Cereal Chem 69:428-432   |  VIEW ARTICLE

Quality and Classification of Hard Red Wheat.

D. C. Slaughter, K. H. Norris, and W. R. Hruschka. Copyright 1992 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Twelve quality assessments of hard red spring and hard red winter wheat were evaluated over a three-year period to determine which could best fulfill the intent of the U.S. Grain Standards Act of 1916 and the U.S. Grain Quality Improvement Act of 1986 in determining market class. The study indicated that of the 12 quality evaluations, protein content and kernel hardness were the best suited to be used as classification tools for differentiating hard red spring and hard red winter wheat and that other quality assessments not as well suited also were highly correlated with protein content. A classification model based on protein content and wheat hardness successfully classified 92.7% of the hard red winter wheats and 91.5% of the hard red spring wheats over the three years studied, when changes in growing conditions were incorporated into the model. A hardness and protein index was defined as a possible means of implementing in a single score the quality characteristics of a hard wheat sample.