Tri-state agreement on Clearfield wheats
Farm and Ranch July 20, 2009 An agreement among the three Pacific Northwest land grant universities will make for a simpler process of getting new Clearfield wheats into the hands of growers. University of Idaho wheat breeder Bob Zemetra explains what the process has been. Zemetra: “That when a new variety would come out, especially one from a different state, a different university, in the past it would mean that seed dealer would have to come up with a separate license agreement and go through, in my mind the paper work to get everything done. And we are looking for a simpler way to get the new varieties out to producers in the quickest way possible.” Oregon State University wheat breeder Jim Peterson came up with the idea of the tri-state agreement on the licensing of the varieties and Zemetra agreed. Zemetra: “So that every state has the same rules governing the varieties and the same stewardship rules and that when a new variety is released it gets added to existing licenses for Clearfield wheats that are already out. So, where Oregon had over 20 seed dealers, any new variety coming out of the University of Idaho, those dealers without doing any extra work would be able to access that variety and sell it to producers.” Not only speeding up the availability of Clearfield varieties to producers but hopefully also making it simpler for seed dealers. Tomorrow, a new Clearfield wheat from Zemetra’s breeding program. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ?
