Adding choice and value to Oklahoma's $1 billion wheat industry

Thursday, February 18, 2010

By Donald Stotts

Oklahoma agriculture competes in a marketplace that is not just national but global in nature, making continued improvements to its $1 billion annual wheat crop a matter of importance for urban and rural residents alike.

“Wheat is a major driver of the Oklahoma economy, and Dr. Brett Carver’s new, genetically improved cultivars are the lifeblood of this critically important agricultural sector,” said Dave Porter, head of Oklahoma State University’s department of plant and soil sciences.

In fact, it could be argued that the work of Carver and his collaborating scientists at OSU has never been more important.

Oklahoma’s wheat industry has suffered through three poor crop years in a row, with many producers losing much if not all of their wheat crop to a combination of weather events in 2009: drought through the winter months, a hard freeze in early April, torrential rains from mid-April to mid-May and hail that pulverized thousands of acres in some areas of the state.

But in the midst of their struggles, state wheat producers received some much welcome news: OSU researchers with the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources are making available not one but two new wheat varieties called Billings and Pete.

“Billings is a high-yielding, large-kernel hard red winter wheat variety derived from a single cross of a Ukraine variety with a Pioneer experimental,” said Carver, holder of OSU’s wheat genetics chair and leader of the division’s Wheat Improvement Team.

The variety combines very good stay-green characteristics with early maturity. It shows excellent resistance to wheat soilborne mosaic virus, leaf rust and stripe rust, as well as good protection against powdery mildew. Test weight patterns are above average. Early dormancy release and moderate susceptibility to barley yellow dwarf virus makes it less adapted to early planting production systems.

“Billings is highly suited for irrigation production, and will achieve far more grain production if planted in October and not grazed,” Carver said. “This represents a significant departure from varieties released by OSU in the past, such as Endurance, Duster and OK Bullet.”

Yields reported in breeding nursery plots have exceeded expectations at the Oklahoma Panhandle Research and Extension Center, extending in excess of 120 bushels per acre when the nursery average was approximately 95 bushels per acre.

Target regions for Billings include central and northern Oklahoma, as well as the Panhandle if irrigation is used.

Pete is a beardless hard red winter wheat cultivar with high test weight that matches the highest yielding genetics in the field today. Pete was derived from Ukraine and Pioneer parentage. It was released as an early maturing improvement over Deliver.

“It’s a tri-purpose wheat variety that adds straw strength and yielding ability under irrigation or dryland conditions beyond what producers may be accustomed to with Deliver,” Carver said. “Pete’s superior test weight patterns add another distinction. However, its earlier winter dormancy release makes it more susceptible to early spring freeze events than Deliver.”

Pete is well adapted to major wheat growing areas of Oklahoma and bordering states, featuring resistance to wheat soilborne mosaic virus, spindle streak mosaic virus and leaf rust. It offers intermediate resistance to stripe rust and is moderately tolerant to low pH soils.

Wheat improvement research in Oklahoma is driven by an interdisciplinary team of division scientists charged with developing highly adapted wheat cultivars with marketable grain quality.

Program support is administered by the division’s statewide Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station system, the Oklahoma Wheat Commission and the Oklahoma Wheat Research Foundation.