As farmers pick and choose varieties of wheat that might be best, they may also be deciding whether to grow hard red winter wheat or hard white wheat. For information regarding planting, growing and marketing white wheat a relative newcomer to Kansas The Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and the Kansas Wheat Commission, in cooperation with K-State Research and Extension, have produced a pamphlet that is now available at county Extension offices. The pamphlet answers a number of questions growers ask when considering white wheat. The U.S. Grain Grading Standards and the world wheat trade differentiate wheat by the color of the bran. Many international wheat buyers prefer white wheat.
Color is one of several properties that are used to assign class.
The different classes of wheat have different end uses. For example, durum wheat is used in pastas and hard red winter wheat is used for bread making. If these two wheats are mixed, the mixture won t make good pasta or good bread, so it is of less value. The six economic classes of wheat are hard red winter, hard red spring, soft red winter, soft white, hard white and durum. It s clear that red wheat shouldn t be in white wheat.