Home / Nutritional information / Balcaskie Landrace wheat, crop 2019
The tables below give as much information as we have on where and how this grain was produced and what it’s got in it – important minerals such as zinc, iron and magnesium, as well as other things like protein and fibre that affect both nutritional value and baking performance.
Scotland The Bread is the only grain and flour producer in the UK (as far as we know) that measures and publishes such detailed information about its grains. Our aim is to improve Scottish grain and breadmaking flour so that everyone benefits.
For more detail on what exactly these figures mean for your health – and the wider environment –
read on.
Balcaskie Landrace wheat, crop 2019
A mixture of historic Scottish varieties Rouge d'Ecosse, Golden Drop and Hunters, sown together on the Balcaskie Estate in 2019. Flour tested for minerals at the James Hutton Institute, February 2020.
| Mineral | mg/100g | Average reference values | Our grain/flour as % of reference values – see tab for details (over 100% = better) | Comment |
| Calcium (Ca) | 23.2 | 32.3 | 72% | Not clear why this is lower than the average of the parent varieties in 2018. May be a sampling error. |
| Iron (Fe) | 4.38 | 3.6 | 121% | |
| Potassium (K) | 441 | 372 | 118% | |
| Magnesium (Mg) | 146 | 104 | 140% | |
| Copper (Cu) | 0.79 | 0.39 | 202% | |
| Phosphorous (P) | 411 | 316 | 130% | |
| Zinc (Zn) | 4.1 | 2.2 | 186% | |
| Manganese (Mn) | 4.94 | 2.4 | 205% | |
A basic snapshot of suitability for breadmaking (or other uses).
| Laboratory and test date | WM Lindsay, March 2020 | |
| Protein % | 13.1 | |
| Moisture % | 13.8 | |
| Hagberg Falling Number | 218 | Measure of natural amylase activity. Lower number = higher activity = more starch conversion to sugar. Big mills insist on 250+; Real Bread bakers can cope with lower values through long fermentation, which creates acid conditions that control excessive amylase. |
| Hectolitre weight (kg/hl) | 77.6 | Measures size of grain. Bigger grains have more starchy endosperm (flour) than smaller ones and a lower proportion of mineral-rich bran. Higher number = smaller grains |
This is a 'modern landrace' formed by mixing three historic Scottish varieties (Rouge d'Ecosse, Golden Drop and Hunters), growing them together and then sowing the resulting seed. In 2020, a high diversity Danish winter wheat population from Agrologica (developed by Anders Borgen) will be added to the Balcaskie landrace.
A landrace is a genetically diverse population that has adapted to a locality (geographically, biologically and culturally) over time through natural evolution and farmer selection.
| Name (variety, mixture, landrace) | Balcaskie Landrace wheat |
| Grain or flour | Wholemeal flour and grain |
| Date of release by Scotland The Bread | April 2020– |
| Where was the grain grown? | Balcaskie Estate |
| Habit | Winter wheat |
| Harvest year | 2019 |
| Organic status | Certified organic (SOPA) |
Explanatory notes
| Reference | Ca mg/100g | Fe mg/100g | K mg/100g | Mg mg/100g | Cu mg/100g | P mg/100g | Se µg/100g | Zn mg/100g | Mn mg/100g |
| McCance & Widdowson: flour, wheat, wholemeal | 32.0 | 2.4 | 358 | 83 | 0.37 | 281 | 5 | 1.9 | 2 |
| Multielemental Fingerprinting as a Tool for Authentication of Organic Wheat, Barley, Faba Bean, and Potato. (probably wheat grain, not flour) J. Agric. Food Chem. 2011, 59, 4385–4396 | 32.2 | 3.8 | | 100 | | 302 | | 1.9 | |
| 61 ‘Wheat, flour, wholemeal’ (Denmark) | 29.8 | 3.31 | 379 | 103 | 0.32 | 313 | 0.1 | 2.6 | 2.74 |
| Wheat flour wholemeal’ (Sweden) | 35.0 | 5.0 | 380 | 130 | 0.47 | 350 | 3.4 | 2.3 | |
| Average of the above four reference values | 32.3 | 3.6 | 372 | 104 | 0.39 | 316 | 2.8 | 2.2 | 2.4 |
