Developing agreement between very short flow and longer flow test wheat mills

Variations in soft wheat moisture content and kernel texture greatly affected the flour yield produced by a small (short flow) microtest mill (Quadrumat Jr.). An algorithm was developed that adjusted Quadrumat Jr. flour yield to 15% wheat moisture content, precluding the need to temper the wheat before milling. Another algorithm was developed to adjust Quadrumat flour yield relative to a constant softness equivalent (measurement of kernel texture) obtained during the micromilling procedure. Predicting the flour yield of the longer flow Allis-Chalmers mill from Quadrumat Jr. unadjusted flour yield (R-2 = 0.55) was compared with predicting Allis-Chalmers flour yield from the Quadrumat Jr. adjusted flour yield (R-2 = 0.90) across five diverse confirmation data sets. An algorithm to adjust flour yield for softness equivalent was individually developed for soft and hard wheats. Representative micromilling flour yield and softness equivalent data could be produced using as little as 10 g of untempered wheat and approximate to 3 min of operator time.