What is Soft Red Winter Wheat?

The USDA recognizes eight classes for wheat in the United States: Durum wheat, Hard Red Spring Wheat, Hard Red Winter Wheat, Soft Red Winter Wheat, Hard White wheat, Soft White Wheat, Unclassed wheat and mixed wheat.

Wheat is named for the season (winter or spring) in which it is planted, its texture (hard or soft) and the color (red, white and amber). Regarding season, winter wheat is planted on cold seasons (fall and winter) and harvested in June or July.

Examples of winter wheat include – hard red winter, soft red winter or white winter wheat. Soft Red Winter wheat grown in the area of the greater rainfall.

The soft red winter wheat belt extends from central Texas northeastward to the Great Lakes and then east to the Atlantic coast.

Soft red winter wheat is generally grown in a subhumid climate no conducive to the production of hard wheat.

Part of the so-called ‘corn belt’ is also a region of high production of soft red winter wheat. This type of wheat accounts for approximately 15% of the total wheat acreage of the United States.

The flour milled from the soft red winter wheat is used chiefly in the domestic trade for pastry, cake, biscuits and cracker baking and to some extent in the manufacture of breakfast foods.

Soft Red Winter Wheat has a lower protein content than hard red winter wheat. The softer the wheat, the lower the protein content.
What is Soft Red Winter Wheat?

Hard Red Winter Wheat

It is a general rule throughout the world that wherever winter wheat can be successfully grown, it will be grown in preference to spring wheat.

There are five primary classes of wheat germ in the United States:
*Hard red winter wheat
*Hard red spring wheat
*Soft red winter wheat
*White wheat
*Durum wheat

The predominant class of wheat grown in the United States is hard red winter. A hard wheat has a kernel that is high in protein and gluten content. The wheat is milled to make bread and is produced throughout the Midwest.

Hard red winter is grown chiefly on the Great Plains, particularly in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, where annual precipitation average less than 25 inches, frequent dry periods occurs, and winters produce subzero temperature.

Cultivation of wheat in the Central Great Plains began in earnest when Russian Mennonite immigrants brought the hard red winter wheat variety to Kansas around 1874, although wheat was grown in Kansas prior to this.

In many sections of the Southwest, where moisture is marginal, it is customary to alternate growing of wheat crop with a year of summer fallowing to conserve moisture. Much of wheat farming in the Southwest is on very large farms that use the largest available equipment.

Winter wheat is planted in the fall and harvested in mid to late summer. Spring wheat is planted in thee early spring and harvested in the late summer and early fall.

Planting in the fall permits the plant to establish a root system before the dormancy period starts and thus makes it possible for the plants to more effectively use spring moisture, warmth, and sunshine, the farmer who sows his fields in late fall or early winter encounters none of the spring delay which would be caused by waiting until the field becomes sufficiently dry to cultivate.

At planting, the seeds are placed in the ground using an implement called a grain drill. The drill places seeds in close rows (6 to 12 inches apart) at the proper depth in the soil.

Hard Red Winter Wheat