Wheat From Field To Flour (1973)

[Music] This grain storage terminal can hold about 40 million bushels of wheat. enough to make several slices of bread for every man, woman, and child on Earth. To grow this much wheat requires over a million acres of land, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. The central United States is one of the world's leading wheat producing areas. However, the crop is grown all around the world. Canada and Argentina are large wheat producers, as are many European countries, the Soviet Union and Australia. About 1/if of all land under cultivation in the world is devoted to wheat. Why is it necessary to raise so much wheat? Where does it all go? We don't have to look far to find some of the answers. [Music] Not only are most breads, cakes, and cookies made from wheat flour, but it's also the basic ingredient in spaghetti, macaroni, and hundreds of other foods. Wheat is a basic food for almost half the people in the world. Wheat was an important source of food for man's earliest civilizations and probably was one of the first crops planted and grown by prehistoric man. Today's wheat farmers in the United States and Canada use specially built machinery to do the job on a large scale. Most of the wheat grown in the United States is winter wheat. Winter wheat is planted in the fall in September, October or November. In the Dakotas and north into Canada, the winters are too cold for wheat plants to survive, so farmers wait until spring to plant spring wheat. Both spring and winter wheat are harvested in the summer. [Music] The first step in getting ready to plant wheat is to prepare the soil. Some wheat farmers use a plow, as this one is doing. Others may use different implements. The purpose is to break up the hard earth, kill weeds, and turn under some of the remains of last year's crop. Additional implements are used to break down clouds or clumps into a smoother surface. The loosened soil soaks up and holds any rain that falls. The straw and trash will decay and improve the quality of the soil. This machine called a drill is used to plant the wheat in the newly prepared soil. Seede looks just like ordinary wheat, but it has been specially selected for use in planting the new crop. Depending upon the setting and adjustment of the drill, the wheat rows will be from 7 to 12 in apart. The seed is usually planted about an inch deep. Using this type of equipment, the farmer can plant many acres of wheat in one day. If the weather is favorable, the new plants will soon start breaking through the surface. Green wheat is used for grazing livestock by many farmers. If not overdone, this does not harm the wheat crop and may even improve it. Winter snow does not injure the young wheat plants. Unless the cold is very severe or long-lasting, the wheat survives with no damage and with the warm spring sun starts growing rapidly. At this time, in the colder regions farther north, spring wheat is just now being planted. As they grow, spring and winter wheat look very much alike. They take on the appearance of a tall grass. Soon on the top of each stem, a head begins to form. This head will contain the valuable kernels of wheat. Large fields of wheat waving in the wind. Look like an ocean of green, which turns to gold as the crop ripens. [Music] At harvest time, the ripe head of wheat is removed from the stem, which is now called straw. By rubbing the head of wheat with our fingers, we can remove the husks and chaff and find the kernels inside. It is these kernels that the farmer is after. To get them, he uses a machine called a combine. [Music] The modern combine is the result of years and years of invention and testing in the development of the best and fastest way to harvest grain. Sometimes the operator drives the machine from an enclosed airond conditioned cab. Wheat heads by the millions are cut off and transported to the inside of the combine where special machinery will thresh the wheat or separate the kernels from the husks, chaff, and straw. All of these unwanted materials are expelled from the back of the combine and returned to the soil. When the combine storage bin is filled, a truck receives the newly harvested grain. To save time, the wheat is sometimes transferred to the truck on the move. On into the evening, the work continues. Combine crews do not work by the clock. The work must be done quickly. There are other fields waiting and there is always the possibility of rain which will stop the operation or of hail which would shatter the ripe wheat to the ground and ruin the harvest. Most combine crews work far into the night. Early morning dew frequently makes the standing grain tough and hard to thresh. Harvesting stops while the grain dries and the fatigued workers catch up on their sleep. Soon the heat of the morning sun has done its work and the heads are dry enough to be easily threshed. It's time to start up again. Sometimes a farmer owns his own combine, but many wheat growers hire custom cutters. People in this business normally operate several combines at one time, frequently in the same field. The farmer pays them a certain amount per acre to have his wheat cut. Custom cutters start their work in the southern part of the wheat growing country where the wheat ripens first, then move north with the harvest across the wheat growing states into Canada, cutting wheat for the farmers along the way. In Canada, some of the wheat does not ripen until late in the summer. Newly harvested wheat can be stored in bins on the farm, but more often is hauled to an elevator where it can be either stored or sold to the elevator company. Trucks are weighed as they arrive and again after unloading. The difference is the amount of wheat delivered. The elevator man takes samples of grain from each truckload to make sure that the wheat is of high quality. Damp or dirty grain may be refused or bring a lower price. Many elevators have powerful hydraulic lifts that make any truck a dump truck. The grain falls into a pit below the floor. Mechanical conveyors will carry the wheat to storage in the upper part of the elevator. Operating this kind of elevator can be hot, dusty work. [Music] Elevator managers sell the wheat they have bought from farmers to their customers. Terminal elevators, export companies, factories or flour or feed mills. Grain is loaded into railroad cars or large semi-trail trucks. Some of it may go to seapport terminals for shipment to foreign mills and factories. Some of it is sold to flower mills in nearby cities. This special machinery picks up the entire railroad car and shakes the grain to the open door. If the whole wheat kernel is ground to a powder, the result is called whole wheat flour. We can buy whole wheat flour in some supermarkets. And whole wheat bread made from this flour is very common. The most common flour milling process breaks up the kernels of wheat and separates them into various products. Bran is what remains of the outer covering of the wheat kernels. Bran is used for animal feed and also in the manufacturer of many breakfast cereals. Other byproducts called midlings or shorts are also used for animal feed. Most of the wheat kernel is ground into white flour which is used in baking bread and in many other foods. Next time you are in the supermarket or food store, try an experiment by reading the labels carefully. See how many different foods you can find that contain wheat products. You will soon see that wheat and wheat products are among our most important foods. [Music]