ST. PAUL (July 8, 2008)
July 11, 2008 12:15 pm
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Wheat growers looking for ways to reduce the impact of wheat diseases may decide to call on Tom. Tom is a new variety of hard red spring wheat being released by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station.
Tom has shown moderate resistance to Ug99, a virulent strain of wheat stem rust that could arrive in Minnesota in future years. Ug99 is damaging wheat crops in Africa and winds usually carry new strains of wheat rust strains worldwide. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug recently warned that Ug99 could reduce world wheat production by 60 million tons and cause a global crop failure. The Ug99 resistance tests on Tom were conducted in Kenya by scientists from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in collaboration with the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute and CIMMYT, an international organization focused on helping farmers in developing countries.
University of Minnesota plant breeder Jim Anderson is cautious about making too big a deal of the Ug99 resistance. “More important to growers in Minnesota are the traits that it has for diseases that are here today, including its moderate resistance to scab.” The scab resistance played a big role in the decision to name the new variety in memory of Tom Anderson, of Barnesville. Anderson, a Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers leader, played a key role in obtaining state and federal funding for Fusarium Head Blight (scab) research. Anderson, a Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics professor, said, “Tom served a number of other organizations and was recognized numerous times for his regional and national contributions and commitment to wheat and agriculture as a whole.”
The wheat variety Tom is a mid-maturity hard red spring that underwent extensive testing throughout wheat growing areas before being released. “In testing, Tom has consistently been above average in grain yield with good test weight and protein,” said Jochum Wiersma, Extension Agronomist at the Northwest Research and Outreach Center in Crookston. Other agronomic facts of interest to growers include that the heading date of Tom is similar to variety known as Freyr and its resistance to scab is also similar to Freyr. It is average in height with medium straw strength. Tom is resistant to stem rust, moderately resistant to prevalent races of leaf rust and other leaf diseases, and resistant to pre-harvest sprouting with good falling numbers.
Growers may have seen Tom growing in research plots when it was called MN01311-A-1. This summer it is in research plots at the Research & Outreach Centers across the state and in on-farm yield trials in Northwest Minnesota.
University of Minnesota researchers are currently working to better understand why Tom showed resistance to the Ug99 wheat stem rust prevalent in Africa. That research is part of a larger drive to discover information about Ug99 and to develop resistant wheat varieties before it spreads to other wheat growing areas.
The introduction of Tom closely follows the release of two other hard red spring wheat varieties--Ada in 2006 and RB07 in 2007. All three releases were funded in part by Minnesota producers through their wheat check-off organization that collects a one-cent per bushel assessment on all wheat sold in Minnesota. Fact sheets providing details on all three varieties are available on the web at www.maes.umn.edu or by calling 218-281-8629. Both releases are distributed through Minnesota Crop Improvement Association members.
“The University of Minnesota is committed to helping wheat growers succeed by developing varieties that generate economic activity and provide new options for growers. Tom, RB07, and Ada are the latest example of our drive to develop better wheat varieties,” said Beverly R. Durgan, Director of the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station and Dean of University of Minnesota Extension. Researchers at the University of Minnesota have been evaluating and developing wheat varieties since 1889.
This article was submitted by the University of Minnesota Extension Service.
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