Stumpf Center important cog in UN-L wheat breeding program

    Wheat harvest brings an end to the annual cycle that began last fall when farmers planted this year’s crop.
    But for the wheat breeders at the University of Nebraska, the cycle is just beginning.
    The Stumpf International Wheat Center in Grant plays a key role in the development and research of both new and existing breeds of hard red winter wheat by the university.
    Each year, the center is home to two distinct test plots.
    One plot contains a wide array of different varieties so researchers can study specific results for each variety.
    These range from the obvious, such as yield, test weight and protein content, to how a variety responded to different treatments of fertilizer, herbicides and inoculants.
    They also evaluate the  effectiveness of characteristic traits bred into the varieties such as straw strength, drought tolerance and resistance to disease.
    The other large research plot—the breeding plot—sets the path for successful wheat production in Nebraska.
    This is where breeders cultivate future generations of wheat varieties.
    Involvement in the breeding program requires lots of patience—it can take 10 to 12 years to develop varieties for release into actual production.
    Few varieties actually make the final cut for release as foundation seed. Once a variety is released as foundation seed, it takes a couple years for selected growers to grow enough seed to be sold to farmers as certified seed.
    The university replicates the same breeding plots at eight different sites across the state from Lincoln to Alliance. This ensures that if one area is hit by hail, drought or other adverse factors, they don’t lose a year of research.
    Greg Dorn, an ag research technologist with the UNL wheat breeding program, harvested the hundreds of 5x10-foot breeding plots at the Stumpf Center earlier this month.
    He said they were able to collect all of the breeding seed they needed this year at their eastern Nebraska plots.
    As a result, he was only measuring the test weight and moisture content of each plot he cut.
    He was using a small combine designed especially for harvesting small test plots. The $250,000 machine, in it’s third year, is a big step up from the open-air machines they used for many years, Dorn added.
    An air system moves the harvested grain through the machine. There’s a collection trap inside the cab that allows a second person to bag and tag the breeding samples. Air then blows out the system before the next plot is cut to avoid cross contamination.
    Dorn said the real work begins after harvest.
    The respective variety lines are planted in a greenhouse setting. He said they plant around 10,000 pots, each of which contains only three seeds.
    After wheat is planted and begins growing in the fall, winter wheat requires a certain threshold of cold days in dormancy, called a vernalization period.
    In the spring, the plant comes out of dormancy and matures throughout the spring and early summer until harvest.
    Dorn said they replicate those conditions in the greenhouse with 40° temperatures during November and December. Then, in March, the process of producing crosses begins.
    This involves taking desirable genes, such as drought resistance, and implanting into seeds that have other desirable traits.
    Dorn said this is a seven-day-a-week process until they complete all the crosses.
    For the next six to eight years, the breeders improve on the various lines of crosses. At that point, plot tests, such as the ones conducted at Stumpf and around the state, determine whether the variety makes the cut for further development or is abandoned.
    Due to the number of years involved to bring a variety to market, wheat breeding isn’t the job for a person seeking instant results or short-term  satisfaction.