ITEMS FROM THE UNITED STATES

 

IDAHO


UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO
Plant and Soil Science Department, Moscow, ID 83343, USA, and the Agricultural Experiment Station, P.O. Box AA, Aberdeen, ID 83210, USA

R. Zemetra, E. Souza, S. Guy, L. Robertson, B. Brown, N. Bosque-Perez, J. Hansen, K. O'Brien, M. Guttieri, D. Schotzko, Y. Wu, T. Koehler, L. Sorensen, J. Clayton, Z. Wang, and R. McLean.

Production. [p. 239]

The 2000 Idaho winter wheat production was 65.7 million bushels, a 22 % increase from 1999. The increase in production was due to a slight increase in acres harvested and an increase in average yield/acre to 90 bu/acre. The average bu/acre was about 10 % higher than the previous high for average yield/acre in the state. The increase in yield can be attributed to excellent autumn weather for plant establishment, a moderate winter for both moisture and temperature resulting in a minimum of winter injury and adequate early and mid-spring moisture for seed production. Lower than normal late spring and early summer moisture resulted in a low level of foliar diseases and little or no yield loss to disease. Statistics for the Idaho winter wheat production for the last 5 years are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Statistics for the Idaho winter wheat production for the last 5 years, 1995-1999.
 Year

 Acres planted

x 1,000

 Acres harvested

x 1,000

 Production

bu/A

 Yield (bushels)

x 1,000

 1996  900  860  80  68,800
 1997  920  870  80  69,600
 1998  820  770  82  63,140
 1999  760  710  76  53,960
 2000  780  730  90  67,700


Personnel. [p. 239]

Thomas Koehler joined the soft white winter wheat program as a research support scientist with primary responsibility for the field research program. Jennifer Hansen in the SWWW breeding program was promoted to research support scientist. Her primary areas of responsibility are in the laboratory and greenhouse aspects of the breeding program. Zhining Wang completed his Ph.D. on the potential of gene flow between wheat and jointed goatgrass.

 

Cultivar development. [p. 239-240]

The Aberdeen breeding program released the SWSW Jubilee. Jubilee is a medium-maturity irrigated wheat with good lodging resistance and yield comparable to that of Penawawa in southern Idaho. Jubilee was tested under the line number IDO525. The milling and baking quality of Jubilee is similar to or better than Treasure for American pastries.

 

Table 2. Mean yield performance of hard white winter wheats, southeastern Idaho, 1996-99.
 Cultivar  Class  Height (inches)  Grain yield (bu/acre)  Test weight (lb/bu)
 Weston  HRW  40  60  61.8
 Bonneville  HRW  39  59  61.7
 Utah 100  HRW  37  65  60.1
 Boundary  HRW  31  63  58.9
 IDO513  HRW  33  66  61.1
 ID0550  HWW  37  64  60.1
 Std. error    2  3  0.6

 

The Moscow breeding program decided to not release ID 10085-5 as a cultivar and will instead make it available as a germ plasm release. Soft white winter wheat usually has moderate RWA resistance, primarily antibiosis, but ID 10085-5 also shows some tolerance.

The SWWW breeding program in Moscow released the SWWW Hubbard. Hubbard is a tall, semi-dwarf winter wheat with good to excellent straw strength and was tested under the line number ID86-10420A. Hubbard has been the highest yielding SWWW in the northern Idaho extension trials over the past 3 years. The cultivar has been evaluated in the Pacific Northwest Wheat Quality Collaborative trial and was found to have the desired quality for several end-uses.

The advanced line ID-B-96 is planned for release in spring, 2001 as Brundage-96. ID-B-96 is a reselection from the cultivar 'Brundage' for improved stripe rust resistance. The level of stripe rust resistance present in Brundage-96 is equal to that found in resistance cultivars grown in the Pacific Northwest. Brundage-96 is an awnletted, short semidwarf with the same superior end-use quality as Brundage. Brundage-96 appears to have good winter hardiness for an early heading cultivar based on 1998-99 field data.

 

Hessian fly resistance. [p. 240]

Incorporation of diverse Hessian fly-resistance genes into spring wheat has continued in the breeding program at Aberdeen in an effort to develop cultivars with resistance to Hessian fly. Recent work has focused on the H3 and H25 genes, but the breeding program also is using the H5, H13, H18, and H22 genes. Virulence against the H3 gene has been detected in the northern Idaho Hessian fly population demonstrating the need to bring in additional genes for resistance. A Hessian fly colony established in the Manis Entomological Laboratory in Moscow in 1998 is being used to conduct resistance screening tests. Breeding lines and cultivars originating from crosses with the Hessian fly resistant HRSW WBP926 (H3) are being evaluated for fly resistance. In addition, soft white wheat lines derived from the crosses 'IDO470*2/WGRC20' (H25), 'IDO524*2/WGRC17' (H25), and 'IDO533*2/WGRC17' (H25) are being screened for resistance.

Biological risk. [p. 240]

Research on 'wheat/jointed goatgrass' hybrids and their backcross progenies demonstrated that prevention of hybrid and BC1 seed production is critical to reduce the potential for gene flow between wheat and jointed goatgrass (Ae. cylindrica). Once partial self-fertility is restored in the BC2 generation, the percent self-fertility rapidly increases in subsequent selfed generations. In situ hybridization with the C genome was found to be a good method to determine the paternity of BC1 seed found on 'wheat/jointed goatgrass' hybrids. This technique is currently being applied to determine the percent of jointed goatgrass backcrosses in field derived BC1 seed. Current research is evaluating the affect of genome location of transgenes in transfer and retention of genes from wheat to jointed goatgrass.

 

Publications. [p. 240-241]