Stephens wheat no longer number one in Oregon
Farm and Ranch July 15, 2010 Stephens soft white winter, which had been the number one variety planted in Oregon since 1979, has fallen to second place in the state. The Oregon Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service says Stephens was surpassed this year by ORCF 101, a Clearfield wheat, which accounted for 19.1 percent of planted acreage while Stephens was seeded on 12.1 percent of Oregon’s wheat acreage. Stephens was developed by Warren Kronstad at Oregon State University and in 2007 the 30th anniversary of commercial production of the variety was celebrated at the Pendleton Station Field Day. In an interview that day, then Oregon State University wheat breeder Jim Peterson, said that long a run for a wheat variety was unheard of. Peterson: “You think of a big winner of a variety as one being out there six to ten years and this is just incredible. But beyond just the production in Oregon and Washington Stephens has had an impact on the entire nation because it has been used as a parent in some key varieties released out of the Great Plains. The hard red winter wheat Jaeger for example, released by Kansas State University, is half Stephens and the variety Jaeger was grown on nine million acres in 2003. Just an incredible contribution of Stephens to the bread wheat production areas of the Great Plains.? On that 30th anniversary, just three years ago, Stephens accounted for 35 percent of Oregon’s wheat acreage. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net.
