Washington, DC
August 24, 2007
Source:
U.S. Wheat Associates Wheat
(USW) Letter
A large group of overseas quality
assurance managers met with U.S. cereal scientists and other
industry leaders last week at the HRS Technical Exchange
Conference in Fargo, North Dakota to discuss results from the
2006/07 HRS Overseas Varietal Analysis (OVA) program.
USW initiated OVA in 1998 as an allied effort between state
wheat commissions, public and private U.S. wheat breeders,
regional Wheat Quality Councils, USDA’s Agricultural Research
Service and overseas milling wheat buyers to identify desirable
and undesirable quality characteristics in new varieties.
Representative samples of promising varieties from each U.S.
wheat class are distributed to key import customers for grading,
milling, rheology (dough and gluten strength) and end-product
evaluation analysis.
At the four-day conference, “breeders described their varietal
development programs, including recent HRS varietal releases,
and what they have in the pipeline,” says USW Vice President
John Oades. “They focused mainly on the milling and baking
quality characteristics targeted in their breeding programs. It
is a win-win situation when wheat breeders can focus their
research on meeting the needs of both producers and our overseas
buyers, and the conference helps build a strong communication
bridge between the groups involved.”
Oades notes that if funding continues to be available to support
the OVA program, a similar technical exchange conference is
planned for SW wheat in 2008 and for HRW in 2009.
There’s a good chance that the work of the
Oklahoma State University
(OSU) wheat genetics and breeding team, led by OSU Regents
Professor, Dr. Brett Carver, will be part of a future HRW
Technical Exchange. These scientists are focused first on
breeding new wheat varieties with excellent milling and baking
quality in addition to higher yields and improved grazing value
for Oklahoma’s cattle producers.
“Dr. Carver was one of the driving forces behind establishing
HRW end-use quality targets for breeders,” says Mark Hodges,
Executive Director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission. One of the
bright stars on the OSU team is molecular geneticist Dr. Liuling
Yan. Scientific journals recently reported on Dr. Yan’s latest
discovery, which boosts the yields of winter wheat using a DNA
marker for a genomic region developed to select lines for
biomass production that can be used as forage or as a
supplemental biofuels feedstock.
“Wheat is struggling to compete with other crops for planted
acres,” Hodges points out. “This team is working to provide the
tools and techniques to help create as many or more benefits to
the customer as they do for the producer. We are only on the tip
of the iceberg of what this type of research could mean for our
industry.” |
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