Falling Number and What It Suggests
Falling number is a wheat test tied to sprout damage and enzyme activity. Buyer cutoffs differ, so ask for the one on your contract.
Falling number is a laboratory test used on wheat. In plain terms, it reflects enzyme activity that rises when kernels have begun to sprout. A lower number generally means more of that activity. Millers and other buyers care because excess activity changes how dough behaves. The test is not a moral score, and it is not the same thing as test weight or protein. Those other factors still have their own effect on value, as discussed for test weight and damage at https://goodsandgrain.trade/grain-grading-test-weight-damage.
What the number is responding to
Rain on ripe wheat can start germination in the head. The kernel may not look dramatically sprouted, and the enzyme change can already be underway. The falling-number method measures how a paste made from the meal behaves, and the result is reported as a number of seconds. You do not need the lab apparatus in the driveway to use the result. You do need to remember the direction: a lower result points to more sprout-related enzyme activity, which many milling buyers treat as worse, not better.
Visual sprout and falling number are related and not identical. A buyer who specified the test wants the test, not your opinion of how the heads looked.
Cutoffs are contractual
Buyers write minimums that fit their process. A number that one mill accepts may miss another's cutoff. Feed channels may care less, or care differently, than a baker's mill. There is no single global pass mark this article can honestly print, and a remembered cutoff from a different crop year is a good way to haul the wrong direction. Ask the buyer which threshold is on your contract and which lab method they will recognize.
If you are above the line with room to spare, the factor is quiet. If you are near it, a second sample is wiser than a long argument about a single run. Sampling still governs the fairness of any factor. A probe pattern for trucks is described at https://goodsandgrain.trade/probe-sampling-a-grain-truck. Sprout damage can vary across a field that caught more rain on one end. One scoop from the dry end is not the field.
What you can and cannot blend
Mixing a low-result lot with a high-result lot does not average as neatly as people hope, and some buyers forbid blending to meet a falling-number minimum. Ask before you blend. An unapproved blend that fails at the mill is a rejection plus a trust problem. Even when averaging is allowed, you need both results in hand, not a guess that the good bin will save the bad one.
Do not hide a sprouted lot under clean wheat in the truck. The sample is how that strategy ends.
Harvest weather is the prevention you still have
Once the enzyme activity is in the kernel, the bid has to live with it. The lever you still hold is timing and separation. If rain is on ripe wheat, harvest the drier fields apart, keep lots distinct, and test the risky ones before you promise a milling spec. Drying will not rewind germination. It can only stop further condition loss if moisture is the remaining problem. Moisture's effect on weight and price is a different article, at https://goodsandgrain.trade/grain-moisture-shrink-explained.
Put the factor on the contract, then stop inventing precision
Name the minimum, the lab, and the consequence of a miss. Then treat the report as the report. A single number is not a forecast of every bakery in the destination. It is a contract factor. If the dispute is large, the contract's retest rule matters more than a second opinion you found on a forum.
This is a description of the test's role, not a milling specification for any buyer.
Frequently asked questions
Does a higher falling number mean more sprout damage?
No. A lower number generally means more sprout-related enzyme activity. Confirm the direction and the cutoff with your buyer.
If the wheat looks sound, can I skip the test?
Not if the contract requires it, and not if rain hit ripe grain. Sound appearance can miss what the test is built to see.
Will drying raise the falling number?
Do not plan on drying to repair this factor. Keep lots separate and test the ones weather put at risk.