Protein Tests for Wheat and Oil Tests for Flaxseed and Soybeans: Importance in Production and Marketing

Excerpts from the report: A national program of premarketing and current surveys and estimates of the protein content of the wheat crop, and of market news with reference to protein supply and protein premiums, would facilitate a general and equitable distribution of protein premiums among producers, would assist producers in the marketing of their wheat by its protein content, and would provide adequate information about the average protein content of the wheat supply for use in the establishment of market premiums for protein. Improvement in the intermarket uniformity of protein testing could be effected by a standardization of sampling procedure, of moisture testing in relation to protein content, and of the methods for the determination of protein content. The oil content of flaxseed and soybeans is an index of the processing value of these crops. Oil content is of equal or even greater significance in the determination of the domestic market values of flax- seed and soybeans than is protein content in the determination of the domestic market values of wheat. A quick and accurate test has been developed for determining the oil content of flaxseed and soybeans. This test has never been incorporated in the inspection and marketing practices of the important domestic markets for these seeds. The adoption of this oil test as a definite part of the inspection service for flaxseed and soybeans would improve the marketing practices for these crops and would tend to establish market prices on a basis that would be more equitable for producers than is a basis founded on grades only. Various proposals for the improvement of grain-marketing practices by means of the organization of national protein and oil-testing services and premarketing and current estimating services covering the supply of protein in wheat and of oil in flax, have been under discussion in the grain industry, in the State agricultural colleges, and in the Congress, for several years. This report has been prepared to present the views of this bureau on these subjects.