07/31/07 Leading PNW wheat varieties

Farm and Ranch July 31, 2007 Results of the 2007 surveys of wheat varieties planted in Washington, Oregon and Idaho are in. The surveys in each state are funded by the wheat commissions and conducted by the Agricultural Statistics Service bureaus. Although it lost some ground Stephens was the leading planted variety in Oregon as it has been since 1979. It was followed by Tubbs, ORCF 101, Alpowa, and Madsen. Washington reported the leading soft white winter wheats in terms of acreage as Eltan, Madsen, Tubbs and Stephens. Bruehl, Chukar and Coda were Washington's leading winter clubs with Eden the major spring club. The new leader in soft white spring wheat is Louise, which edged out Alpowa. Tom Mick, CEO of the Washington Grain Alliance was pleased with that. Mick: "Alpowa has about run its course. We have tested it with our overseas customers and they are pointing out some inadequacies in it, but they really like Louise. It has good quality, good agronomic traits." The top red winter wheat varieties in Washington were Bauermeister, Eddy, Finley and Buchanan. The leading hard red springs were Westbred 926, Hank and Buck Pronto. In Idaho WestBred 936 a hard red spring wheat was the most popular wheat variety for the second consecutive year. It was followed by Brundage, Alturas, Madsen and Boundary. Madsen slipped a position from last year and Alturas and Boundary made big gains. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.