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March 10, 2017 CapitalPress.com 3 Perennial grain offers westside farmers options By MARGARETT WATERBURY On the Cover For the Capital Press New Tritipyrum crosses grow in a field last summer. Photo courtesy of Colin Curwen-McAdams Courtesy of Washington State University Graduate research assistant Colin Curwen-McAdams displays the new wheat-wheatgrass hybrid species, Tritipyrum aaseae. ple interested in the flavor and the story. They want the food they’re producing to be reflective of agricultural and environmental steward- ship,” he says. For example, one line of Tritipyrum has a blue-green seed color. S17-7/#7 itized regional adaptation. The team is currently work- ing with numerous lines from stable crosses of bread wheat and Thinopyrum, but devel- oping a truly robust perennial remains elusive. “It’s still a challenge to get something a farmer can real- ly count on in the field, es- pecially in cold winters like this one,” Curwen-McAdams says. Researchers have been multipurpose perennial grain crop remains tantalizing for researchers and west-of-the- Cascades growers. Support from buyers such as brewers, maltsters and bakers has also buoyed the project. “There are a lot of peo- SERIES 3120R 3520R 3510H 4020R 4525R 4720H 6640 8050 Model 4020R 24 - 80 hp., 4 wheel drive Compact Synchro-Shuttle; Hydro 24, 28, 35, 47hp THE TRACTOR STORE (541) 342-5464 5450 W. 11 th , Eugene, OR S17-7/#5 MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — Colin Cur- wen-McAdams is a Ph.D. candidate working under Stephen Jones at Washington State University. He’s spent the last sever- al years working on breed- ing projects that attempt to create a perennial grain crop by making crosses between wheat and wheatgrass. Just don’t call it perennial wheat. “We’re not calling it perennial wheat,” Cur- wen-McAdams laughs. “When I say that, people think they know what I’m talking about. Perennial wheat, this magical crop of wheat that grows back, like a fairy tale. Perennial wheat is a wonderful idea. But there’s no alignment between that and what I’m actually work- ing with.” The new crop is called Tritipyrum, a fusion of the scientific names of its par- ents, Triticum (wheat) and Thinopyrum (wheatgrass). Its goal is to meet the needs of Western Washington and Oregon farmers in need of a grain for their rotational pro- gram. “Here in the Skagit Valley, there are a lot of high-value crops in rotation, and nobody is primarily a grain farmer,” Curwen-McAdams says. “People here don’t really want to grow wheat. What they want is a grain in their rotation to add organic mat- ter, break up soil tilth after heavy cultivation, and reduce the amount of tillage in years they’re not growing heavy- till crops. And, we want it to have utility as a grain crop as well as a feed and forage crop for livestock.” The new crosses have been made primarily at Washington State Universi- ty’s Mount Vernon Research and Extension Center, and selection rounds have prior- trying for about 100 years to breed perennial grain crops by hybridizing wheat with perennial relatives. “The fact that we’re not surrounded by them tells you how difficult that is,” Cur- wen-McAdams says. Yet the dream of a hardy, S17-7/#7
