New OSU variety is the heavyweight champion of wheat

Thursday, February 12, 2026

Media Contact: Alisa Gore | Office of Communications & Marketing, OSU Agriculture | 405-744-7115 | alisa.gore@okstate.edu

From the mat to the field, the debut of a new wheat variety highlights the competitiveness and grit that define Oklahoma State University. On its way to market this fall, the variety is perhaps OSU’s most widely adapted since Duster in the early 2000s.

“This variety will compete on the farm at the highest levels of yield potential,” said Dr. Brett Carver, wheat genetics chair and Regents professor in the OSU Department of Plant and Soil Sciences.

“I could have just as easily called it ‘Heavyweight’ because if it was a wrestler, that is the weight class it would compete in. Currently, we don’t have any other varieties with this level of yield competitiveness and straw strength to keep them standing in the field under typical Oklahoma conditions in June.”

This heavyweight title inspired Carver in naming the experimental variety OK20708. The variety’s commercial name will be Wyatt after former OSU wrestler Wyatt Hendrickson.

Hendrickson wrestled at OSU for one season, accumulating an undefeated regular season record and qualifying for the NCAA Championships as the No. 2 seed in the heavyweight class. He won an individual NCAA Division I championship in 2025. He became the 145th national champion in OSU history and was the third OSU wrestler to win the Dan Hodge Trophy, awarded to the nation’s best collegiate wrestler. 

Carver announced the new wheat variety and its name at the annual Oklahoma Genetics, Inc. meeting on Thursday in Oklahoma City. OGI is a nonprofit made up of Oklahoma seed producers and processors, who partner with OSU’s Wheat Improvement Team to market, license and distribute OSU-developed wheat varieties.

"OSU Agriculture is committed to developing wheat varieties that give producers the strength, resilience and performance they need to stay competitive," said Dr. Jayson Lusk, vice president and dean of OSU Agriculture. "Each new release reflects years of research and a dedication to delivering exceptional varieties. If we can create the heavyweight champion of wheat with outdated facilities, imagine what we can do with modernized facilities."

Wheat discoveries at OSU start at the Agronomy Research Station. OSU is investing in the future of OSU's wheat breeding program by modernizing wheat research with the Agronomy Discovery Center, which will include a new headhouse, research greenhouses and a dynamic and multipurpose Research and Education Center.

During wheat research trials supported by the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Wyatt wheat performed well across the Great Plains from central Texas to Central South Dakota, ranking as a top yielder in Kansas and Nebraska in 2024 and in Texas and South Dakota in 2025. In 2020-2023, Wyatt demonstrated yield superiority over three competitive OSU varieties — Showdown, Smith’s Gold and High Cotton, averaging five or more bushels per acre more than Showdown and six bushels per acre more than Smith’s Gold in 2021-2023.

Carver said the OSU wheat breeding program does not typically have experimental lines winning USDA-ARS yield trials in Nebraska, South Dakota and central Texas, particularly all at the same time.

Wyatt was bred from Romanian variety FDL Miranda and OSU variety Smith’s Gold, giving it lineage to OSU variety Gallagher, another variety with strong yield. By 2017, the Miranda variety accounted for the second-highest area of seed wheat produced in Romania. Both Miranda and Smith’s Gold have strong yield properties, with Smith’s Gold also carrying strong stripe rust resistance.

The following are the attributes of the Wyatt variety:

• Very large kernel size with acceptable test weight and strong milling quality
• A high-yielding ceiling with excellent straw strength and intermediate height
• Average protein content
• Moderately strong adult plant resistance to stripe rust
• Moderate resistance to leaf rust, with fungicide application being necessary within environmentally challenged conditions to maintain kernel size and yield
• Moderately strong resistance to barley yellow dwarf
• Intermediate resistance to tan spot
• Good grazing tolerance and yield recovery from grazing
• Variable baking quality with slightly below average dough strength
• Moderate susceptibility to Septoria nodorum blotch and Septoria tritici blotch under severe pressure
• Low tolerance to suboptimal nitrogen applications

Wyatt has moderate but variable gluten strength that would be best used in commodity grain channels where it would be blended with other varieties and sources, according to Carver.

“I usually prefer many of our varieties to be marketed without blending because they stand so well on their own for baking functionality, but this one does not have enough dough strength to stand on its own,” Carver said. “But Wyatt can provide good baking performance with a reasonable balance of dough strength and extensibility. That, combined with an exceptional kernel size, carries a dual benefit for both farmers and millers.”

It seems appropriate that the heavyweight champion of wheat should be announced at the height of OSU’s wrestling season as the OSU heavyweight champions of wrestling prepare to face off against Virginia Tech at 1 p.m. Sunday in Blacksburg, Virginia. One final home match will be fought on Feb. 22, and the Big 12 Championship is slated for March 6 in Tulsa.

“We’re incredibly grateful to OSU Agriculture for honoring Wyatt in this way," OSU Wrestling said in a statement. "It’s a powerful example of the Cowboy Code in action. Thank you, OSU Agriculture.”