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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.