The 2010 results of the Uniform Wheat Variety Trials have been posted. Variety trial information from all locations can be found at www.varietytesting.tamu.edu/wheat.
The trials, funded in part by the Texas Wheat Producers Board, provide growers with an accurate depiction of wheat variety performance within a specific region and under varying environments.
Earlier this week Monstanto Company announced it is expanding its strong seeds and traits portfolio to include wheat.
The company has acquired the assets of WestBred, LLC, a Montana-based company that specializes in wheat germplasm, the crop’s seed genetic material. The investment will bolster the future growth of Monsanto’s seeds and traits platform and allow farmers to benefit from the company’s experience in drought-, disease- and pest-tolerance innovations.
“The U.S. wheat industry has come together to call for new technology investment, and we believe we have game-changing technologies – like our drought-tolerance and improved-yield traits – that can meaningfully address major challenges wheat growers face every season,” said Carl Casale, executive vice president of global strategy and operations for Monsanto. “Through WestBred, we’ll be able to deliver advances in breeding and biotechnology to deliver a step-change in yield while creating a springboard for new partnerships and collaboration opportunities that create additional value for farmers.”
Additional details about the announcement can be found at www.monsanto.com/wheat.
The wheat industry followed the announcement with the following statement:
The U.S. wheat industry welcomes the announcement today by Monsanto that it will restart its investment in research on development of biotechnology traits in wheat.
The research challenges facing wheat are well known, as is the importance of this crop to world food supplies. This announcement comes at a time when basic research into agronomic improvements to wheat is critically needed.
Over the past months and years, we have repeatedly voiced our support for biotechnology and outlined appropriate conditions for commercialization. We have also pressed trait providers to examine this issue carefully.
The industry is pleased that Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences, as well as publicly-funded institutions such as the Kansas Innovation Center for Advanced Plant Design and CSIRO in Australia, have recently announced new wheat research investments, and we urge other organizations to follow suit.
– From U.S. Wheat Associates
Monsanto Company and BASF scientists have unveiled the discovery that a naturally occurring gene can help corn plants combat drought conditions and confer yield stability during periods of inadequate water supplies.
The companies said they would use the gene in their first-generation drought-tolerant corn product designed to provide yield stability to their farmer customers. This will be the first biotechnology-derived drought-tolerant crop in the world, targeted for commercial release as early as 2012 pending appropriate regulatory approvals. Both companies also recently announced that they have completed regulatory submissions for cultivation in the U.S. and Canada and for import to Mexico, the European Union, and Colombia. Submissions in other import markets will follow in the months to come.
In the U.S., such drought-prone areas overlap traditional wheat production regions including the much of the Great Plains. In field trials conducted there in 2008, drought-tolerant corn met or exceeded the 6 percent to 10 percent target yield enhancement in some of the key U.S. drought-prone areas.
“We know with certainty that drought-tolerant corn will replace more wheat planted area along the eastern edge of the Great Plains wheat producing region,” said USW Vice President John Oades. “The per-acre profit potential of corn frequently exceeds that of wheat where late spring and summer rainfall is adequate to produce corn yields. The Great Plains have traditionally been ‘wheat country’ due to inadequate rainfall to produce competitive corn yields. Drought tolerant corn will change that picture and further expand producer interest in biotech drought tolerance in wheat.”
