FRANKENMUTH, MICHIGAN, US — In addition to providing diversification, an investment by Star of the West Milling Co. in an agronomy business has helped the company sustain white wheat production in large areas of Michigan, said Michael Fassezke, president of the milling business.

Until late in the 20th century, soft white winter wheat accounted for all or nearly all wheat production in Michigan. At the time, Michigan was not the only producer of soft white wheat in the region.

“So was Ontario and New York state,” he said. “Combined they grew about 100 million bushels of white wheat per year. Today, New York grows very little soft white.  Ontario grows very little soft white, only 2%. Michigan is still about 50/50 white and red. There’s only one reason that we maintain the white wheat acres, and that’s because Star of the West, with our relationship with farmers, asks them to grow soft white. We needed that. It’s what made us different. It created a very unique market niche for our company. Soft white wheat is essential for the bran and specialty products we make. Now half the state has transitioned to red but most of that is south and west. Up here in in the Thumb Region and Saginaw Valley, we’re still probably about 75% to 80% soft white because we created a market for it.”

Asked to elaborate on Star of the West’s role in preserving white wheat growing in Michigan, Fassezke said the Frankenmuth, Michigan, US, location has depended and continues to depend on white wheat to remain competitive.

Because of the attractiveness of soft white winter wheat to many flour users, Star of the West ships flour and specialty products all over the country. Despite numerous large metropolitan areas less than a 300-mile drive from Frankenmuth (Detroit, Michigan, US; Chicago, Illinois, US; Cleveland, Ohio, US; and Columbus, Ohio, US), Fassezke said more than half of Star of the West’s flour from Frankenmuth is shipped distances longer than 300 miles.

 “It’s all soft white,” Fassezke said. “It’s because of the unique, functional characteristics that the customer has determined are important to them.”

Asked why growers shifted from soft white to soft red in the region, Fassezke discussed two risk factors — fusarium head blight, which causes vomitoxin, and sprout damage.

“There was a fallacy that soft white was more susceptible to vomitoxin or fusarium than soft red,” he said. “That’s not true. They’re equally susceptible, but over the past 20 years or so, Michigan State University has actually bred into our soft white varieties even more resistance to fusarium than what we’ve had in previous years.”

He said fusarium in recent years has been no more common in the white wheat areas where Star of the West draws wheat than in Indiana, Ohio or New York, where the company purchases soft red.

By contrast, white wheat in the past and to this day remains more susceptible to sprouting when mature wheat is subjected to moisture before harvest. Problems with sprouting drew many in Michigan, Ontario and New York to cultivating soft red, Fassezke said.

“We’ve done some things to offset that,” he said. “For instance, in Michigan we encourage our white wheat growers to harvest at 20% moisture. We don’t charge them to dry the wheat down to 14%, which is required for long-term storage. It’s worth it to us so that the grower can get it out of the field before the opportunity to sprout.”

The presence of sprouting is detected through the Falling Number test. Fassezke said ensuring flour has a high enough Falling Number score (time) is crucial because low Falling Numbers adversely affects quality of a wide range of finished products, including cookies, pies, cakes and donuts.

“Pies are a good example,” he said. “When you make pie crusts from sprouted wheat, the filling leaches through the bottom crust and makes the bottom crust real soggy. It doesn’t hold the filling.”

Not only have Michigan millers succeeded in encouraging white wheat plantings, Fassezke said total wheat plantings in the state have held up better over time than many surrounding states. Plantings in Michigan have ranged between 500,000 and 600,000 acres per year recently. In 2023, Michigan ranked 13th in acreage planted to winter wheat, third among states that predominantly grow soft wheat. Fassezke said outreach from Star of the West is among the reasons plantings in Michigan have not contracted.

“It’s like anything else, you have to ask for the sale, you get the sale,” he said. “When you ask the farmers to grow wheat, they consider growing wheat. Now of course, you have to be supportive. The early harvest we encourage them to do takes some of that risk out. We’re out there scouting for fusarium and monitoring weather and communicating daily with growers.”

In 2023, wheat growers performed well despite late plantings.

“We were concerned about yields (because of the late plantings),” he said. “But man did they have great yields up here because they’re doing all the right things — split applications of fertilizer, they’re putting on their fungicides at just the right time, their seed populations are adjusted for planting date — all those technical aspects of growing.”

He explained that wheat planted early in September allows growers to cut back the seed count, but when seeding is delayed more seed is needed because of the risk of lower yield.