GrainGenes

AGRIPRO WHEAT

Northern Plains Hard Red Spring Wheat, 806 N. Second Street, P.O. Box 30, Berthoud, CO 80513, USA.
Southern Plains Hard Winter Wheat, 12167 Hwy 70, P.O. Box 1739, Vernon, TX 76385, USA.
Central Plains Hard Winter Wheat, 6515 Ascher Road, Junction City, KS 66441, USA.
Northern Soft Red Winter Wheat, P.O. Box 411, 520 E. 1050, South Brookston, IN 47923, USA.
Southeastern Soft Red Winter Wheat, P.O. Box 2365, Jonesboro, AR 72402, USA.

AgriPro Wheat develops wheat varieties for virtually all classes of wheat grown in the United States and Canada. Headquarters are located in Berthoud, CO.

AgriPro Wheat is a business unit of Advanta, BV and is comanaged by Rob Bruns, David Worrall, and Rollin Sears. Rob is the general manager and handles business and strategy. David and Rollin are responsible for research and development and strategy. Bill Kuntz is the national sales manager and is located at Berthoud with Rob Bruns. Rick Novak is in charge of the foundation seed program and also is stationed in Berthoud.

AgriPro Wheat is divided into regional business teams composed of a senior wheat breeder and a regional business manager. These two individuals are responsible for regional product development and market strategies. Presently, we are marketing 48 different wheat varieties adapted to the wheat-growing regions in the U.S. or Canada. AgriPro Wheat is dedicated to creating a successful seed alliance with technology providers, milling companies, and seed associates that ultimately provide wheat growers with significant value derived from wheat seed.

Southern plains hard winter wheat. The southern plains hard winter wheat project is headquartered in Vernon, TX. The staff consists of David Worrall, David Graf (regional business manager), and Bradley Burkett.

New facilities were finished in May, 2001, which include offices, seed labs, cold storage, greenhouses, equipment storage, and repair facilities. Approximately 120 acres of irrigated land is available for research work and wheat-breeding nurseries. Breeding efforts will be focused at wheat-growing regions in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Primary emphasis will be placed on developing 'dual-use' wheat varieties capable of performing when cattle graze in the autumn and winter and grain production is then required after grazing has been completed. Varieties adapted to this management system require vigorous forage growth during the vegetative phase, excellent disease resistance, and good recovery from grazing allowing for high grain-yield potential.

Two new HRWWs will be released to AgriPro associates in the autumn of 2002. AgriPro Cutter is adapted from central Texas to southern Kansas. Cutter has good disease resistance, is medium early, and has a good test weight. AgriPro Cutter has good milling and baking characteristics. AgriPro Jagalene is adapted to the high plains of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and parts of South Dakota. This variety is short with good straw strength and will be competitive under both dryland and irrigated conditions. Jagalene has good disease resistance, very good drought tolerance, and excellent test-weight patterns. AgriPro Jagalene has excellent milling and baking characteristics.

Central plains hard winter wheat. The central plains winter wheat project is located in Junction City, KS. The staff consists of Rollin Sears; Charles Johnson (regional sales manager); and research assistants John Robbens, Jon Rich, and Harold Erichsen.

New facilities were completed in May, 2001, which include an office building, seed and molecular labs, greenhouses, and equipment and seed storage buildings. Approximately 110 acres of highly productive ground is available for wheat research and wheat-breeding nurseries. Breeding efforts will be focused on the Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and South Dakota wheat-growing regions. Active programs exist for both HRWW and HWWW. Presently HRWWs are released through our AgriPro associate network and distributed to growers. All HWWWs have been released under contract production and have been grown identity preserved.

AgriPro Cutter and AgriPro Jagalene also will be distributed to central plains associates in the autumn of 2002.

Northern plains hard red spring wheat. The HRSW project is headquartered at Berthoud, CO. The staff consists of a senior breeder Joe A. Smith; regional business manager Dennis Tweed; and research assistants Scott Seifert, Linda Sizemore, and Bill Schabinger.

In 2001, we had three sites in central/western North Dakota and five sites in the Red River Valley. Breeding nurseries were located at Casselton and Park River, ND. Cool, early season conditions made the crop lush and taller than normal. Heavy lodging was experienced on early-planted sites in the valley. Data was inconsistent between planting dates. A moderate scab infection at Park River was useful in our screening for this disease. Foliar disease was heavy at most sites.

Norpro will be released to farmers in 2002. This variety is a semidwarf with strong straw strength, which many farmers will be looking for in the upcoming season. Norpro has exhibited a good combination of high yield and medium-high protein. It appears well adapted to the entire Northern Plains. With average tolerance to scab, Norpro should be managed accordingly to reduce infections.

We have two new varieties under production, Knudson and Hanna. These will be available to farmers in 2003. Knudson offers consistent yield and broad adaptation. Hanna has a Canadian background and looks to be a good replacement for Gunner in our AgriPro lineup due to its earlier maturity and more consistent performance. Both of these varieties have above-average tolerance to scab.

We had anticipated the release of two Clearfield® varieties in 2002, but much to our disappointment, the present herbicide tolerance in spring wheats was deemed unsatisfactory. This decision was made jointly by BASF and all of its partners in Clearfield spring wheat development. Presently, we have an accelerated breeding effort to incorporate stronger herbicide tolerance in our spring wheat materials.

Canadian hard red spring wheat. This effort is through a joint wheat development agreement between Agricore United of Canada and AgriPro Wheat. The brand name for Agricore United is Proven Seed. Proven Seed research staff consists of Kevin McCallum who is located at the Proven Research Farm in Morden, Manitoba, and Jim Dyck who is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Breeding emphasis has been 75 % and 25 % on the CWRS and CPS classes, respectively. We also are developing herbicide tolerant varieties for the Clearfield-production system in both classes.

The breeding nursery is located at the Proven research farm in southern Manitoba. We have had consistent leaf rust and scab infections at this site over the past 8 years. In the 2001 season, we had four sites in Manitoba and three sites in Saskatchewan. The season gave us excess precipitation in Manitoba and excess drought in Saskatchewan. Yield results were mixed. Moderate scab infections were present at most Manitoba sites.

BW256 (CWRS) and HY962 (CPS) were supported for registration in 2001. Proven Seed has adopted a numbering system on varietal releases. BW256 has been named 5601HR and HY962 named 5701PR. Other recent varieties, which have been registered, include 5600HR, 5500HR, and 5700PR.

Northern soft red winter wheat. The northern SRWW program is located in Brookston, IN. The staff consists of Curtis Beazer, (senior breeder), Don Eckoff (regional sales manager), and research assistants Dayna Scruggs and Eugene Glover.

The AgriPro Wheat northern SRWW program has made several changes to improve variety development for wheat adapted to the eastern corn-belt and Atlantic regions. In the autumn of 2001, Agripro Wheat northern SRWW research relocated to the Brookston, IN, research station. Lab and work area remodeling has been completed and construction of a new wheat greenhouse will be completed for autumn 2002. Along with this move, the main breeding site has been relocated to highly productive soils where varieties such as Twain, Sawyer, and Patton were bred. The new site also has equipment for irrigated nurseries allowing for research on improved sprout and fusarium resistance.

Eugene Glover has joined the team as a research specialist bringing over 15 years of seed breeding experience. He will be responsible for management of all testing sites. Testing will continue to be conducted in the double crop and rotation areas of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

AgriPro Mitchell was released as registered seed in 2000 to associate marketers and sold as certified seed in the autumn of 2001. AgriPro Mitchell is a high-yielding, medium-maturity variety adapted to the double-crop and rotation areas of the eastern corn belt. AgriPro Mitchell has a unique plant type that works well in an interseeding cropping system. Plant tillering is erect and contained mostly in the drill row allowing for increased light penetration to emerging soybeans in an interseeding program. AgriPro Mitchell has very good test weight and excellent soft wheat milling characteristics.

AgriPro Wheat also has identified two special quality wheat varieties, AgriPro Hondo and AgriPro Charter, HRWWs with eastern U.S. adaptation. In partnership with ConAgra, an identity-preserved production system has been established for these two varieties.

Southeastern soft red winter wheat. The southeastern SRWW program is located in Jonesboro, AR. The staff consists of Barton Fogleman (senior breeder), Gary Moore (regional business manager), and research assistants Michael Montgomery and Christopher DeArmond.

Chris DeArmond has been a welcome addition to our breeding team for the southeast. We are preparing to build a new greenhouse for crossing and other research and are generally upgrading our facilities. The 2000-01 season was marked by a slight decline in overall acres in the southeastern U.S. Dry conditions in the autumn delayed planting in some areas and may be partly responsible for fewer acres being planted. As usual, once it began to rain, soils remained damp and growers who waited for moisture before planting were delayed even further. Although disease pressure was relatively light in the midsouth, grain yields were about 5 bu/acre less than those reported in the previous 2 years.

AgriPro Natchez is the name given to D95-7763. This new SRWW has shown adaptation to the midsouth and lower midwest U.S. Natchez has shown moderate resistance or better to many of the foliar diseases (leaf rust, stem rust, stripe rust, and S. nodorum and S. tritici) and to the soil virus complex (WSSMV/WSBMV). The variety is a medium-maturity wheat that seems to prefer the sandier or loamier soil types.

We are evaluating the release of three new Clearfield SRWWs and should be releasing one or more of these to growers in the autumn of 2002. We have begun an Identity Preserved wheat program in northern Alabama and central Georgia with a major milling company using the new AgriPro Charter special quality wheat. This variety will only be grown by producers who are participating in the IP program.

Pacific Northwest. Agripro Wheat has begun the initial steps necessary to establish a full-scale, varietal-development program for the Pacific Northwest. The staff consists of John Moffatt (senior breeder), Bob Knudson (regional sales manager), and senior assistant breeder Jim Hemerick. Presently, the breeding program is headquartered in Berthoud, CO. During the summer of 2002, a new location will be established in Washington.

Bob Knudson, longtime regional business manager for Agripro's spring wheat program, has retired from that position and has assumed the regional business manager role for the PNW. Dr. John Moffatt will take on the breeding and be working with Jim Hemerick, longtime AgriPro/Hybritech employee currently living in the Spokane, WA area. Current activities include screening wheats from existing Agripro hard wheat programs (both spring and winter), germ plasm base building for soft whites, and establishing familiarity with the region's diverse wheat-production requirements, researchers, producers, and seedsmen. Testing for the 2002 crop year consists of 12 locations ranging from Moses Lake, WA, to Blackfoot, ID.