03/06/08 New wheat releases from WSU

Washington Ag March 6, 2008 Washington State University has released four new wheat varieties for commercialization, including Xerpha, a soft-white common winter wheat. At a field day last year WSU winter wheat breeder Steve Jones talked about Xerpha's wide adaptability. Jones: "Xerpha should go almost statewide. We believe it could take out a tremendous amount of Tubbs, Eltan and Madsen acreage." In 2006 and 2007 Xerpha was the highest yielding variety in every precipitation zone in the WSU Extension Cereal Variety Testing Program. Three varieties from Kim Kidwell's breeding program have also been approved for final release. Farnum is a high yielding hard red winter wheat targeted for the Horse Heaven Hills. It has a gene associated with high grain protein as well as a slow rusting gene for stripe rust. Whit is a soft white common spring wheat suited for production in Whitman County and has high-temperature, adult plant resistance to stripe rust and Hessian fly resistance. Also from Kidwell's program is Kelse a high protein hard red spring wheat for the intermediate to high rainfall zone. Kelse has excellent race-specific all-stage resistance and indications of durable high-temperature, adult plant resistance to stripe rust. Foundation seed for Xerpha and Farnum will be available this fall, for Kelse and Whit in the spring of 2009. I'm Bob Hoff.