Argent, the first white wheat released by NDSU, represents a new era in wheat breeding at NDSU meant to fill a growing world market for hard white wheat. The name Argent is Greek for white so named to reflect the white seed coat. Argent is similar to Grandin, an industry quality standard, in quality and agronomic attributes. Milling characteristics, dough mixing properties, and baking quality of Argent are all excellent.
Argent lacks some characteristics desirable for noodles made from farina.
Potential advantages of hard white wheat, such as Argent, include a unique combination of processing centered around bran color and bran flavor. White bran is less obvious than red bran in whole wheat products and does not impart the bitter taste associated with red bran. Bran from red wheat is a by-product of the milling industry utilized by the feed industry. Whole hard white wheat can be used to increase fiber of food products with less alteration of color or flavor, and should be useful in developing new high fiber foods. Hard white wheat is more desirable than hard red wheat for Asian noodles.