The K-State wheat breeding teams in Manhattan and Hays have loaded up the plates of wheat farmers across Kansas and the entire region with four new high-yielding varieties for 2016 and 2017! You can certainly be proud of the work being done by the breeding teams in your Agronomy Department – they are second to none!
- Joe: Hard white wheat for western Kansas
This new hard white wheat variety is for western Kansas. Joe will be available to plant in the fall of 2016. This variety was named after Joe Martin, retired wheat breeder from K-State’s Agricultural Research Center-Hays.
Joe was bred and developed in the wheat breeding program at K-State’s Agricultural Research Center at Hays, and released by Guorong Zhang, wheat breeder at the Hays station. The pedigree of Joe includes Jagger, Arlin, Trego, and a Colorado experimental line.
Joe has excellent yield potential and has performed very well so far in tests in western Kansas. In the Kansas Intrastate Nursery dryland trials. Its average yield over the period of 2013 to 2015 across western Kansas was about 16% higher than Danby and about 33% higher than TAM 111. In the Kansas Wheat Performance Tests, Joe was the top yielding variety in western Kansas in 2015 and 2016.
Joe has very good resistance to the three most important diseases in western Kansas: wheat streak mosaic virus, stripe rust, and leaf rust. It carries the Wsm2 gene for wheat streak mosaic virus resistance. Field testing showed that Joe has very good resistance to both the 2010 and 2012 races of stripe rust. It is moderately susceptible to soilborne mosaic virus and is susceptible to Hessian fly.
Joe has above average straw strength. This variety has a medium-late heading date and will do well in western Kansas and eastern Colorado.
Strengths:
- Good drought tolerance
- Good wheat streak resistance
- Strong stripe rust resistance
- Good resistance to leaf rust
In general, Joe has better white and whole flour baking quality than Danby. Its milling quality is comparable to Danby. It has good test weight (about 61 lb/bushel).
Joe is medium tall. It has good tolerance to grain shattering. It is moderately susceptible to pre-harvest sprouting.
Don’t be surprised if you hear a lot of your neighbors in western Kansas talking about Joe in the next couple years. Even those who’ve never grown white wheat may be tempted by this high-yielding, disease-resistant variety!
- Larry: Broadly adapted hard red wheat variety
Larry is a hard red winter variety released in the summer of 2016. Certified seed will be available for producers in the fall of 2017. The name “Larry” honors Larry Patton who was a long-time technician in the corn and wheat breeding programs at K-State.
The pedigree of Larry includes a sister line of Overley, Karl 92, a spring wheat, and several experimental lines. It was bred and developed by wheat breeder Allan Fritz and the Manhattan wheat breeding program.
It is expected to be well-adapted statewide. It did very well in the 2016 K-State Performance Tests, especially in central and western Kansas dryland locations. It suffered damage in the November 2014 freeze which affected its performance in northwest Kansas in 2015. It was the top yielding line in the Kansas Intrastate Nursery tests in 2014. It has exceled under moderate to fairly intense drought. It has medium height, and has a high tiller capacity.
In general, this medium to medium-early maturity variety has shown good yield potential across south central to southwest Kansas and into north central Oklahoma.
Larry has good resistance to stripe rust and stem rust as well as soil borne mosaic virus. It also has good acid soil tolerance but is moderately susceptible to leaf rust.
Strengths:
- Medium-early maturity
- Resistant to stripe rust
- Good acid soil tolerance
- Resistant to soil-borne mosaic virus
The milling and baking quality of Larry is acceptable.
Larry will likely be the next good, solid broadly adapted hard red wheat variety from K-State, with high yield potential and resistance to stripe rust.
- Tatanka: New red wheat variety for western Kansas
Dryland farmers in western Kansas who prefer standard hard red winter wheat varieties will soon have a great new choice from K-State. Tatanka is a hard red winter variety released in the summer of 2016. Certified seed will be available for producers in the fall of 2017. Tatanka is the Lakota Sioux word for “buffalo” or “buffalo bull.”
Tatanka was bred and developed in the wheat breeding program at K-State’s Agricultural Research Center at Hays, and released by Guorong Zhang, wheat breeder at the Hays station. The pedigree of Tatanka includes Trego, Jagger, and T151.
Its yield record in the 2016 K-State Performance Tests was very good, especially in western and central Kansas dryland locations. In both 2014 and 2015, the grain yield of Tatanka across the dryland locations in western Kansas was in the top yielding group in dryland tests.
Tatanka is a medium to medium-late maturity variety and is best adapted for western Kansas. It has a good disease and drought package and should be a strong performer for farmers in that area.
Tatanka has shown good resistance to stripe rust and stem rust, as well as moderate resistance to leaf rust. It is also resistant to soil borne mosaic virus which may allow it to come east into central Kansas. It is not recommended for irrigated acres due to its below average straw strength.
Strengths:
- Medium maturity
- Medium height
- Good stripe rust and leaf rust resistance
- Good soil-borne mosaic virus resistance
- Good drought tolerance
The milling and baking quality of Tatanka is acceptable. It has been tested by the KSU Quality Lab at Manhattan and is comparable to check varieties Danby or TAM 111.
Western Kansas often present tough challenges for dryland wheat. Producers will discover that Tatanka can more than meet those challenges!
- Zenda: New hard red variety for central Kansas
Farmers who like Everest, and most farmers in central and eastern Kansas like Everest, will love this new variety bred to be a replacement for Everest. Zenda is a hard red winter variety released in the summer of 2016, and available to producers as certified seed in the fall of 2017. Zenda is named after the town of that name in Kingman County.
The pedigree of Zenda includes a sister line of Overley, Everest, and an experimental. It was bred and developed It was bred and developed by wheat breeder Allan Fritz and the Manhattan wheat breeding program. It is expected to be best adapted to central Kansas.
With Everest making up half of its pedigree, Zenda will be an excellent choice for wheat acres after corn in the eastern half of Kansas. It is a medium-early maturity, a couple days later than Everest.
Zenda has good resistance to stem rust, and moderate resistance to both stripe rust and leaf rust. It also has good acid soil tolerance and soil borne mosaic virus resistance. It will carry a similar level of resistance to fusarium head blight as Everest, but its tolerance to barley yellow dwarf is not as good as that of Everest.
Foundation seed was increased in 2016 and certified seed is expected to be available for producers in the fall of 2017.
Strengths:
- Medium-early maturity
- Fusarium head blight level of tolerance similar to Everest
- Moderately resistant to stripe rust and leaf rust
- Good acid soil tolerance
It has established a strong yield record statewide in the 2016 K-State Performance Tests, but is probably best suited to central and eastern Kansas. Its drought tolerance is fair. It is taller than Everest. The quality of Zenda is acceptable, performing somewhat better than Everest in K-State bake tests.
Wherever you hear the variety name “Everest” today, you’ll likely be hearing the name “Zenda” within a few years.
