Wheat (Triticum spp) is a grass that is cultivated around the world. Globally, it is the second-largest cereal crop, tied with maize; the third being rice. Wheat grain is a staple food used to make flour, as livestock feed and for brewingbeer. Wheat is also planted strictly as a forage crop for livestock and hay.
Einkorn -- (T. monococcum) A diploid species with wild and cultivated varients. One of the earliest cultivated but rarely planted today.
Emmer -- (T. turgidum dicoccum) A tetraploid species, with wild and cultivated varients. Cultivated in ancient times but no longer in widespread usage.
Durum -- (T. turgidum durum) The only tetraploid species of wheat widely used today.
Kamut® -- (T. turgidum polonicum) A tetraploid species grown in small quantities that is extensively marketed. Originally from the Middle East
Spelt -- (T. spelta) Another hexaploid species cultivated in limited quantities.
For example, current recommandations often indicate the second application of nitrogen be done when the ear (not visible at this stage) is about 1 cm in size (Z31 on Zadok scale). Knowledge of stages is also interesting to identify periods of higher risk, in terms of climate. For example, the meïosis stage is extremely suceptible to low temperatures (under 4°C) or high temperatures (over 25°C). Farmers also benefit from knowing when the flag leaf (last leaf) appears as this leaf represent about 75% of photosynthesis reactions during the grain filling period and as such should be preserved from disease or insect attacks to insure a good yield.
Several systems exist to identify crop stages, with the Feekes and Zadoks scales being the most widely used. Each scale is a standard system which describe successive stages reach by the crop during the agricultural season.
Durum -- Very hard, translucent, light colored grain used to make semolina flour for pasta.
Hard Red Spring -- Hard, brownish, high protein wheat used for bread and hard baked goods.
Hard Red Winter -- Hard, brownish, very high protein wheat used for bread, hard baked goods and as a adjunct in other flours to increase protein.
Soft Red Winter -- Soft, brownish, medium protein wheat used for bread.
Hard White -- Hard, light colored, opaque, chalky, medium protein wheat planted in dry, temperate areas. Used for bread and brewing
Soft White -- Soft, light colored, very low protein wheat grown in temperate moist areas. Used for bread.
Hard wheats are harder to process and red wheats may need bleaching. Therefore, soft and white wheats usually command higher prices than hard and red wheats on the commodities market.
Wheat may be classed under two principal divisions, though each of these admits of several subdivisions. The first is composed of all the varieties of red wheat. The second division comprehends the whole varieties of white wheat, which again may be arranged under two distinct heads, namely, thick-chaffed and thin-chaffed.
The thick-chaffed varieties were formerly in greatest repute, generally yielding the whitest and finest flour, and, in dry seasons, not inferior in produce to the other; but since 1799, when the disease called mildew, to which they are constitutionally predisposed, raged so extensively, they have gradually been going out of fashion.
The thin-chaffed wheats are a hardy class, and seldom mildewed, unless the weather be particularly inimical during the stages of blossoming, filling, and ripening, though some of them are rather better qualified to resist that destructive disorder than others. In 1799, thin-chaffed wheats were seriously injured; and instances were not wanting to show, that an acre of them, with respect to value, exceeded an acre of thick-chaffed wheat, quantity and quality considered, not less than fifty per cent. Since that time, therefore, their culture has rapidly increased; and to this circumstance may, in a great measure, be attributed the high character which thin-chaffed wheats now bear.
