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North Central Kansas | Kent: Please accept my condolences, too. I lost my father a few years ago, and I miss him every day.
You make good points, too - and this is the reason I appreciate this forum so much. It's excellent dialog.
At the annual wheat meetings this week, one wheat farmer I know pretty well was talking about, "why doesn't K-State develop a variety that contains no disease or insect resistance traits, but is bred for yield and yield only. Farmers can take care of the diseases and insects with fungicides and pesticides." I think this is the kind of "out-of-the-box" thinking that could be pursued. Trouble is, how many farmers would be willing to try this kind of wheat? (that's just an example, one I thought was very interesting.)
Wheat buyers from around the world have asked for - begged for - white wheat. So K-State, with Wheat Commission money, made a major investment in white wheat research and breeding. Yet, farmers are reluctant to try white wheat, and understandably so: some elevators refuse to accept it; there isn't enough quantity to meet steady demand, etc. The KWC tried, and got burned. In the private industry, this happens - Monsanto invested millions in Roundup Ready wheat, and dropped it. Only, they're a private industry and not as transparent as the KWC should be.
I'm not apologizing for the KWC (well, at least not too much, anyway), but there are a lot of things to accomplish with a budget of about $3.2 million per year. That sounds like a lot of cash, but it doesn't stretch as far as it used to. Thus, the assessment increase.
And as far as your questions go, I'm afraid I can't answer them all. But I can say that bread is the most consumed food in teh country and I would bet that 85% of the wheat grown in the world is used for human consumption, with the balance being used as livestock feed. I don't know that definitely, however. And I think Iraq is the quickest growing market for our wheat - but I know that Nigeria and Mexico are also huge consumers of hard red winter wheat.
Interesting thing about milo - there is a country in California called Ceres that is developing non-GMO herbicide resistance for grain sorghum. I can't remember which herbicide, but I read something about it a year or so ago. Again, this is a crop that has very little private investment, so it takes farmer investment to make this happen.
The troubling thing bout this is that wheat and milo are in the same boat, with very little private investment in research and development. And these are the two most important crops in much of Kansas. (Particulary in your part of the country, Kent. I'm from that area, too - so I can relate a bit.)
- Wildcat Willie | |
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KS Wheat Assessment (tax) Going Up.
