Agricultural News
Demand Grows for OSU Wheat Varieties Marketed by OGI
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 12:39:45 CST
Final sales figures are yet to be compiled, but preliminary reports indicate the varieties produced by the Oklahoma State University hard red winter wheat breeding program and marketed through Oklahoma Genetics, Inc., did very well during this planting cycle.
Mark Hodges, executive director of OGI says there was a tremendous demand for the program's varieties.
"At the top of the list were Gallagher, Iba, Ruby Lee, Double Stop, which is Dr. Carver's new two-gene clear field technology wheat. He made the statement that he would have released Double Stop whether it had the two-gene clear field technology or not. It was that good. And that's exactly what we've seen and it's been extremely popular.
"Everyone that had any bushels of it at all this year had such high demand that they were looking for more. And, of course, obviously, that's where we want to be.
"We were very pleased with sales this last year. We don't have the final totals yet, but I can tell you that those newer varieties sold very, very well."
Hodges says that after all the final figures for sales have been tallied, OGI will be presenting a royalty check to OSU. Those funds will then be plowed back into the breeding program.
"This last year we wrote the check for $402,000. All of that passed overhead-what it cost us to do the marketing. It goes back into the university. The way it is designed to be split within the university is that 30 percent goes to intellectual properties, 20 percent goes to the Division of Agriculture, and 50 percent goes to Brett Carver and the breeding program. But the university since its inception has put their 20 percent and 30 percent, respectively, back into the breeding program as well. So, they believe in the program, obviously, or they wouldn't be investing the money back in it themselves. We're very happy with how it's going at this point."
Hodges says OGI was conceived to help support the wheat breeding program at a time when federal and state dollars to such programs were beginning to dry up. Even at this early stage, the project appears to be paying off in spades.
"We were looking for ways to shore up the public breeding program because we feel that's the only way producers are going to afford their investment in germplasm that they have had over the years. And, obviously, we've got the best wheat breeder in the world, bar none. And he's delivering."
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Mark Hodges speaking with Radio Oklahoma Network Farm Director Ron Hays.
Click here to visit the OGI website.
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