Optimising milling for Australian wheat (ended)

Optimising milling conditions for key Australian wheat grades (ended)

This project has ended. Its progress and outcomes will continue under a new project: Milling optimisation

International flour mills struggle to extract maximum value from wheat due to the challenges of milling wheat from different origins with vastly varying characteristics.

This project models the differences in milling requirements for a range of significant Australian wheat classes using response surface methodology (RSM) to determine optimal mill settings and linear programming for optimal stream blending.

AEGIC’s Sydney Pilot Mill is fitted with 11 in-line near-infrared sensors that continuously measure protein, moisture, ash, and starch damage in each flour stream to closely simulate wheat milling performance in commercial mills. Demonstrating the benefits of Australian wheat in terms of its milling potential (i.e., potential yield and therefore actual financial value) makes it more likely mills will pay a premium for Australian wheat.

Completed (April-June 2025)

• We continued to evaluate data from multiple wheat classes and locations across two growing seasons.  In addition, we were able to incorporate other wheat variables into the models, including wheat protein, kernel weight, kernel diameter and wheat hardness.  As a result, we have developed models that show the relationship between these variables and key flour properties such as straight-run flour yield, ash content, water absorption and starch damage.
• We updated the workshop and conference presentations to incorporate some of this new information and learnings from the analysis.
• We presented highlights of the results from this project to a cross-section of Australian Millers at the Advancing Milling and Nutrition Conference in Melbourne (13-14 May 2025).

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