Wheat Facts

There are two main types of wheat grown in Ontario — soft winter wheat that is planted in the fall and harvested in July and hard spring wheat that is planted in the spring and harvested in August
Soft wheat is used to make pastry flour that cookie, cracker, and cake bakers use; hard wheat flour is used to make bread
1 acre produces enough bread to feed a family of 4 for 10 years
Wheat is a grass plant that grows tall and green with long thin leaves
When it is time for harvest, wheat plants turn gold and the seeds dry out to under 14% moisture
The seeds, also called kernels, on the wheat plant are at the top — the combine harvester cuts the top of the wheat plant, then removes the seeds that are sold to flour millers
Wheat kernels are ground into a fine powder between rollers in a flour mill to make flour
The dry stem and leaves of the plant, called “wheat straw”, remain in the field and can be gathered into bales or left to decompose and fertilize the soil
Wheat straw can be used for animal bedding and ethanol production
1 bushel of wheat contains about 600,000 wheat kernels and is the size of a large bag of dog food

Field of wheat

Both wheat straw and wheat flour are incorporated in many every day products, including:

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