CROOKSTON, Minn. Recent plant breeding efforts by both public and private entities have yielded a large number of newly developed wheat varieties and also a few new barley lines as well.
Those attending the annual Crookston Northwest Research & Outreach Center crops and soil day on July 21 had the opportunity to view these new varieties growing under actual field conditions.
University of Minnesota wheat breeder Jim Anderson presented an overall view of the wheat breeding program currently being conducted before giving a brief description of each of the 31 varieties grown in the plot.
It was interesting to note that of those 31 varieties, 17 of them have been released since 2009. This is an indication of the efforts being put forth by the public and private wheat breeding programs to develop new and improved wheat varieties for the growers.
"We have turned the corner with our wheat breeding program," Anderson said. "Four or five years ago you had to choose whether you wanted a scab resistance variety or a high yielding variety. Now you don¹t have to make that choice, since we have varieties that do both.
"A good case in point is the two top yielding varieties raised in the state, Albany and Faller. I would classify both as moderately resistant to scab." Anderson also noted that the newer spring wheat varieties today resemble those introduced 15 years ago, the plants are shorter and have higher straw strength.
With solid gains made in developing resistance to scab, disease work has turned to three other areas a new race of leaf rust, the Ug-99 stem rust and bacterial leaf streak.
Leaf rust is something that hasn¹t concerned growers for many years, since the gene known as LR-21 was incorporated in all wheat genetics and offered resistance against leaf rust. However, according to Anderson, a new race of leaf rust has developed that isn¹t affected by the LR-21 gene. He noted that it appears Faller is especially susceptible to this new race. Therefore work is now being done to develop a gene that has resistance to the new leaf rust race.
The new race can be suppressed by fungicide and growers will need to monitor their fields closely in the future and be ready to apply a fungicide if need while work is being done on developing a resistance gene.
The Ug-99 rust was first discovered in Uganda in 1999 and has spread to a few countries east of there, although last year the disease failed to spread any further. However, Anderson feels it's just a matter of time until that disease ends up in North American fields and, at this time, only one newly developed variety, Tom, which is a University of Minnesota release, has shown any resistance to Ug-99.
Wheat breeders want to have a resistance to this disease built into the genetic pool of wheat varieties so growers won¹t have to rely solely on fungicides to control Ug-99 once it becomes an issue.
Bacterial leaf streak is the third area of disease research. This problem has shown up more frequently during the past few years on both wheat and barley stands. It differs in the fact that it is caused by a bacteria, not a fungus, so application of a fungicide does nothing to control the disease.
In fact, the increased use of fungicides may be a reason why this disease has increased, according to Anderson, since there are protective fungal growths on the wheat leaves and fungicide applications eliminate those protective fungi making it easier for the bacterial disease to get a start.
At this time Anderson said there is little a grower can do because the bacteria that cause the disease are present in all soils and rainfall splashes the bacteria on the leaf surface where it begins to grow. However, a few varieties show more resistance than others and further work will be conducted on this problem.
Barley varieties. Barley growers aren¹t faced with as many choices when it comes to variety selection. University of Minnesota barley breeder Kevin Smith outlined the barley breeding program that he's taking part in and then briefly outlined the various characteristics of each of the 11 varieties grown at the Crookston center.
In addition to the regular factors to consider when selecting a barley variety for planting, growers also need to be aware of the market they are growing for, Smith said. If a grower has a contract with Anheuser-Busch they will need to grow a barley that has high enzyme activity during the malting process, while the Miller-Coors program wants barley that has low enzyme activity.
Smith noted that the various barley breeding programs, both private and public, have been focusing on breeding resistance to Fusarium head blight, which causes high VOM level in barley, for the last 15 years or so. However, most times when a resistance factor was found in a variety, it didn¹t pass the test for malting quality. But there are now some varieties that work well for malting needs and have some resistance to scab.
Work is also being done on the bacterial leaf streak problem in barley with joint work being done with wheat breeders, as well as on the potential Ug-99 problem.
Smith also mentioned his program is taking part in a USDA program that has received $25 million in funding over the next five years to work on cereal grain genetics.
"This program is designed to try and bring some of the modern genetic technology to wheat and barley breeding," he said. "It will look at a wide variety of issues in addition to yield and disease traits, but also such things as drought tolerance and winter hardiness."
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