U.S. Wheat Associates foreign staff participated in their Core Competency Training at Northern Crops Institute on the NDSU campus March 24-25. The team spent two days at the institute listening to presentations from their peers and industry professionals, as well as participating in demonstrations and tours of NCI's labs. The main focus of their training was to learn more about solvent retention capacity (SRC) and hard red spring wheat.

Senay Simsek, head of Purdue University's food science department, and DeLane Olson, research specialist at NDSU’s wheat quality lab, led the demonstration where the team learned about the SRC shake method. They manually shook flour samples mixed with solvent, and then compared them to the results of the samples shaken by a machine.

A reception and dinner was held at the Sanctuary Events Center, Fargo, on March 24. Speakers included Mark Jirik, NCI; Neal Fisher, North Dakota Wheat Commission; Reid Christopherson, South Dakota Wheat Commission; Mark Fowler, U.S. Wheat Associates; and Charlie Vogel, Minnesota Wheat.

U.S. Wheat Associates concluded their time at NCI with presentations and a tour of NCI's labs on March 25. The team previously visited the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, Oregon, before traveling to Fargo, and were then headed to the International Grains Program Institute at Kansas State University to continue their training.

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