Care of wheat

Mature Wheat must be bunched for threshing. make use of baler twine, and tie the wheat in bundles about eight inches in length. Shock these in the --field or take them to the barn to dry. The grain will ripen in about two weeks, and can then be threshed. To thresh your wheat, lay a large, clean cloth—an old sheet works well—on a hard surface. Lay a bundle of wheat on the cloth and hammer it with a plastic baseball bat, a length of broom handle, a broken down tool handle, or another fitting device. The grain will smash to smithereens quite easily. What's left in the stalk can be fed to the chickens. The grain must be cleaned further to get out bits of chaff and hulls. This can be done by pouring it from one container to another (allow a three- to four-foot drop) in front of a fan or in a stiff breeze. A seed cleaner, bought new or secondhand can be used, but wheat can be ground into flour for table use without being perfectly cleaned of chaff. The extra chaff improves the fiber pleased of the flour. Some pest larvae and eggs are often already near in the grain, so wheat cargo space is a problem. Weevils can be killed by heating the grain to 140°F (60°C) for half an hour. Insect activity can also be arrested by grain storage below 40°F (4.44°C), so if you don't have much wheat, it can be kept in the refrigerator or freezer.Bin storage For bin storage; begin by cleaning the bin well. Rat holes should be covered with tin nailed securely with roofing nails. Dust the bin with diatomaceous earth and treat the wheat by thoroughly mixing in diatomaceous earth at the rate of one cup to 25 pounds of wheat. Mix thoroughly. Small amounts of wheat can be stored in steel drums sheltered with tin or wood covers.