Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays talked with the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, Mike Schulte, about 2024 priorities for the Commission- the body that is charged with promoting and improving demand for Oklahoma wheat.
Schulte says the Commission will continue to work to up the interest level for the most recently harvested crop in Mexico and South America. “In November, we did have great successful crop quality tours where we presented to millers and bakers in South America on the quality attributes of this crop” adding we are getting more competitive in the international markets as market factors shift as the old year ends and the new year begins.
Schulte says the wheat breeding research at OSU that is funded in part by wheat checkoff funds – and that will include continuing work on end use quality functionality of the hard red wheat lines being developed. He’s also hopeful about “work with blends of soft red winter wheat(with HRW wheat) for utilization of this product in markets in South America that can be utilized for cookies, crackers and pasta lines.”
Other things that Schulte is hopeful will unfold is a campaign that may be coming to replace the aging greenhouses on the OSU Research Farm- he says those structures have been used since the 1950s and they must be replaced to not lose momentum in our wheat research efforts going forward.
Listen to Hays and Schulte discuss these efforts coming in the new year by clicking on the Listen Bar above.
Learn more about the efforts of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission by clicking here.
