Growing Season Weather Implications for Spring Wheat Breadmaking Quality.

The vast size of the wheat-growing region in the Northern Great Plains of North America creates a very large range of temperature and precipitation conditions each year, leading to a wide range in the quality characteristics of spring wheat. However, millers and bakers want and need consistent quality of wheat from shipment to shipment and from year to year to manufacture baked goods of consistent quality using standardized processing methods.  Recent studies have provided models that can be utilized to assess the potential range in end-use quality characteristics of spring wheat based on detailed knowledge of growing season weather during various phenological phases of the crop.  The models also provide a tool for assessing the potential impacts of climate change on future wheat quality.  There has been much discussion about the impacts of climate change and the challenges it may present for producing a sufficient quantity of grain to meet projected demands.  However, there has been relatively little discussion on the potential impacts of climate change on the quality characteristics of food grains and the implications for food quality.  This presentation will explore spring wheat quality implications based on models that link growing season weather to spring wheat quality and the present state of our knowledge about current and future weather variability.