06/23/05 WSU Spillman Day miliestones

06/23/05 WSU Spillman Day miliestones

Farm and Ranch June 23, 2005 Two important milestones will be marked at the July 7th field day at Washington State University's Spillman Agronomy Farm. WSU winter wheat breeder Steve Jones explains. Jones: "July 7th coming up is the 50th Anniversary of the Spillman Agronomy Farm at Pullman. It is also the 100th Anniversary of variety release from WSU so we have a lot of things planned. We will have all the old wheat varieties from 100 years ago up to the most modern varieties. Plus we will have different plot and farm equipment from quite a long time ago to the most modern too. So there will a lot of different displays. We will have historic photographs and displays as well." More than 90 wheat varieties have been developed and released by WSU breeders since that first one 100 year ago which was called Hybrid 60, a hard white winter wheat developed by the university's first wheat breeder William Jasper Spillman. It's a tradition Jones is proud to be a part of. Jones: "We have been breeding wheat for 111 years at WSU. We have been releasing varieties to the growers freely for 100 years. We just have to appreciate the tradition of WSU of working with the growers to produce a better agriculture in the state." Bob Allen, retired USDA-Agricultural Research Service wheat geneticist will be a featured luncheon speaker at the Spillman Field Day, at which field tours will begin at 8:15 a.m. July 7th. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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