest that routinely run a falling number test, which are beta testing the new rapid test.

“The general perspective is that it’s faster and easier,” Hauvermale said.

A representative for a Midwest grain elevator said that they were able to keep up with trucks coming in.

“That tells me it’s feasible,” Hauvermale said. “I think really it boils down to whether or not people have had past experience using a sister test,” such as an EnviroLogix test for vomitoxin, which is more prevalent outside the Pacific Northwest, “and people’s level of comfort doing something that seems a little bit more laboratory-based in approach.”

Hauvermale plans to reach out to the “broader elevator network” this year about how, when and why they might use the rapid test.

“The last phase of this has happened very quickly,” she said. “We were able to partner with companies and private stakeholders that helped to facilitate and expedite the process. Having an industry partner that knows how to build these sorts of tests and has a production line that is capable of scaling and producing at a rapid level is really, really, really important.”

Resilient varieties

Hauvermale’s message to farmers includes the importance of variety selection.

“At the level of the farm, the biggest strategy growers have in protecting themselves against potential low-falling number risk is picking the most resilient varieties that are available,” she said.

In addition to end-use quality, WSU’s variety testing program this year will weigh “how likely is it to experience a problem when we have problematic weather,” Hauvermale said.
“That’s a conversation that we’re really just starting, and we will be talking a lot about that at these field days,” she said.