Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 8, 2016)
8 CapitalPress.com July 8, 2016 WSU wheat breeders share Vogel chair Carter, Pumphrey lauded for ‘pristine’ support for growers By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press LIND, Wash. — Washing- ton State University’s win- ter wheat breeder and spring wheat breeder will share an endowed chair position to improve wheat breeding and genetics. Arron Carter and Mike Pumphrey were named co-re- cipients of the Orville A. Vo- gel Endowed Chair during a ield day at the dryland re- search station June 16 in Lind, Wash. Funded by the Washington Grain Commission, the joint endowment supports Carter’s and Pumphrey’s work to solve emerging issues and breed better wheat for the state’s growers. The commission es- tablished the endowment in 1998 to advance Vogel’s leg- acy. Carter and Pumphrey ex- Matthew Weaver/Capital Press Kim Kidwell, executive associate dean of Washington State University’s College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences, announces that winter wheat breeder Arron Carter and spring wheat breeder Mike Pumphrey will share the university’s Orville A. Vogel Endowed Chair in Wheat Breeding and Genetics position June 16 during the ield day at the dryland research station in Lind, Wash. pect to hire research associ- ates to help use new technol- ogy in the winter and spring breeding programs. “There’s a lot of this new technology that’s coming along,” Carter said. “A lot of effort needs to go into mak- ing sure it will be viable in a breeding program for selec- tion over what we currently do.” “Basically just do more and better of what we’ve al- ready been doing,” Pumphrey said. “It will allow us to work with a lot of things we and others have discovered over the last several years, and implement those in a way we weren’t able to before.” Vogel, a USDA wheat breeder and agronomist from 1931 to 1972, dedicated his career to developing wheat varieties. He led development at WSU of the irst commer- cially successful semi-dwarf wheat varieties, which paved the way for the “Green Rev- olution” of increased global wheat production in the mid- 20th century, according to WSU. “They changed the way we grew wheat in the region, because you could actually apply fertilizer to those plants and they didn’t get so tall that they fell over,” said Kim Kid- well, executive associate dean of the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences. “That became a world phenomenon.” The endowment requires its chair to continue Vogel’s legacy — enhancing the uni- versity’s wheat variety devel- opment program through the latest techniques in cultivar development and training stu- dents in wheat breeding and genetics. “It’s completely important that the individuals named to this chair are accomplished sci- entists, wheat breeders, leaders and outstanding collaborators with their college,” Kidwell said. “In the spirit of Dr. Vogel, who worked every day tireless- ly to serve farmers, these two gentlemen do that every day as well. Their interest, intention and support for this industry is just pristine. They do the things Vogel would have done. The sky’s the limit in what will hap- pen next.” “We’re pleased WSU made the decision to desig- nate them as co-chairs,” said Glen Squires, CEO of the grain commission. “They’ve contributed a lot to the in- dustry so far. Those funds and that designation will reap great beneits for the wheat in- dustry into the future.” Kulvinder Gill, professor in crop and soil sciences, was named the irst chair in 2002 and held the position until 2014. Despite a better wheat outlook this year, issues cloud the horizon By ERIC MORTENSON Heat hurries wheat Capital Press PORTLAND — Wheat yields and protein levels should return to normal in the Paciic Northwest this summer after a couple dry, hot years, the Oregon Wheat Commission chief executive told international buyers. Speaking at the Latin American and Caribbean Wheat Buyers Conference, hosted by U.S. Wheat Associ- ates, Blake Rowe explained the region’s standards for the soft white wheat it exports to the world. Rowe said soft white va- rieties have to attain good yields, mill well, stand up to weather stress and resist dis- eases and pests. “A good wheat variety has to have all of them or it doesn’t pass our test for what constitutes a good va- riety,” he said during a pre- sentation last month. More than 70 buyers and milling and bakery represen- tatives attended the confer- ence in Portland. Attendees came from Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guate- mala, Venezuela, Peru and elsewhere throughout Cen- tral and South America, plus Haiti and Trinidad and Toba- go. Pacific Northwest grow- ers primarily export wheat to Asia, but hope to expand sales in Latin America. To that end, Northwest and U.S. wheat officials escorted the international buyers on tours of the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, which provides product testing and development, to an export grain elevator and a seed plant, and to the Columbia Basin wheat farm of Darren Padget, chair of the Oregon Wheat Commission. The body of the con- ference, held in downtown Portland, included multi- ple presentations on topics ranging from transporta- tion and pricing issues to wheat breeding and blending trends. Rowe, the Oregon Wheat Commission CEO, described the process by which new By GEORGE PLAVEN EO Media Group Capital Press ile Wheat buyers from South America and the Caribbean region received a brieing on all things wheat during a visit last month in Portland. soft white wheat varieties are introduced in the region. He said the benchmark is the Stevens variety which, although not widely grown now, is well known in the re- gion. It’s grown in test plots alongside new varieties to eliminate field differences, and new varieties are given a score based on grain, milling and baking quality compared to Stevens. Those scores are used to rank varieties as most desir- able, desirable, acceptable or least desirable, Rowe said. The scores are published each year so growers can choose what to plant. A high percentage of Pa- cific Northwest growers use certified seed, Rowe said. Growers aim to produce wheat that will be accept- able to the most sensitive markets. “For us, those are Japan, Korea and Taiwan,” Rowe said. “They have the toughest standards to meet.” Rowe said regional grain elevators test wheat on arriv- al from growers and separate it by protein levels. Gener- ally, Pacific Rim customers want low protein levels in the soft white wheat they mill for crackers, cookies, noodles and other products. Ryan Statz, a merchant with Columbia Grain Inc. in Portland, told the buyers how wheat and other crops move through the compa- ny’s export facility. The company has about 60 el- evators throughout the Pa- cific Northwest, Midwest and into Montana, and has a combined storage capacity of 1.3 million metric tons. In addition to wheat, Co- lumbia Grain exports corn, soybeans, peas, canola and other crops, Statz said. “We service some of the most quality driven buyers on the planet,” he said. Most products bound for the export market arrive in Portland by rail, Statz said, but two-thirds of the soft white wheat arrives by barge. The up-river eleva- tor and barge system on the Columbia and Snake rivers is cheaper and more reliable than rail, he said. “Following up-river load- ing, we can estimate almost to the hour when it will be in Portland,” Statz said. Statz said the Columbia and Snake system will be Wheat harvest is starting uncharacteristically early across parts of Eastern Or- egon. Don Wysocki, a soil scientist with Oregon State University Extension Ser- vice in Umatilla County, said farmers are already cut- ting wheat in ields west of Pendleton, which is about two weeks earlier than nor- mal. In years past, Wysoc- ki said it was unusual to see anyone harvest winter wheat before the Fourth of July. But following a par- ticularly mild winter, he said this year’s crop ma- tured well ahead of sched- ule. Three straight years of drought haven’t helped, either. “It’s really the heat that drives maturity,” Wysocki said. “Things are just early because of the winter we’ve had.” Temperatures around Pendleton averaged about 5 degrees higher than usual in February and 3 degrees higher than usual in March, according to the National Weather Service. Another major heat wave arrived at the beginning in June, with temperatures in the high 80s to 100 degrees that turned wheat from green to gold. Wysocki said it’s too ear- ly to predict what yields will look like, and it will depend on where exactly the ield is located. Areas west of Pend- leton — with less annual rainfall and shallower soils — might come in below shut down from Dec. 12 to March 20 for 14 weeks of lock repairs and upgrades. There will be no barge traf- fic during that time, mean- ing supplies will be ham- pered and prices likely will be higher, he acknowledged. But he said the repairs are “absolutely necessary” and average, while farms farther north and east appear to be doing much better. “I think some people will cut an above-average crop this year,” Wysocki said. Larry Lutcher, who works with OSU Exten- sion Service in Morrow County, said harvest is run- ning about 10 days ahead of schedule near Ione and north of Lexington. He ex- pected more farmers will ire up their combines after July 4. “It was the heat earlier in the growing season,” he said. “That, and four years of less-than-average rain- fall.” The county did, how- ever, receive an inch and a half of rain in May, which Lutcher said has gone a long way toward saving this year’s wheat. Without it, he said yields could have been as low as they were a year ago, when some farms struggled to cut even half their usual crop. As it is, Lutcher said it appears they’ll have any- where between 28 and 35 bushels per acre, which is close to average for local growers. “I think it will be better than last year,” Lutcher said. The concern now is that there’s little moisture left stored in the soil for next year, Lutcher said. In order to buck the trend, they need ample winter precipitation and timely May and June rains. “That just hasn’t hap- pened in recent years,” he said. “That’s why we’re struggling.” represent a “short term loss and a long term gain.” Overall, Statz said many in the business expect a much larger wheat crop this year with a good range of protein levels due to nearly ideal planting and growing conditions. Experts forecast lower prices, which could help U.S. exports compete. But he said Australia, Cana- da and Russia also appear to have good crops this year. Other speakers included Glen Weaver, a research fel- low with Ardent Mills. The company formed in 2013 as a joint venture of Cargill, ConAgra Foods and CHS Inc. Weaver walked the audi- ence through a food security “reality check” of the next 34 years, with the world popu- lation projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. Water, land, chemical use, food safety and a dis- trust of big science and big ag are all geopolitical issues, he said. “You’re in a very complex business,” Weaver reminded the international buyers. Trust and transparency are crucial to agricultural busi- nesses, he said. Consumers are being led by activists, he said, and there’s “certainly a lot of chatter going on out there that every company has to be considerate of.” “If you want to have a positive impact on how people view you, why not help out the organic sec- tor,” Weaver said. If 10 to 15 percent of the population chooses to buy organic prod- ucts, “it’s too big to ignore,” he said. Weaver predicted industry will have to “belly up” more to help fund crop research, and government support for such work will decline. That will require an evolving public-private relationship. While the current focus of most crop breeding work is productivity, there will be more emphasis on functional and health traits, he said. Biotech wheat is likely, he said. “Every 10 years I hear it’s 10 years out,” he said. “As technology evolves, you’re gong to see that tech- nology make some changes, definitely in the grain indus- try. “You have to ask your- self, what is the plan you have to strive for over the next decade or so,” Weaver said. “What’s next? What’s coming around the corner?” New Limagrain wheat breeder seeks to beneit farmers By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press 28-1/#18 Jay Kalous recently took over as the Limagrain cereal seeds breeder in Waitsburg, Wash. He replaces Jean-Bru- no Beaufume, who leaves in July to be head of research for Limagrain Asia in Bangkok, Thailand. “(Limagrain said) ‘Our job is really to make sure that we’re putting more money in the producer’s pocket,’ and that resonated with me, for sure,” Kalous said. Kalous will lead winter and spring wheat breeding efforts in soft white and hard red market classes. “There’s just maybe a few holes we’re looking to shore up,” he said. Kalous planned to highlight Limagrain varieties at a ield day in Waitsburg last week, in- cluding Jet, a hard red wheat, and soft white wheat variety Norwest Duet, for dryland re- gions. He hopes to provide more options for low-rainfall zones, and is interested in working on wheat coleoptile length for farmers who use a deep-fur- row drill. The coleoptile is the protective sheath around the shoot tip and embryonic leaves of grain.