Food-grade or feed: which wheat is more profitable to grow

The insignificant price difference between food-grade and feed wheat does not stimulate farmers to grow high-quality varieties. Currently the price difference between feed wheat and class III wheat is 600 UAH/t, but there are years when this difference is only 50-100 UAH/t. Under such conditions it is more profitable for a farmer to grow and sell 1 t more of feed and earn more, than to try to grow higher-quality wheat.

The head of the Agro Department of LNZ Group, Oleksandr Khmeliuk, spoke about the features of growing food-grade wheat during an online event by the WEAGRO service.

According to him, the food-grade wheat market is affected by several factors independent of the producer at once. First of all this is the price, which is formed depending on demand, supply on world markets, the level of processing in the country, etc. 

The weather factor also affects the volumes of food-grade wheat grown. In the western or northern part of Ukraine it is more difficult to grow quality wheat precisely because of the weather conditions. This will be risky, because during ripening rains may pass, or already during harvesting there will be a decrease in night temperatures, dew begins to appear and the grain quality is immediately lost. In the central and southern regions the conditions for growing food-grade wheat are more favourable and less costly in terms of fertilisers and fungicide protection — meaning the level of intensification of the technological map. 

Oleksandr Khmeliuk singled out the stages and analysed the difference in costs for growing food-grade and feed wheat. 

• In order to obtain quality wheat, first of all one needs to choose appropriate varieties that can genetically give higher quality. They, as a rule, in terms of yield potential will be 10-15% lower compared with high-yielding (feed) wheat varieties. However, growing a feed variety and trying to pull quality indicators out of it will be more expensive. 
• To grow high-quality wheat, one needs to ensure balanced nutrition, in particular there is a need for increased nitrogen nutrition. The first-second feeding should be carried out on frozen-thawed soil and at the start of stem elongation, the third — on the ear. This provides for a 10-20% increase in costs for fertilisers and their application compared with growing fourth-class or feed wheat.
• The increase in cost of the protection system when growing food-grade wheat is small: herbicides and insecticides will remain at the same level as when growing feed wheat, but there is a need for increased fungicide protection of the flag leaf and on the ear. One needs to take care that there is no infection of the ear with diseases during ripening and with saprophytes before harvesting. The need for desiccation for timely harvesting before the onset of unfavourable conditions also grows. That is, approximately for food-grade wheat the increase in cost of the protection system, specifically the fungicide group, is 5-10%.

By comparing such parameters as yield, cost increase and the price difference, the farmer determines whether it is worth growing food-grade wheat.

Source: agroportal.ua