Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, skledbetter@ag.tamu.edu
Contacts: Dr. Calvin Trostle, 806-746-6101, ctrostle@ag.tamu.edu
Dr. Jourdan Bell, 806-677-5600, jourdan.bell@ag.tamu.edu
Dr. Emi Kimura, 940-552-9941 ext. 233, emi.kimura@ag.tamu.edu
Dr. Clark Neely, 979-862-1412, cbneely@tamu.edu

AMARILLO – The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service has released its “Picks” of annual grain wheat varieties for the 2016-2017 cropping season in the High Plains and Rolling Plains.

Dr. Jourdan Bell, Dr. Calvin Trostle and Dr. Emi Kimura, AgriLife Extension agronomists from Amarillo, Lubbock and Vernon, respectively, along with statewide small grains and oilseed specialist Dr. Clark Neely, compiled the list of Picks.

“Our ongoing Picks criteria include a minimum of three years of data in AgriLife wheat variety trials across numerous annual locations within each region of Texas,” said Trostle. “As we have noted before, a Pick variety means this: Given the data, these are the varieties we would choose to include and emphasize on our farm for wheat grain production.”

The data are derived from High Plains wheat grain testing coordinated by the Texas A&M AgriLife wheat breeding program based at Amarillo. Irrigated and dryland test sites range from Lamesa to Stratford, including a test site at New Mexico State University-Clovis.

Picks are not necessarily the numerical top yielders, he said. Disease-resistance traits such as leaf or stripe rust or wheat streak mosaic virus, or insect tolerance for greenbugs, Hessian fly or Russian wheat aphid are important.

Standability can also be an important varietal trait that is an important consideration for high input production. Considering multiple traits in addition to yield potential enables a producer to better manage potential risk and better position specific varieties for their management, Bell said.

Among the top High Plains Picks are:

– Full irrigation – TAM 113, TAM 114, TAM 304, WB Grainfield, Iba and Winterhawk.

– Limited irrigation – TAM 111, TAM 112, TAM 113, TAM 114, WB Grainfield, Iba, T158 and Winterhawk.

– Dryland – TAM 111, TAM 112, TAM 113, TAM 114, WB Grainfield, Iba, T158 and Winterhawk.

“We initially discussed removing TAM 111 from our Picks list due to a modest decline in recent yields and its susceptibility to leaf and stem rust,” she said. “However, TAM 111 is still a top-yielding variety in our regional variety trials.

“So, for producers, as long as you understand that good management, which will include timely scouting for rusts and treatment if needed, is an important key for TAM 111, then it remains a good choice.”

TAM 114 has good across-the-board resistance to rusts, good straw strength, desirable milling and baking qualities, and also has intermediate resistance to some biotypes of Hessian fly, Bell said. WB Grainfield grain yields are good and key rust resistance is in place.

T158, a Limagrain product, is on the recommended list due to its tolerance to stripe rust under both dryland and limited irrigation.

On the two and three-year “watch list” are Gallagher, by Oklahoma State University, due to its good rust resistance, she said. Denali and Byrd, both from PlainsGold/Colorado State, show good yields and have generated discussion as possible Picks, though susceptibility to rusts is a concern.

“TAM 304 remains a viable choice for true high-input production systems with high irrigation, high nitrogen fertility applications, etc. where producers are shooting for yields at 100 bushels per acre or more,” Bell said.

Kimura said the Picks list for the Rolling Plains region includes Greer by Syngenta; TAM 114, Texas A&M; WB Cedar, Monsanto; Gallagher, Oklahoma State; WB 4458, Monsanto; and TAM 304, Texas A&M. Yields are obtained only from dryland trials in the Rolling Plains.

Bentley and SY Grit are on the “watch list” for the Rolling Plains. Both have moderate to good resistance to leaf and stripe rust and have performed reasonably well in yield trials the past two years. In their first year of testing, Monsanto’s WB 4721 and WB 4515 and Syngenta’s SY Southwind did well across the Rolling Plains in 2016.

She said a more complete discussion of each variety can be found athttp://bit.ly/2bd3PMM, including yield trends from past trials and photos of each variety taken during growing season in the Rolling Plains.

“Pick varieties with a minimum of three years under AgriLife testing in the High Plains continue to yield an average of 7-11 percent better as a group than all other varieties in both irrigated and dryland tests,” Trostle said.

“Though you may have a variety for your production conditions that you really like, we encourage you to include one of our Picks in your cropping. Perhaps a Pick variety that has a specific disease package, which may have been valuable in the stripe rust outbreaks of 2015 and 2016, or relative maturity that contrasts with your current variety would be a good complement to your overall program.”

For further discussion of wheat Pick varieties in the Texas High Plains consult “Pick Wheat Grain Varieties for the Texas High Plains and Eastern New Mexico (2016-2017)” available at http://lubbock.tamu.edu/ orhttp://bit.ly/1PjMAGL. The full report will include the two-, three- and four-year averages calculated for irrigated, dryland, yield and test weight.

More information will be posted by Neely on Picks for the Blacklands, South Texas and Lower Rio Grande Valley onhttp://varietytesting.tamu.edu/wheat/index.htm and titled Wheat Variety Grain Picks—Other Texas Regions.

AgriLife Research breeder expects releases within five years

Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, skledbetter@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Amir Ibrahim, 979-845-8274, aibrahim@ag.tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION – There’s growing interest in hybrid wheat and Dr. Amir Ibrahim, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research wheat breeder in College Station, believes the time is right to make it available.

Ibrahim has been working toward the development of hybrid wheat varieties since 2013, but wheat breeders first began looking at hybridization in wheat more than 50 years ago in the early 1960s, he said.

“The price for wheat was so low, and the cost for the hybrid seed was too high at the time,” he said. “Today we have a better handle on the genes and better prices and availability of genomic tools.”

And it is something that is needed, Ibrahim said. Wheat production yield potential has been leveling off and “this is one way to break that barrier.”

The performance of the TAM varieties of wheat developed by AgriLife Research’s wheat breeding team has been improving across the state and into other states with diverse climates, providing a solid base of germplasm.

Under a Monocot Improvement Initiative grant by AgriLife Research, as well as funding from the Texas Wheat Producers Board, Ibrahim is working with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to test more than 600 lines of hybrid wheat in Nebraska and Texas.

Ibrahim explained U.S. corn is a hybrid crop. The hybrid crops have increased vigor over the two parents in yield and other traits. There must be enough hybrid vigor, technically referred to as heterosis, to justify the increased costs of seed and production.

For wheat, past efforts have increased hybrid vigor about 10 percent, but Ibrahim said they want to get that figure in the range of 15-20 percent to make it attractive to producers.

He explained hybrid seed must be bought each year due to inbreeding depression and dilution of vigor associated with growing saved seed, so producers cannot save their seed and replant, as is commonly done now.

In hybrids, the female parent does not produce viable pollen, but is used as a seed plant, Ibrahim said. The male parent has the role of pollinator. Together they have the capacity to combine and express hybrid vigor.

Part of the problem has been the increased cost of seed. There are two systems for producing seed: chemical hybridization agents, which kill the anthers on the female; and the male sterility system, which includes breeding females and males separately and making selections based on the best combination.

The effort now is aimed at developing cytoplasmic male sterile females and male parents by breeding fertility restoration genes into them, he said. A minimum of three fertility restoration genes is needed in the males. This genetic system is very slow.

Hence, AgriLife Research and University of Nebraska-Lincoln are working on developing parents using a chemical system for suppressing pollen development in the females, Ibrahim said.

He said this does not require breeding male sterile genes in the female and restoration genes in the male pools, although both approaches are utilized in Ibrahim’s program.

“For successful hybrids, parents need to be genetically distant to maximize hybrid vigor, and that’s why AgriLife Research is collaborating with UNL, as the two institutions have divergent germplasm,” Ibrahim said. “If you cross same to same, you don’t get the hybrid vigor.”

He said they will continue to try new combinations every year and then will need to test the hybrids for several more years before anything is released.

“Within five years, I hope we can have the first commercially available hybrid seed available for producers,” Ibrahim said.

He said in addition to the field work, his team now has access to medium- to high-throughput genotyping, which will help them map the restoration genes and understand hybrid vigor at the molecular level. They are also screening the germplasm for the floral characteristics and for combining ability.

With the next generation sequencing technology, Ibrahim said they may be able to select for performance traits that can result in higher biomass and yield, drought tolerance, consistent performance, quality, disease resistance and agronomic adaptation, vigorous root system and increased production in low-fertility conditions.

October 07, 2015