Northern Crops Institute and the International Grains Program at Kansas State University are co-sponsoring a Durum Wheat Milling Short Course May 21-24 at the institute in Fargo. The course will provide participants with a better understanding of the durum milling process and add insight into milling performance and semolina quality.

Mark Fowler, International Grains Program associate director and milling specialist, and Alyssa Hicks, Northern Crops Institute milling specialist, are the lead instructors. John Crabtree, institute assistant director, coordinated the course. 

“We are delighted to partner with IGP for this educational course. Combining the milling expertise of Mark Fowler and NCI’s flour mill that can process both durum wheat and hard red spring wheat provides a very strong milling program for our course attendees,” said Northern Crops Institute director Mark Weber.

According to Fowler, the course will focus on the differences between milling of hard wheat for flour and the production of semolina for pasta production. “We will apply the basic principles of milling and wheat cleaning and introduce techniques to quantitatively measure and improve milling efficiencies,” Fowler said.

Highlights will include principles of durum milling, handling and blending, equipment, plant maintenance, and hands-on experience in the Northern Crops Institute pilot-scale Durum Mill and the Pasta Extrusion Laboratory.

The intended audience of this course is newly hired millers, millers who would like to advance their skills and quality control personnel wanting to gain insight into durum milling. 

Participants are encouraged to enroll early. All courses are contingent upon sufficient enrollment numbers. The registration fee is $850. Registration deadline is May 6. For more information, visit http://www.northern-crops.com. Follow the educational courses link.

Northern Crops Institute is the international center for meeting and learning about crops produced in the four-state region of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Montana. Situated on the NDSU campus, the institute is a forum that brings together customers, commodity traders, technical experts, processors and producers from around the world for discussion, education and technical service programs.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.