GrainGenes

Hard red and hard white winter wheat breeding.

5912 N. Meridian St. and 806 N. Second St.

Wichita, KS 67204-1699, USA Berthoud, CO 80513, USA

A. Brown, G. Cisar, G. Greer, J. Reeder, R. Rich, B. Talley, T. Winslow, and J. Zitlow.

On 24 June, 1996, Monsanto acquired the hybrid assets of AgriPro Seeds Incorporated, resulting in the restructuring of the HybriTech Seed International research programs. The HybriTech Hard Wheat program now has breeding personnel located in Wichita, KS and Berthoud, CO. The Berthoud site became the property of HybriTech, but AgriPro personnel continue to work at the location developing pureline varietal products for their traditional markets.

Jerry Wilson, formerly with the hard wheat breeding program, has accepted a position that serves each of the three HybriTech breeding teams and also serves as the interface and contact point for activity within the Ceregen/Monsanto biotechnology projects. Under Jerry's direction, we will continue to make capital investments at the Wichita site to enable us to rapidly and efficiently bring genetically engineered traits from the lab, into our breeding programs, and out into the marketplace.

Following the acquisition, we also have a large amount of germplasm to manage and develop into heterotic gene pools. An initial look at pedigree and combining ability information has led to a model that has seven hard red winter and three hard white winter wheat gene pools. As we develop new testcross data, we expect this model to undergo modification. We are currently producing approximately 4,200 experimental hybrids in our top-cross block nursery for testing in various markets and submarkets in the Great Plains. We have 21 testing locations extending from northern Montana to the panhandle of Texas.

HybriTech now has a broad product offering of quality HRWW hybrids, including Quantum 542, Quantum 566, Quantum 579, Quantum AP 7501 , Quantum AP 7510, and a new release Quantum 7406. We also have several hybrids in pilot production, which are candidates for release in 1997.

Soft white winter wheat breeding.

HybriTech Seed International

1980 N. W. 9^th St., Suite 203

Corvallis, OR 97330, USA

G. Mahrt, B. Cooper, H. Lewis, S. Scherer, R. Simerly, A. Westhead, and W. Kam.

Like all of the other HybriTech Seeds breeding programs, the SWWW group has undergone considerable change in the last year. This is the `youngest' of the three breeding programs, and we are just getting our first hybrids ready for the marketplace. The leading candidate is an experimental line XH 1017, which has demonstrated good levels of heterosis and excellent quality characteristics so far. This year marks the first significant acreage of SWWW hybrid production to be planted in the Pacific Northwest. The breeding project is working to get a full portfolio of inbred lines with suitable characteristics for efficient production of SWWW.

Glenn Mahrt is now the Strategic Business Leader for SWWW, in addition to being the Regional Production Research team leader. Steve Scherer remains with the project in the capacity of Inbred Line Breeder. Bob Simerly joined the group in mid-summer, first with the Production Research group, and recently was named Regional Production Manager. Andrea Westhead, a recent graduate of Michigan, is the newest member of the SWWW team. Andrea will be in production research and has relocated to Boise, ID. The entire project plans to move from the Corvallis, OR, to Boise, ID, toward the end of 1997, as this will place us closer to the prime areas for yield testing, production, and marketing. Wendy Kam remains as our office manager.

Hal Lewis has left the project to pursue other interests. We are currently interviewing candidates for Hal's replacement. Blake Cooper accepted the Senior Project Leader position starting 1 January, 1997. Blake had put in the summer and fall working with Gordon Cisar's HRWW group in Berthoud. Prior to joining HybriTech, Blake was responsible for AgriPro's Hard Red Spring Wheat project. The HRSW class is still being examined on an interim basis to determine the potential for hybrids for the Upper Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. Several promising hybrids have been identified in this market class.

NOVARTIS SEEDS, INC.

P.O. Box 729, 778 CC 680, Bay, AR 72411, USA.

June Hancock, Craig Allen, and David Hill.

Novartis Seeds, Inc.

The merger between Sandoz and Ciba was finally approved by the FTC in late December. As of 1 January, 1997, Northrup King became Novartis Seeds Field Crops/NAFTA. Wheat will still be sold under the COKER name.

The 1995-96 season.

Planting conditions ranged from near-ideal in the east, to drought in the west and south. Many areas with poor fall stands were severely injured by the severe winter temperatures. Late spring freezes in the south also hurt many early varieties. Heading dates were delayed in many areas, because of cool spring temperatures and retillering due to freezing. Very high temperatures during grain fill in May led to lower than normal test weights.

Disease pressure was at a minimum. Septoria and scab were observed in some areas. Wheat spindle streak mosaic virus was identified in our main nursery at Bay, AR.

Variety release.

Coker 9704 (L910097) soft red winter wheat has been released and is currently being tested in state trials. Registered seed sales will be in the autumn, 1997, with certified sales the following year. Coker 9704 is adapted to Arkansas, across central Tennessee to the east coast, northcentral Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Coker 9704 is a high-yielding, good test weight, mid-maturity, medium-height variety. Good resistance has been shown to prevalent races of leaf rust and powdery mildew. Moderate resistance has been shown to the Septoria complex, soilborne mosaic virus, and stem rust.

Personnel.

David Hill joined our program in May as a research assistant. David will be responsible for our greenhouse crossing program and early generation development. He earned his B.S. degree in Plant Science in May, 1996, from Arkansas State University.

OR SEED BREEDING CO.

OR Melhoramento de Sementes Ltda, Rua Joano Battisti 76, Passo Fundo, RS, CEP 99050-380, Brazil.

O.S. Rosa and A.C. Rosa.

Wheat production and breeding.

Brazilian wheat production increased from 1.7 million tons in 1995, to 3 million tons in 1996. Consumption remains around 8.5 million tons.

Progress on scab resistance. Our wheat breeding program is basically conducted at Passo Fundo, in southern Brazil, where natural infection of FHB occurs nearly every year. Many sources are being used to increase the level of scab resistance.

Progress on scab resistance, after 8 years of screening under our high rainfall conditions, was evident in 1996. Adequate weather conditions for natural infection of the fungus were extremely favorable for disease development. Under these conditions, many lines were identified without symptoms of the disease in the spikes and grains, in contrast to lines nearly dead because of susceptibility to scab.

We are interested in exchanging this germplasm with regions where scab is an important disease in order to identify broader resistance.

Wheat cultivar OR 1. The cultivar OR 1, released in 1996 for the southern Brazilian states of Parana and Rio Grande do Sul, reached high yield from crops of seed producers. The average yield harvested from 16 rainfed fields in Parana and five in Rio Grande do Sul, was 3.4 and 3.3 T/ha, respectively. OR 1 produced 5.5 T/ha under irrigation.

PANNAR (PTY) LTD.

P.O. Box 17164, Bainsvlei, 9338, South Africa.

F. du Toit, S.S. Walters, A.S. Jacobs, A. Brummer, and P. Thorpe.

High yields in the Free State province in the 1996 season resulted from favorable rainfall and lower than normal temperatures during grain filling. Snow also contributed to high yields in the eastern Free State.

Winter wheat program.

Entry 9413 did exceptionally well in the winter wheat trials. This line was provisionally released in 1996 and will be submitted for final release in 1997. The mean yield of 9413 was 5 % higher than the mean yield of the best check, Tugela DN.

Spring wheat program.

The spring wheat line 94LE12, which was provisionally released in 1996, did well again in irrigated elite trials in the norther Cape in 1996. The line yielded 3.5 % and 5 % higher than the cultivars Palmiet and Kariega, respectively.

Russian wheat aphid.

The line 9316 was provisionally released in 1996. 9316 has good RWA resistance and yields comparable to the cultivar Betta DN. The line will be submitted for final release in 1997. A number of RWA-resistant, backcross-derived lines with PAN 3211 as the recurrent parent will be tested in elite trials in 1997.

Personnel.

Bertus Jacobs joined Pannar in April, 1996, as a junior breeder and is working in the winter wheat program. He completed his M.S. degree in Plant Pathology at the Free State University in 1996.

PIONEER HI-BRED INTERNATIONAL, INC.

Worldwide Wheat Research: Johnston, IA, USA.

Ian B. Edwards.

Varietal development.

The following varieties achieved commercial status in 1996 (^*officially registered):

U.S. - 25R26 and 25R57 (SRWW), 25W33 (SWWW).

Canada - 25R57 and 2540 (SRWW, interim support for registration received January, 1997).

Spain^* - Edwardo, Argento, Abuelo, Abrego, and Camelo (HSW); Dedalo (durum wheat); and Jivago, Soprano, Costanzo, and Tramino (winter wheat).

Italy^* - Olimpo (durum wheat).

Austria^* - Victo and Jivago (winter wheat).

In addition, three winter wheat varieties (Palio, Nogaro, and Soprano) were advanced to second year registration in France.

Hybrid wheat research.

Our program continues to evaluate large numbers of new top-cross hybrids and female inbred development takes place within defined heterotic pools. Several key inbreds are currently under field increase in 1996-97. The goal of the program is to deliver superior hybrid performance and value-added traits via a reliable, cost-effective hybrid delivery system.

Staff changes.

Graham Urquhart joined our U.K. research staff as a research associate at the Blissworth (Northampton) station. He had worked previously for 6 years for Twyford Seeds, Banbury, in agronomy and seed multiplication.

Phil Shields, assistant station manager at St. Matthews, SC, left Pioneer in December, 1996, and has moved to Salisbury, MD.

Robert Marchand, research associate at Frouville, France, resigned after 7 years in order to manage his own farm. He was replaced by Eli Guillard, formerly a Pioneer alfalfa program research associate.

In 1996, Pioneer closed its spring and durum wheat breeding operation in Spain in order to focus research efforts on the key European seed markets. Durum work will continue in Italy and southern France. We acknowledge the excellent work of our former station manager, Jose-Maria Urbano, and research associates Maximiliano Hidalgo and Manuel Pienada.

Windfall, IN, USA.

Gregory C. Marshall, William J. Laskar, Kyle J. Lively, Robert L. Clarkson, and Gary P. Off.

The 1995-96 season. Very dry weather and soil conditions favored wheat planting across our testing region. Though most of the wheat was planted near the optimum date, dry conditions delayed emergence as much as 2 weeks later than normal. Most areas received only light, if any, rains during this period, resulting in erratic emergence and little plant growth in the autumn and followed by an early winter with little additional growth and very little cold hardening. Severe drops in temperature in January and February resulted in widespread winterkill across our testing region; from Missouri; southern Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio; and up through Michigan. The level of winterkill was high, even in varieties of average winter hardiness. Though a lot of wheat was destroyed, the spring of 1996 was about as favorable as possible for recovery of the wheat. Many thin wheat stands that looked too damaged to save, tillered, and filled in enough to make for even better-than-average yields in some cases.

Although it had been several seasons since we had observed such a widespread and high level of winterkill, there was a lot of tender material that was significantly damaged. We were able to obtain excellent winter hardiness data (Table 1), and selection pressure on all generations of breeding material was good.

By heading time, the weather had turned wet, hot, and humid, resulting in the second straight year with high levels of FHB in many areas, although not as widespread as in 1995. The level of infection across the range of variety maturities was not as uniform as in 1995 either. Unfortunately, many of the varieties that survived and recovered from the winter the best were hit the hardest with the high scab pressure (Table 1).

Table 1. Fusarium head scab ratings for 1995 and 1996, and winter hardiness ratings in 1996 ⁽scale: 9 = best, 1 = worst).

The field data we collected tend to confirm the results of our greenhouse inoculation technique, with the association between field and greenhouse data being the strongest for those lines with specific sources of resistance.

New releases. Two SRWW varieties, 25R26 and 25R57, and a SWWW variety, 25W33, were released in August of 1996. These varieties will be commercially available in the autumn of 1997. 25R26 is an awned, medium-late heading variety, with excellent winter hardiness, resistance to leaf rust and soilborne mosaic virus, and better than average scab tolerance. 25R57 is an awnless, medium-early variety, with excellent winter hardiness, test weight, and milling and baking qualities. 25W33 is an awned, medium heading, soft white wheat variety, with excellent powdery mildew resistance and very good milling and baking qualities.

St. Matthews, South Carolina, USA.

Benjamin E. Edge and Phil Shields.

The 1995-96 season. The 1995-96 season began well, with smooth planting. Heavy rains and cool temperatures hindered wheat development during the winter in Virginia and North Carolina. Wheat in South Carolina and Georgia progressed very well, until two cold snaps froze early lines back to the ground in much of South Carolina in February and March. There was very little disease pressure. Insect pressure was another matter, the cereal leaf beetle was severe in some areas of North Carolina, and Hessian fly caused significant damage in some plots in Belhaven, NC.

Dry weather between heading and harvest shortened the grain-fill period and further hurt yields in South Carolina and Georgia. North Carolina continued to be wet, and test weights suffered accordingly. Still, yields were average to above average over most of the east coast. Our elite yield test averaged 77.3 bu/acre. Late-maturing lines tended to outperform the early-maturing lines damaged by the winter freezes. In the upper mid-South, head scab again was prevalent, although not as bad as in prior years.

With our reduced staff numbers and the maturing of our program, we looked to reduce our program size somewhat. We accomplished that in part by reducing the number of headrows by 21 %, from 78,424 in 1995-96 to 61,721 going into 1996-97. Most of this reduction was at the F₃ stage. We also plan to make fewer crosses in the future.

We had one line in increase at Mt. Vernon, IN, but it was hit hard by the winter. Although there was a backup at St. Matthews, a year of production was lost. We turned over three new lines to our Supply Management Department for increase.

Technology. Pioneer switched from a VAX-mainframe with dedicated terminals to a PC-based system during the year.

Frouville, France.

Guy Dorlencourt, Steven Bentley, Elie Guillard, and Quitterie Vanderpol.

The 1995-96 season. A nice planting season was followed by low rainfall during a mild winter. Final tillering was better than expected at the end of winter, because of cool temperatures and good rainfall during May and June.

There was little or no natural disease infection. There was some S. tritici in the north. Stripe rust began early in the south, but caused only minimal damage as it was well-controlled by fungicides. In the south, leaf rust also came late and could have reduced the yield potential of susceptible varieties. The overall disease attack was not important. Even in our inoculated disease nursery, we had little stripe rust and no S. nodorum. The difference between our treated and untreated plots was 1 to 2 MT/ha lower than normal. Finally, 1996 was a record harvest year with 7.26 MT/ha, 6 % better than our previous record year in 1991. Grain proteins reached 12.2, which is 1 point better than average.

Test sites remain the same, four in the north and four in the south, and are managed from our main station. We also continue to support and supply seed to test adapted material at four locations in Germany, four in Austria and four in northern Italy.

We have increased the number of quality tests that are made in our central laboratory in Germany at Buxtehude, but we continue to make SDS, mixograph, and glutenin electrophoresis tests in France.

Varietal development. Jivago, Costanzo, Tramino, and Soprano were registered in northern Spain after only 1 year of official testing, because of their exceptional performance. In France, Nogaro, Soprano, and Palio were accepted in second-year testing, and we selected six new lines to enter first-year official testing in 1997. Victo continued its good performance over a wide area, performing very well in the south of France, northern Italy, northern Spain, Austria, and southern Germany.

We continue to use our greenhouse to speed generations and to cross material for our different projects in Europe.

Sissa (near Parma), Italy.

Mauro Tanzi.

The 1995-96 growing season. Plantings were completed in October and November in dry soil conditions in most regions. Plant emergence was delayed, and in the worst cases, the density of plants was reduced. Winter was quite mild in the northern regions, without significant effect or damage to facultative-type varieties or durum. Septoria and Fusarium had a strong development during a rainy spring (May and June). Particularly, FHB affected the production of bread wheat in both quality and quantity. Brown rust attacks on durum wheat crops were consistent in some areas of central Italy. The total hectarage of bread and durum wheat increased in 1996 (compared to 1995), by 1.9 % and 3.1 %, respectively.

Varietal development. Seven yield trial locations were planted throughout northern and central Italy, testing elite bread and durum wheat lines from the Pioneer French, Spanish, and U.S. breeding programs. One location with durum wheat lines was lost because of poor emergence (drought conditions) and difficulties in weed control. We have increased strip trial evaluations, particularly of the bread-wheat Victo. Victo had a more than a 10 % yield advantage over the check in 38 paired comparisons.

A new durum wheat variety, Olimpo, successfully completed the registration process, and it is now included in the national varieties recommendation list. Olimpo has excellent gluten quality and received a special mention certificate after a 2-year participation in the `Barilla durum wheat award.' One new durum wheat was entered into first-year registration trials. Seed was increased for the following four varieties: Preco, Bracco, Olimpo, and Colorado.

Evaluation of the different durum grain qualities was done with the cooperation of some of the main pasta manufacturers such has Agnesi and Barilla, including the Pioneer station labs at Sevilla (Spain) and Buxtehude (Germany). Bread wheat lines also were evaluated in private-mill labs.

Multiplication of foundation seed of the variety Victo was on a small hectarage base. We began sales of R₁ seed of Victo to seed multipliers and distributors during the summer of 1996.
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