UK Wheat Science

UK Wheat Group Increase Farmers Profits
2004

Issue:  Kentucky Producers of wheat face considerable economic and environmental pressure in producing high quality wheat.  The KY wheat industry (buyers & millers) require high quality wheat in sufficient volume to avoid having to transport product from out side the state.

What has been Done?  Over a period of several years an integrated working group of UK ag-scientists has been working as a unit to aid Kentucky producers in their efforts to produce profitable wheat crops.  In the current economy this is no easy task.  Measuring this impact may be an even more difficult task.

Each year the Wheat Science Group (WSG) uses surveys and interviews to try and rate their impact, as well as shape the program to industry need.  After the FY04 wheat production season, the WSG found the following from individuals replying to our queries.

These values were generated from specific questions concerning “clientele perceived value” on our year-end survey. Regardless of which of these numbers is correct, this appears to be a good value.  Remember that this is for a single year and after having been taught IPM and production techniques as a group for several years.

However, this may really be the tip of the iceberg.  In an attempt to find out exactly where progress was being made a series of questions was developed to see where producers were making changes. Additionally, individuals that were doing research in those areas established values for these “changes”.

Impact:

• 96.7% indicted that the WSG has a positive affect on your profitability

• On average this impact was gauged by responder “impression” at $20.00 per acre.

• The maximum response was: $105.00 / acre, the minimum was $0.00.

Table 1. The Percentage of Selected Practices Changed by Producers because of “Wheat Science Group” Information / Education in Several Production Seasons.

In FY04 74% of our survey respondents indicated that they altered at least one practice.  Of those the average number of these six indicator practices altered in FY04 was 2.8.  The minimum was 0 and the maximum was 6. For the producers that made changes the average value of the changes was $37.46 /Acre (Max=$89.00 & min $10.00/ acre). The value calculated form the actual changes that producers indicated that they made is far greater than their “impression” of the information’s value ($20.00 as taken from a specific survey question).  For the producer that changed all seven practices the value would be $101.00.  Clearly the actual value of information provided by the Wheat Science Group is more than the producers are aware of and much closer to our predicted value of $52.00 / Ac.

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Original document: 1 October 2004 Last updated: 29 March 2006