Wheat Quality Council

WQC Executive Director Ben Handcock (right), thanks the crop tour participants and sponsors of the tour during the wrap-up event at NCI. Dave Green (left), ADM, was moderator of the discussion.

The Wheat Quality Council’s (WQC) annual inspection tour of wheat fields in North Dakota, western Minnesota and northern South Dakota ended Thursday with its wrap-up discussion at NCI.  About 70 people, primarily trade association leaders and representatives of millers and other companies that use wheat, participated in the tour. The 70 split into small groups that traveled eight different routes, stopping periodically to inspect fields. North Dakota’s wheat crop draws interest because the state is the nation’s leading producer of both hard red spring wheat, which is used for bread, and durum, which goes for pasta. The 2012 tour estimated that this year’s spring wheat crop will average 44.9 bushels per acre. The 2012 durum crop will yield an average of 42.4 bushels per acre, according to wheat tour estimates.