Flour mills in southeastern Pennsylvania are looking for more than the usual amount of wheat from outside the region this year because of the low quality of most locally harvested grain.

A long period of wet weather leading up to wheat harvest resulted in much of the crop coming in with low test weights, high vomitoxin levels and low falling numbers that indicate germination is taking place in the kernels.

“Our local crop was the worst I’ve seen in 30 years of being here,” said Brian Conrad, president of F.M. Brown’s Sons Flour Milling Division in Fleetwood.

Conrad said less than 2% of the mill’s soft red winter wheat will be sourced from local farms this year compared to about 10% in more normal years.

A few local loads were suitable for flour milling but they made up a “very, very small percentage,” he said.

About 70% of the approximately 2 million bushels the mill processes annually, he said, is delivered by rail, mainly from Michigan and northwestern Ohio.

The bulk of the balance of the mill’s wheat comes from the Eastern Shore, where Conrad said some suitable for flour was harvested this year. New Jersey also had some good wheat, he said.

Brown’s flour is used in products including cookies, pretzels, crackers and breading. It is delivered to food companies within about an hour and a half of the mill, with products going all over the world, Conrad said.

“It’s very unfortunate when weather ruins a crop like this because it’s so important to have that relationship with local farmers,” Conrad said.

But he’s optimistic about the relationship continuing.

“We’ll rebound,” he said. “The farmers will keep planting more wheat and we’ll keep milling.”

Fungicide Effectiveness?

Dick Cole, wheat buyer at Lititz-based Snavely’s Mill, which has four mills in the state and is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, said timely fungicide applications helped some farmers harvest better wheat.

The best local wheat he’s seen came from those who sprayed early as a preventative prior to pollination.

However, “even for people who sprayed there was no guarantee,” he said.

And while later curative fungicide applications can reduce vomitoxin levels in the head, he said that didn’t happen this year.

Cole said about 40% of Snavely’s wheat typically comes from the southeastern and central parts of the state, with the balance coming from the Eastern Shore — where he estimated about three-quarters of this year’s crop was of milling quality — and southern New Jersey.

Some other areas such as York County and western Maryland also had some pockets of good quality wheat, he said. The crops from western Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio tend to be better as well.

The general low quality of most local wheat has made the mill look beyond its usual purchasing region.

“Our pooling area is much larger this year,” Cole said.

He urged farmers not to stop growing wheat because of one bad season, which he said only happens once in 10 or 15 years.

Depending on conditions, wheat can be more profitable than corn in some years, he said.

Mark Fischer of Castle Valley Mill in Doylestown typically sources hard red winter wheat for milling into whole wheat bread flour from farms within a 20-mile radius. He will have to go farther this year, although fortunately there’s still some wheat in the bin.

“We have a decent holdover from last year, which is a blessing,” he said.

Castle Valley stone mills wheat, rye and other grains for retail in a renovated 18th century mill.

Fischer said the operation mills several thousand bushels of wheat per year and as of early August still had about 1,800 bushels in storage.

He’s more concerned about finding rye, which makes up a significant part of the business.

“The real problem is rye,” Fischer said. “It rained so much during flowering that it washed the pollen away” resulting in loss of the crop in local fields.

Teena Bailey of Germansville grows several acres of wheat, rye and oats for her own line of Red Cat Farm products, which are milled at Castle Valley.

While the test weight for her crop of Redeemer hard red winter wheat was only about 53 pounds per bushel, she said the vomitoxin level was relatively low and protein content was high at 15%.

Bailey didn’t use fungicide, as her goal is to become certified organic.

She ran the wheat through her cleaner twice to remove shriveled kernels, which also helps reduce vomitoxins. Castle Valley will give it yet another cleaning.

“The kernels are just not filled out the way they should be,” Bailey said. However, “with that protein level, it’s going to make some really good bread.”

Source: Lancaster Farming, Aug 15, 2025