Triticale: the Supergrain that you’ve Never Heard of!

Triticale is the offspring that came from the marriage between wheat and rye, creating the perfect hybrid baby that had all the versatility and yield of wheat, while still holding on to the hardiness and fast growing superpowers of rye. This new invention came from a lab in Scotland all the way back in 1875. It didn’t exactly catch on in popularity in the beginning, because even though the result was a highly nutritious and fast growing super food, the seed heads were sterile. So as nutritionally dense as they were, their seeds couldn’t be replanted as crops normally would. Making the farmer reliant on buying the lab grown hybrids forever. So it stayed in the background for another 15 years until a German physician, called Wilhelm Rimpau, picked it up again and somehow managed to get a partially fertile strain. This wasn’t exactly a perfect solution, reproduction still hovered between 20 and 30 percent viability, but it was a step in the right direction.

Then in the 1930’s when chemical tinkering on a molecular level became a bit of a fad in the scientific community and everyone was vying to prove….something, no matter how inconceivably useless their discoveries were to actual practical applications. And usually those experiments revolved around killing as many people as possible…because between the 30’s and 70’s, if you recall your history lessons in school, war was all the rage. But someone picked up the hybrid grain again, and in all that chaos, something magical happened. It was discovered that by treating the seeds with colchicine, they could stimulate fertility. And to spare you all the scientific jargon, we’ll put it simply. Colchicine was predominantly used to treat gout and arthritis of all things, but somehow it also had a positive effect on plant germination. The crop wasn’t quite perfect yet. Results varied wildly and getting the strain to stabilise took years to perfect. It would have fallen off the table a long time ago had it not been for the very promising nutritional make up that some of those babies had in them. But huge efforts in breeding programs, almost like developing a new breed of livestock, and a little more strict observation and tinkering, and we finally got a grain that was on the superfood level of avocados, berries and beans. Fibre, proteins, minerals and all of the vitamin groups, you name it, and triticale had more of it than any of its wheat or rye forbearers.

And really the process of getting it to become a stable crop didn’t actually involve any molecular level meddling. The only real chemical treatment it received was to improve its germination rates, after that it was all about replanting viable seeds over and over again until the crop decided on its own terms what genes worked best for it. That part was all mother nature, and her ability to select the strongest genes to win out naturally.

Now the world wasn’t quite ready to just go ahead and put a lab grown plant on their plates, despite being perfectly happy to eat the corn, soybean and canola oil that’s been put through the laboratory conveyor belts for decades by that point. The thing is these super modified foods had been a part of human life for centuries, they’d just been poked and prodded at slowly, and over time that no one even questioned how healthy they were. But triticale was born in a lab to begin with, so it was placed in the matrix category since its existence, no matter how much less it was actually altered by human hands than the crops that were so abundantly in circulation that they weren’t even noticed. It did gain a little traction as a fodder feed for livestock for a few years thanks to its valuable amounts of lysine, protein and B vitamins that’s so hard to come by naturally in crops, and that was enough to keep it on the market, even just as a background character.

Now came the early 90’s and stricter laws surrounding food began taking effect. The US weren’t exactly front runners here, since those companies who wanted their super fast and sometimes nutritionally empty foods on the shelf, are still fighting to this day to remain the top dogs. But the greater part of Europe is incredibly strict about GMO’s. And no one more so than Russia. If you’re ever unsure if something is safe to put in your mouth, look at whether or not Russia, Germany and Switzerland allow it and that should be an excellent indicator of whether or not it’s safe to consume. And they agree that triticale doesn’t fall under GMO’s anymore. No longer wheat or rye or even a hybrid of the two, but a crop in its own right and perfectly acceptable as food for humans.

Types of Triticale :

It spent the greater part of the 90’s and early 2000’s being served on more and more plates inside the home across Europe and Australia, while various strains were bred that were more suited to specific climates and uses. Spring, forage, dual purpose and specialty are the 4 strains that it now comes in.

Spring Triticale is faster to mature and more appropriate for those who have short growing seasons or short winters. Making for the perfect cover crop that is harvestable in time for the big summertime crops to go into the ground, and still being able to make a profit from it.

The forage variety is exactly that, a forage crop. Slightly higher in biomass and with more carbohydrates for the mass consuming cattle, it's a great way to cover an empty field for the time being, while still being able to feed your cows, sheep and goats a highly nutritious feed that’s right in the open where they’d prefer to graze anyway.

The dual-purpose triticale are the most adaptable to their growing conditions and they serve both as a human consumed grain and an animal feed.

The specialty triticale is a wide spectrum. This slot is reserved for farmers who are experimenting with creating strains that are more cold hardy or ones that can handle extreme drought, pest resistance and such. These strains are being developed mostly on organic farms looking to produce new variations naturally and through repeated plantings in more and more extreme climates.

Nutritional breakdown and uses of Triticale

The USA became more accepting of triticale when the organic farms picked it up, and you can find it in a lot of organic breakfast cereals, flour products like bread and pasta and it's especially popular in supplemental shakes because of its high levels of protein and fibre. It’s only very recently that any one’s even considered it as a viable large scale production grain outside of just animal feed and the health sector, and that’s thanks in great part to homesteads and small scale farms. These smaller operations realised quickly enough that the price to get your hands on triticale wasn’t all that much different from any other grain and at first it was used predominantly as a cover crop to protect fields in between larger plantings and a convenient way to feed their livestock. And if there was any left over by the end of the season, there is always someone around who needs animal fodder to sell the excess to.

The trick with Triticale is to harvest right around the time it reaches the flag leaf stage. That’s the final stage of growing before it flowers. After that point it loses some of its sugars, just like wheat does. That’s not to say that it will be useless to you after this stage, just that you want the optimal amount of nutrition in your crop, especially if you’re feeding it to your dairy cows who just need a little more oomph in their feed.

The extension to move over to a food sort for themselves just came naturally after that. Besides, if the ultra aware gym rats and the organic farmers approve of it, why shouldn’t everyone else? The only difference in planting then is to allow the heads to go to seed and process the grain as you normally would. It resembles wheat in most ways, so the processing isn’t any different either. And even then the stalks and leaves are perfectly good to feed to your animals, they just won’t have quite as much lysine and protein after pushing all of those nutrients into their fruits. Most of the small scale farmers harvest the heads and let their pigs run through the field afterwards. Leaving enough valuable manure and a good trampling to till your field for you, leaving it just as it should be for the next round of planting.

We cannot stress just how valuable a crop it is in terms of animal feed. With hay and alfalfa prices constantly rising, and there never being enough…well we can use all the help we can get to add to our animal’s feed. And when it’s as nutritionally dense as triticale, you really can’t refuse, can you?

So let’s look at the numbers then, shall we. For animal use, you can get 15 percent worth of crude protein. A decent amount of magnesium, copper, zinc, iron, phosphorus and manganese. It contains more protein and lysine than rye or wheat, but it’s going to depend on the strain. The fodder Triticale will always be higher in lysine and proteins than the others.

For human consumption, let’s break it down into the usual cup sized portions. Iron, magnesium, and zinc are so high that it makes up more than 90 percent of your daily nutritional needs for those minerals. But the big winners are Manganese, phosphorus and copper, all of them go above 100 percent, with Manganese coming in at a whopping 400 percent worth of your daily requirements. With those massive amounts of minerals, you might as well chuck your multivitamin tablets in the trash and call it a day.

Protein comes in at 13 percent and the whole lot, per 100 grams at least, gives you a decent 330 calories. A very reasonable amount compared to other grains, especially considering that it covers a much wider nutritional spectrum for less space taken up around the hips, if you know what we mean…And even though it’s lower in gluten than wheat, it’s not devoid of it. So our friends with gluten intolerances or celiac disease should still be avoiding it.

But we’re guessing that most of you are here to hear about the planting conditions geared more toward your livestock. And since human consumption is only now really starting to pick up steam, we’ll leave the recipes and products for another day. There’s still a lot of experimentation happening there, but for those who are interested, it’s just as versatile as wheat and rye and the process to get it on your plate is about the same. Pasta, cereal, bread, cracked grains…you can do it all, with the same amount of effort as you would otherwise.

Planting, harvest and yield of Triticale

So now let’s look at triticale in the field. For climates that get frost and snow during winter, it needs to be planted after the last frost, usually between mid and late spring. Warmer climates can plant it in Autumn or winter, as long as it doesn’t get cold enough to leave an icy sheet on the ground in the morning, triticale should brave the cooler weather of winter just fine. For the most part triticale hits that sweet spot between cold and warm. In its beginning stages it doesn’t want ice, but it doesn’t do well in full heat either. Just as the weather comes into its full heat, about 3 months after sowing, it’s ready for harvest at its flag leaf stage for animal feed, another month if you want seed heads for the grain.

The only real consideration with triticale, outside of extreme cold, is that it’s not suited for overly wet conditions. It likes things cool and dry. Besides keeping the ground moist until it sprouts, after that it only wants the water it needs, and be left dry during the day. Late afternoon or early evening watering is all you’ll need. Otherwise they’ll just become susceptible to rot, leaf spot and smut. But even these run of the mill diseases are relatively rare if the conditions aren’t constantly wet. And new strains are being developed as we speak. Have a talk with the people growing it in your immediate area, chances are that they’re experimenting with newer, more resistant strains, and they’d be just too happy to extend their experimentations to your land. Seriously, almost every acre that’s growing triticale is under observation by some expert or another, and a heck of a lot of them are funded by studies actively seeking to stabilise better strains. That's why we’ve avoided looking at yields thus far. There really is still a lot of variation around. For fodder purposes an acre can produce a good 8 tonnes, but the grain heads jump all over the place. Thus far the Spring and Specialty varieties are proving to give the highest yields, and they’re improving every year.

Conclusion

Right now Triticale is the new big name to watch. With so many eyes on its development and the active steps taken to give it a wider variety of growing conditions and uses, well it's bound to be an exciting and constantly changing space to watch. On this channel we aren’t exactly in favour of crops that have been altered by human hands. But triticale is a little different, besides a little help with germination, well there wasn’t all that much meddling outside of its initial stages of growth. The genetic line after those beginning stages was allowed to form and stabilise as close to naturally as possible. Not all modern developments are the devil, we are human after all, and it's in our natures to make the environment, and the plants and animals in those environments, fit our needs. We adapt, and we make everything else adapt to us in turn.

Consider triticale. It grows fast, relatively easily and it’s packed with so much more nutrition than the other empty options on our plates, that we’ve been desperately needing a replacement for for centuries now!

Are you, like us, excited about the new prospects of a super food level grain that can produce flour, bread, pasta and cereals that will actually make us healthier for a change. Or are you hesitant to try the new kid on the block? If you are, tell us what’s holding you back in the comments below. Change starts with having the conversation after all. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to like,subscribe and share. Your engagement is what keeps the lights on over here. And our team appreciates every single one of you.

See you next week, cheers!

Triticale: Nutritional composition and food uses - ScienceDirect

Triticale nutrition: calories, carbs, GI, protein, fiber, fats (foodstruct.com)

Mineral coverage chart - definition and explanation (foodstruct.com)

Triticale nutrition facts and health benefits |HB times (healthbenefitstimes.com)

Triticale nutrition facts and health benefits |HB times (healthbenefitstimes.com)