Agricultural News
State Wheat Breeder Brett Carver Talks Popular Variety Performance and What's New in the Pipeline
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 17:29:45 CDT
State Wheat Breeder and Chair of the Oklahoma Wheat Improvement Team, Dr. Brett Carver, presented on a few of the highlights from this year's wheat variety trials at the 2017 Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association Convention, in El Reno earlier this month. Carson Horn, Radio Oklahoma Ag Network associate farm director, caught up with Carver to find out his thoughts on some of the most popular wheat varieties he has developed. You can hear their entire conversation by clicking or tapping the LISTEN BAR below at the bottom of the page.
According to Carver, Bentley surprised his team this year, not showing the yield superiority they have come to expect over the last several years since Bentley was first released. He claims leaf rust is to blame.
"We did not expect that kind of leaf rust invasion," Carver admitted about this year's harsh encounter with the plant disease. "The length of exposure to the disease and also the severity of it was just unprecedented."
For those planning to sow Bentley this upcoming planting season, Carver says that you will have the same yield superiority as always, but warns another leaf rust event like this year's could be severely damaging and advises producers to consider a fungicide application.
In regards to the three newly released varieties, Smith's Gold, Spirit Rider and Lone Rider, Carver says he has been very pleased with their performances so far.
"Smith's Gold is considered to be an improvement on Gallagher," he said.
Carver listed the benefits of Smith's Gold, attributing to it resistance to stripe rust, a later breaking from dormancy which he says allows producers to get increased forage production, and he adds greenbug resistance as well. Finally, he underscores that Smith's Gold has exceptional baking quality.
Lone Rider, though, also performed quite surprisingly, practically "wowing" Dr. Carver.
"Wowed, but not surprised," he remarked. "We have seen Lone Rider do things out West that we have not seen other experimental lines in the program do - and that is yield unusually well."
But as always, while Dr. Carver continues to monitor his current projects, he is at the same time looking towards the future. He says to keep your eyes peeled for more talks on a Bullet/Shocker derivative, coming soon as well as the development of a new beardless variety. Also, in the meantime, Carver's interests are leading him to get more deeply involved with breeding Hard White Wheat varieties, based on the standard - Stardust, released about two years ago.
"Go to the variety trials next year, we'll be talking quite a bit about those," he concluded. "It's all in the pipeline."
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