The Shadow
TAPPAHANNOCK—Virginia-grown winter wheat often is used in foods like biscuits, bread and cookies.
“The predominant type of wheat grown here is soft red winter wheat,” said Robbie Longest, a Virginia Cooperative Extension agent in Essex County. “That’s pretty much the primary type producers grow in Virginia, with the exception of a few acres.”
There are six main classes of wheat grown across the U.S., and Virginia’s climate is ideal for two: soft red winter and hard red winter wheat. Unlike spring-planted wheats, winter varieties are typically planted in October or November and harvested in June and July. Winter wheat needs to undergo a process called vernalization.
“It basically means temperatures need to get cold enough to initiate the reproductive process that ultimately produces the grain,” Longest explained.
While the bulk of wheat production is concentrated in eastern Virginia, Longest said, wheat fields can be found scattered throughout the state. Wheat is ranked 15th among the top crops in the commonwealth, and Virginia farmers harvested approximately 170,000 acres of the grain in 2022.
Keith Harris grows 800 acres of soft red winter wheat in Northumberland County. He has grown wheat for nearly four decades, and during that time he’s seen a transition in Virginia’s wheat market.
“We’ve gone from raising wheat that’s been used for feed to it being used for flour,” he said.
That’s because milling companies will pay a higher price per bushel than what farmers can earn if they sell wheat for animal feed. But flour wheat demands top quality, which means careful management to prevent diseases and pests, and fertilizing throughout the growing season.
After harvest, the wheat is dried to an optimum 13% moisture before being transported to the mill for processing into flour.
While soft red winter wheat is the main grain of Virginia’s wheat production, retired Extension agent Paul Davis is trying to encourage interest in hard red winter wheat.
Davis has been growing wheat on his family’s New Kent County farm since 1990 and currently is growing 60 acres of the hard red winter variety. He said hard red winter wheat likes Virginia’s climate, and flour mills are interested in it. With a higher protein and gluten content than soft red winter wheat, the hard red winter variety is ideal for breads and rolls.
Although it’s raised just like its soft red counterpart, hard red winter wheat has been slow to catch on in Virginia because it doesn’t compete with soft red winter’s high yield, Davis said. But with wheat breeding programs, he’s optimistic that new hard wheat varieties will improve—and more farmers will grow it.
