06/14/07 30th anniversary for Stephens wheat celebrated

Farm and Ranch June 14, 2007 Stephens soft white winter wheat developed by Warren Kronstad at Oregon State University has been in commercial production now for 30 years. That 30th anniversary was celebrated at the Pendleton Station Field Day this week where current OSU wheat breeder Jim Peterson says that long a run for a wheat variety is 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." Peterson says it all means Stephens has had a multi-billion dollar impact on the U.S. wheat industry. Peterson: "We are looking at least two billion dollars of impact in Oregon alone. You look at six to eight billion a year impact when the key years of Jaeger production in Kansas and Oklahoma. So, really a huge, huge, impact." This past year Stephens was still the top wheat variety grown in Oregon accounting for nearly 35 percent of the state's acreage. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag information Network.