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Cereal Quality Survey Methodology

The 2009 Cereals Quality Survey represents the 36th time the HGCA has produced an authoritative assessment of wheat and barley quality in Great Britain. As always, the CQS involves a large quantity of data being received from cereals laboratories across the GB, analysed by a team of statisticians and then made available to the industry in a number of different ways.
The CQS continues to build on improvements made over previous years. This year, 61,000 samples of wheat and 21,000 samples of barley were collected from laboratories around Great Britain. Each sample result provides information on variety, sampling date and region of origin and also contains data on one or more of Moisture Content, Protein Content, Nitrogen Content, Hagberg Falling Number, Specific Weight and Screening Results. Having this quantity of data allows very specific results such as the average Hagberg Falling Number of Robigus in the South East tested in late-August, to be produced.
Results are presented in two main forms. Firstly, spreadsheets and PDF files made available on the HGCA website (and also by request) allow us to trace particular characteristics of the current-season crop and how it measures up against previous seasons. Once again, the Cereals Quality Calculator is running, which allows users to discover the proportion of the wheat or barley crop that meets a specific criteria. It also provides similar information for previous seasons, going as far back as harvest 2000.
As with any statistical survey, a level of sampling bias exists within the Cereals Quality Survey. Although every effort has been made to minimise this level, since not all producers have had their wheat and barley tested, the results can only be viewed as good estimates. The 2009 Cereals Quality Survey is no different, although the large sample size used this year should help to reduce the level of error, whilst keeping the results comparable with previous HGCA Quality Surveys.

 

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