June 22, 2010

For Immediate Release

 Fargo, ND, USA – Alyssa Hicks is the new Milling Specialist at Northern Crops Institute (NCI), Fargo, N.D.  Hicks began her duties at NCI on June 14.
 
“Alyssa is a great addition to our team,” says Brian Sorenson, NCI Director.  “She will help us grow our programs and services in the milling of wheat and other regional crops. Hicks is off to a great start here at NCI, taking on the challenges of operating this mill with a lot of interest and energy.”    

Hicks is a 2010 graduate of Kansas State University, Manhattan, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in Milling Science and Management.  In 2009, she was a mill intern at Dakota Growers Pasta, Carrington, N.D.  Hicks is a native of La Harpe, Kan.

Hicks

Hicks’ duties include providing expertise in flour milling for the wheats grown in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana.  In addition to operating the NCI pilot-scale swing mill, she will teach in NCI short courses and provide technical expertise for the promotion of northern-grown wheat. 

In 2009, NCI’s pilot durum mill was converted into a dual-purpose mill to give the region the capability to mill pilot-scale or test-scale quantities of bread wheats (Hard Red Spring, Hard Red Winter and Hard White) into flour for quality and test baking/processing evaluations. The new mill is capable of milling flour, durum semolina and whole-wheat flour. Flour milling capacity of the new mill is 200-300 pounds/hour. Flour quality closely matches flour from a commercial flourmill.

Northern Crops Institute (NCI) supports regional agriculture and value-added processing by conducting educational and technical programs that expand and maintain domestic and international markets for northern-grown crops.  NCI is funded by the states of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota and commodity groups in those states and Montana.   

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