Building Better Wheats for Growers – New Varieties

Several new UI wheat variety releases offer growers the opportunity to improve efficiency and crop value. In the months ahead, as you review variety performance information, drive by test plots or attend summer field days, check out these varieties in your area for agronomic traits and pest and disease resistance.

UICF Brundage: Soft White Winter
UICF Brundage is a non-transgenic, herbicide resistant, soft white wheat cultivar with the same agronomic and quality characteristics as Brundage and Brundage 96. This imazamox resistant line can be used in areas with hard to control grassy weeds, such as jointed goat grass, as part of a control management program in fields where either Brundage or Brundage 96 is grown.

Bruneau: Soft White Winter
The three B’s – Bruneau, Bitterroot and Brundage, have similar quality characteristics. Bruneau has greater yield potential in northern Idaho and eastern Washington. With its good stripe rust resistance, adaption to high rain fed and irrigated growing conditions it makes a good companion planting with Brundage.

UICF Grace (IDO651): Hard White Winter
UICF Grace is the first hard white Clearfield winter wheat in Idaho. Clearfield wheats allow growers to use the herbicide imazamox with little or no damage to the crop. UICF Grace has excellent end use quality, high temperature adult plant (HTAP) resistance to stripe rust and moderate resistance to dwarf bunt and good yield performance. UICF Grace is tall and due to its height it may have a lodging problem when grown under irrigated conditions. Adaptation to Idaho’s intermediate and low rainfed regions is best.

UI Silver (IDO658): Hard White Winter
UI Silver has resistance to stripe rust, stem rust and dwarf bunt, excellent end use quality for bread, buns and Asian noodles, and consistent good yield potential in both rainfed and irrigated production. It is one of only a handful of US wheat varieties that carry the SrTmp gene, conveying resistance to a globally threatening race of stem rust called TTKS. It is also resistant to fusarium head blight. The shorter stature of Silver allows it to be grown under irrigation however, it is susceptible to bacterial leaf blight and so is better adapted to dryland conditions in intermountain west.

Winchester: Hard Red Spring
UI Winchester can be grown in both irrigated and rainfed conditions but is better adapted to the rainfed production systems of the intermountain west. It has a combination of adult plant resistance to stripe rust, excellent resistance to Hessian fly, good yield and desirable bread end use quality. It has fast coleoptiles growth and can be planted late and is tolerant to moisture and heat stress. Maturity is the same or earlier than Jefferson, Jerome and WB936 in rainfed trails.