California Ag Network

Tag: Wheat

  • New Fusarium Disease Resistant Wheats

    ARS researchers are helping wheat farmers deal with a devastating crop disease. ARS scientists in Lincoln, Neb. released new lines of common and durum wheat with resistance to Fusarium Head Blight (FHB). FHB, commonly known as scab, significantly affects wheat and barley, resulting in approximately $1B in yield losses annually in the U.S. and worldwide.

    ARS scientists used modern and conventional breeding technologies to transfer a new FHB-resistance gene [Fhb7The2] from wild grass to wheat and developed a new germplasm named ‘WGC002’ and many other wheat breeding lines.  These new wheat lines derived from WGC002 have exhibited desirable agronomic traits in addition to FHB resistance across different locations and seasons. They will be released as varieties or germplasm following further development and evaluation. Scientists expect a substantial reduction in U.S. economic losses from wheat crops affected by FHB within a few years if farmers adopt new varieties with this resistance gene. — Story contributed the USDA Ag Research Service

  • Tariff Policy, Declining Immigration and Massive AI Investments Cloud US Economic Outlook

    Significant downward revisions to monthly payroll estimates in August led many market observers to anticipate the Federal Reserve would begin cutting interest rate cuts more aggressively. However, recent economic data has generally been positive, tempering expectations for more significant cuts before the end of the year.

    According to a new quarterly report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange, the most likely scenario is an additional four or five cuts of 25 basis points through 2026, leaving the overnight rate around 3.0% by the end of 2026. The actual outcome will depend heavily on how the economic data looks and how successful the White House is in influencing monetary policy.

    Tariff policy uncertainty, the sharp decline in immigration and the massive surge in AI investments have made interpreting traditional economic reports more difficult. The CoBank report suggests sharp swings in monthly import volumes, a flattening of working-age population growth and a soaring stock market make it difficult to gauge how “Main Street” America is doing economically.

    “The intense politicization of attitudes has rendered longstanding public sentiment surveys erratic and unhelpful in gauging actual economic conditions,” said Rob Fox, vice president of CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange. “The federal government shutdown and potential loss of scheduled economic reports will make it even more difficult for businesses to gauge the economy and make prudent business decisions.”

    Despite rising fears that the rapid adoption of AI will soften the labor market and dim job prospects for college graduates, Fox said there is little evidence to support those fears. “New technologies have always raised concerns about job losses. The recurring theme is job transformation, not elimination. This time isn’t any different. Today’s college graduates are already deeply familiar with AI and are using it to sharpen skills hiring managers value most.”

    U.S. Economy

    Personal consumption and unemployment rates, arguably the most important economic signals, have held steady in the face of ongoing uncertainty. However, other signs suggest the economy may be slowing. Personal income growth, adjusted for inflation, has fallen from 4% in early 2024 to about 2% today. Consumers have responded by dipping into savings to maintain their spending, which cannot be sustained indefinitely. While a potentially slowing economy and declining interest rates should put downward pressure on the dollar, the effect for U.S. agricultural exports has been muted. Row crop exports have not experienced the benefit of the weakening dollar relative to the currencies of America’s largest grain importers.

    U.S. Government

    The government shutdown and lack of congressional action are contributing to widespread political and economic uncertainty. With no more funds to support most federal programs or pay many public servants, the suspension of most revenue-generating capabilities are halted and will likely negatively impact the economy as time goes on. Meanwhile, the abundance of American agricultural commodities is no longer an asset but rather a liability for many U.S. farmers. Tariffs have ultimately shut out American commodities to many countries. The administration is expected to announce $10 billion-$15 billion in farm aid to struggling producers but that may be delayed because of the government shutdown.

    Grains, Farm Supply & Biofuels

    U.S. farmers are harvesting a record-large corn crop and the second-largest soybean crop in five years following the largest wheat harvest in five years. The supply abundance is welcomed news for grain elevators looking to capture bigger carries in the futures market. But the record grain crop will strain U.S. storage and transportation infrastructure. The demand outlook for U.S. grains remains clouded by geopolitical uncertainty. Corn and wheat sales enter the fourth quarter historically strong, but soybean sales are abysmal due to the lack of Chinese purchases. Low water levels on the Mississippi River threaten to slow grain and oilseed exports during the peak shipping season.

    Elevated crop input costs will further erode producer profitability during the current low commodity price cycle. Producers will likely reduce fall fertilizer applications and stall overall input purchases for 2026 due to higher prices. Tariffs are also driving up input costs. The average tariff on crop inputs imported to the U.S. has increased from 1% to nearly 12%, according to data published by North Dakota State University. Fertilizer prices remain the biggest headwind for producers. Farmers will be reassessing and potentially reducing their usage rates of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. If farmers shift more applications to the spring, high seasonal demand could lead to supply chain hiccups.

    Biofuel demand remains a silver lining for the crop side of the agricultural economy. But the delay in regulatory policy on renewable volume obligations and small refinery exemption reallocation are casting a cloud over future demand. The EPA is unlikely to finalize next year’s renewable volume obligations before 2026. Renewable diesel and biodiesel margins will stay in the red as producers work through the long transition from the Blenders Tax Credit to the 45Z Tax Credit. Ethanol producer margins should remain positive to close out the year, due to plentiful corn supplies and low prices for natural gas and corn.

    Animal Protein & Dairy

    Dollar sales of retail ground beef grew by double digits in August, up 13% year-over-year at $1.7 billion, according to Circana. While beef prices remain elevated on tight cattle supplies, persistent demand boosted overall sales, and volume kept pace. Domestic cattle prices rose throughout much of the third quarter, setting new records and boosting returns to ranchers, but complicating beef market dynamics otherwise. Beef packer margins struggled during the third quarter. Despite strong demand for beef, several factors are limiting production growth.

    A slimming U.S. hog herd served to lift market prices. Price rallies for lean hog futures and feeder pigs persisted over the summer, settling at 20% and 48% higher year-over-year, respectively, in late September. In August, farrow-to-finish profit margins reached $52.58 per head, the highest since June 2021, according to Iowa State University. Pork producers have now posted profits for 17 consecutive months. Export demand has slowed slightly compared to 2024, which was a record export year for U.S. pork. Mexico remains the largest buyer of U.S. pork.

    With beef prices hitting all-time highs, the U.S. broiler segment capitalized on the opportunity to provide consumers a value offering this summer. A strong focus on chicken at retail and foodservice boosted white meat values through August. The quick-service restaurant segment featured a multitude of chicken options focused on strips and new flavors. Softening white meat values during the remainder of the year are likely to crimp margins but will continue to position chicken as a competitive value offering in 2026. Broiler production is expected to remain elevated through the end of 2025.

    U.S. dairy farmers continue to enhance their revenue by producing calves destined for beef production. Beef’s contribution to the bottom line has moved from $1 to $4 per cwt. over the past four years. The U.S. dairy herd has climbed to its highest level in over 30 years, in part, to capitalize on revenue from beef-on-dairy calves. While milk production margins had been somewhat favorable, strong output in recent months significantly changed the price forecasts. Butterfat production is in overdrive and ample supplies have sent milk futures lower. Typically, that would prompt dairies to reduce production. But the combination of the lowest feed prices in five years and profit margins for beef may be a stronger signal.

    Cotton, Rice & Sugar

    Cotton prices remain depressed despite a smaller U.S. crop. A slowing global economy continues weighing on clothing and apparel sales, pushing cotton prices lower. U.S. cotton exports have languished amid the weakening economic outlook. Cumulative U.S. export commitments of upland cotton were down 18% year-over-year as of mid-September. The slouching export pace is a concern for U.S. cotton farmers, as 80% of the cotton crop is typically exported. USDA estimates the 2025/2026 cotton crop at 13.22 million 480 lb. bales, falling 8% year-over-year.

    Rice prices continue to suffer from downward global pressures. Ample global supplies of competitively priced rice have eroded U.S. export market share. U.S. rice export sales are down 26% year-over-year since India resumed rice exports in 2024. Increased export competition from South America into the key Western Hemisphere market has added to the global headwinds. Stronger sales of medium-grain rice to Japan and Korea have been a bright spot in U.S. rice trade. While U.S. tariffs on imported rice have offered some support to U.S. prices, global rice abundance threatens to hold prices at multi-year lows.

    Strong global sugar supplies have pulled prices lower just as the U.S. sugar beet and sugarcane harvest is underway. Total U.S. sugar production is expected to rise 1.8% year-over-year. The bigger U.S. crop arrives amid a global sugar crop that will be biggest in eight years. Major exporters including Brazil, Thailand and India have expanded production. The global abundance continues to anchor U.S. sugar prices, which fell to their lowest level in four years last quarter. However, biofuel policies in India may limit future sugar exports, putting a stronger floor under U.S. and world sugar prices.

    Food & Beverage

    Merger and acquisition activity in the food and beverage sector continues, as evidenced by marquee deals including Ferrero’s acquisition of WK Kellogg and Mars’ purchase of Kellanova. However, deconsolidation and divestures are becoming equally common. Unraveling the biggest deal of a decade ago, Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies. The move reflects a growing trend toward deconsolidation as companies aim to focus their efforts more narrowly and increase their agility to address changing consumer needs. This trend will likely continue as consumer sentiment shifts toward more cost-effective, at-home meal solutions.

    Power & Digital Infrastructure

    The cost of electricity is becoming a chief economic concern for Americans as prices are rising twice as fast as inflation. While data centers’ enormous appetite for power is frequently assigned blame, the problem of rising electricity prices pre-dates data centers. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation has long warned of supply challenges. Large load growth customers such as data centers could be a catalyst for modernizing the U.S. electric grid, ultimately helping to lower rates for all customers. However, regulatory misalignment or the mis-apportionment of system costs could deter the beneficial load growth needed to temper electricity costs. The imperative for utilities is to insulate consumers from data center cost sharing.

    Historic investments continue pouring into data center and AI infrastructure development. Capital expenditures could approach $400 billion in 2025, up from $235 billion in 2024. Investments will surge even higher in 2026, with Oracle, Microsoft and Broadcom signaling continued growth in AI infrastructure. That momentum creates a unique opportunity for rural America, as data center developers and hyperscalers search for land and a clear path to power. But the road ahead is not without challenges. The looming supply-demand imbalance in U.S. energy markets could become a bottleneck for growth and increase the risk of critical AI training activities migrating overseas.

    Read The Quarterly. Each CoBank Quarterly provides updates and an outlook for the Macro Economy and U.S. Agricultural Markets; Grains, Biofuels and Farm Supply; Animal Protein; Dairy; Cotton and Rice; Specialty Crops; Food & Beverage industries and Rural Infrastructure.

    About CoBank

    CoBank is a cooperative bank serving vital industries across rural America. The bank provides loans, leases, export financing and other financial services to agribusinesses and rural power, water and communications providers in all 50 states. The bank also provides wholesale loans and other financial services to affiliated Farm Credit associations serving more than 78,000 farmers, ranchers and other rural borrowers in 23 states around the country. CoBank is a member of the Farm Credit System, a nationwide network of banks and retail lending associations chartered to support the borrowing needs of U.S. agriculture, rural infrastructure and rural communities. Headquartered outside Denver, Colorado, CoBank serves customers from regional banking centers across the U.S. and also maintains an international representative office in Singapore.

  • Wheat That Makes Its Own Fertilizer

    Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have developed wheat plants that stimulate the production of their own fertilizer, opening the path toward less air and water pollution worldwide and lower costs for farmers.

    The technology was pioneered by a team led by Eduardo Blumwald, a distinguished professor in the Department of Plant Sciences. The team used the gene-editing tool CRIPSR to get wheat plants to produce more of one of their own naturally occurring chemicals. When the plant releases the excess chemical into the soil, the chemical helps certain bacteria in the soil convert nitrogen from the air into a form the nearby plants can use to grow. That conversion process is called nitrogen fixation.

    The study was published online in Plant Biotechnology Journal.

    In developing countries, the breakthrough could be a boon for food security.

    “In Africa, people don’t use fertilizers because they don’t have money, and farms are small, not larger than six to eight acres,” Blumwald said. “Imagine, you are planting crops that stimulate bacteria in the soil to create the fertilizer that the crops need, naturally. Wow! That’s a big difference!”

    The breakthrough in wheat builds on the team’s earlier work in rice. Research also is underway to extend this technology to other cereals.

    Worldwide, wheat is the No. 2 cereal crop by yield and takes the biggest share of nitrogen fertilizer, using about 18% of the total. Globally, more than 800 million tons of fertilizer were produced in 2020 alone, according to figures from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

    But plants take up only about 30 to 50% of the nitrogen in fertilizer. Much of what they don’t use flows into waterways, which can create “dead zones” that lack oxygen, suffocating fish and other aquatic life. Some excess nitrogen in the soil produces nitrous oxide, a potent climate-warming gas.

    The work-around: Protect the fixer

    Nitrogen-fixing bacteria produce an enzyme called nitrogenase, the “fixer” in nitrogen fixation. Nitrogenase is only located in the bacteria, and it can only work in environments with very little oxygen.

    Legumes such as beans and peas have root structures, called nodules, that provide a cozy, low-oxygen home for nitrogen-fixing bacteria to live.

    Unlike legumes, wheat and most other plants don’t have root nodules. This is why farmers use nitrogen-containing fertilizer.

    “For decades, scientists have been trying to develop cereal crops that produce active root nodules, or trying to colonize cereals with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, without much success. We used a different approach,” Blumwald said. “We said the location of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria is not important, so long as the fixed nitrogen can reach the plant, and the plant can use it.”

    To find a work-around, the team first looked at 2,800 chemicals the plants produce naturally. They found 20 that, among other jobs useful to the plant, also stimulate bacteria to produce biofilms. Biofilms are a sticky layer that surround the bacteria and create a low-oxygen environment, allowing nitrogenase to work. The scientists determined how the plant makes those chemicals and which genes control that process.

    Then, the team used the gene-editing tool CRISPR to modify wheat plants to produce more of one of those chemicals, a flavone called apigenin. The wheat, now with more apigenin than it needs, releases the excess through its roots into the soil. In experiments they conducted, apigenin from the wheat stimulated bacteria in the soil to create the protective biofilms, allowing nitrogenase to fix nitrogen and the wheat plants to assimilate it.

    The wheat also showed a higher yield than control plants when grown in a very low concentration of nitrogen fertilizer.

    Farmers could save billions

    Farmers in the United States spent nearly $36 billion on fertilizers in 2023, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. Blumwald calculates that nearly 500 million acres in the U.S. are planted with cereals.

    “Imagine, if you could save 10% of the amount of fertilizer being used on that land,” he pondered. “I’m calculating conservatively: That should be a savings of more than a billion dollars every year.”

    Other authors include Hiromi Tajima, Akhilesh Yadav, Javier Hidalgo Castellanos, Dawei Yan, Benjamin P. Brookbank and Eiji Nambara.

    A patent application has been filed by the University of California and is pending. Bayer Crop Science and the UC Davis Will Lester Endowment have supported the research.

    Read about the earlier work of the Blumwald team to develop rice that can stimulate its own nitrogen fertilizer here. — By Trina Kleist, UC Davis

  • Images from Space could Help Farmers Grow Better Wheat Varieties

    A team of researchers at Washington State University is putting satellites and drones to work in the hunt for better wheat varieties to help feed a growing world more sustainably.

    WSU scientists launched a new project this spring, developing techniques that let satellites and flying drones identify and study wheat varieties from overhead. The research is funded by a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

    Their effort could speed up research into better, more productive wheat varieties and could give growers powerful new tools to improve farming.

    Machines can Sense Crop Traits Faster

    Grown on more acres than any other crop, wheat is a staple that feeds more than a third of the world’s population. To help meet growing global demand, and keep ahead of devastating pests, pathogens, and a changing environment, wheat breeders develop improved varieties.

    An important part of that process is phenotyping: measuring the way plant genes are expressed physically, in order to select the best plants to breed for improved yield, grain quality, and resistance to stress and disease.

    In the past, this work was done by hand. But with modern cameras and sensors, satellites could take phenotyping to a new level, helping scientists and growers quickly and accurately study how wheat varieties are performing in the field.

    “Satellite imagery could help wheat breeders find genes that maximize yield and fight stress and disease, and help farmers learn which varieties grow best in their areas,” said lead scientist Zhiwu Zhang, the Washington Grain Commission Distinguished Professor for Statistical Genomics at WSU’s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.  “No one has been able to do this yet, but the rewards are highly worth the effort.”

    While scientists can already learn a lot about crops from the wavelengths of light they emit—water stress, for example, shows up in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum—part of the project’s challenge is to learn whether wheat varieties and their physical characteristics can be differentiated by their spectral data.

    “Sensors are getting better every day,” said team member Sindhuja Sankaran, an associate professor and sensor technology researcher at WSU’s Department of Biological Systems Engineering. “As resolution increases and camera costs drop, we have more powerful tools to sense how crops are performing.”

    To help satellite sensors understand what they are looking at, WSU researchers will use unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones, to gather visual and infrared imagery from wheat plots. Flying over WSU experimental farms across eastern Washington starting this summer, drone cameras will collect data to be matched to satellite imagery. Success in this matching process will give scientists the ability to identify and study wheat varieties from orbit.

    Sensors Could Save Time in the Field

    Arron Carter and Mike Pumphrey, winter and spring wheat breeders with WSU’s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, are excited about the potential of overhead sensing to speed up the painstaking process of selection.

    “In our breeding programs, time means everything,” Carter said.

    Every year, he and Pumphrey plant several thousand experimental varieties of wheat. Each variety represents an investment of time and field capacity.

    “If I can use a sensor on a drone or satellite to select only the best, and remove the rest a year early, I’ve increased my capacity and saved time that’s better spent on varieties that show more promise for Northwest farmers,” Carter said.

    Beyond breeding, the team’s research could ultimately help growers around the world use satellite imagery to predict yields, monitor performance, and protect their crops from drought.

    “Right now, we’re looking at Pacific Northwest wheat, but this could have implications across the globe,” Carter said. “Our imagination is the limit to what this technology could do.”

    Other team members working on the project include postdoctoral researcher Yang Hu and graduate students James Chen, Chongyuan Zhang and Worasit Sangjan. Zhang also thanks CAHNRS’ Office of Research and Agricultural Research Center for assistance with the grant application.

    By: Seth Truscott, College of Agricultural, Human & Natural Resource Sciences

  • Tricolored Blackbird Update

    Modesto, Calif., (February 21, 2018) – As I write this on February 14, Valentine’s Day, love is in the air. The Tricolored Blackbirds are also in an amorous mood getting together with their mates and looking for a place to build a nest. In a natural setting 200 years ago they would be looking for a wetland with cattails to weave their nests above the water. However, today fields of wheat and Triticale are more common and just as acceptable to the Tricolored Blackbird.

    The Tricolor continues to be a candidate for listing under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) and as such is a protected species. It is unlawful to kill a protected species. After a considerable time as a candidate, it looks like the Tricolor will get its hearing in front of the California Fish and Game Commission as early as this April. The Commission will decide whether to list the Tricolored Blackbird as threaten or endangered under CESA. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has written a status review of the Tricolored Blackbird and in that status review the Department makes a recommendation that the Commission list the species as threatened. Having farmers work proactively to protect the bird helps make a case that the species does not have to be listed as efforts have been undertaken that will protect this species. Western United Dairymen has been engaged on this issue since I have been here and will continue to advocate for our members at the upcoming hearing.

    One of those efforts is a Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) grant from USDA- NRCS that Western United Dairymen partnered on with California Farm Bureau, Dairy Cares, Sustainable Conservation, and Audubon of California to help compensate farmers who decide to delay harvest due to nesting Tricolors. The grant would make payments for the lost feed value from the area where the birds nest in a field. Additional information about this funding is available at your local NRCS office or you can contact me at the WUD office.

    Farm Bureau, working with the groups mentioned above, has once again worked to develop protections for farmers who delay harvest and follow the advice of a qualified biologist in allowing for an area to not be harvested until the birds have fledged. Farmers that follow that advice, and inform the Department of Fish and Wildlife, are eligible for that protection. This is important because penalties for harming the birds can be significant and are best to be avoided.

    The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and other volunteers will be out once again looking for areas where the birds might be nesting. If you have any questions on this issue please give me a call at the WUD office. If you believe you might have Tricolors nesting your forage fields, you should contact NRCS to have their biologist provide a confidential assessment.

     

  • Gene Discovery May Halt Worldwide Wheat Epidemic

    Davis, Calif., (November 20, 2017) – University of California, Davis, researchers have identified a gene that enables resistance to a new devastating strain of stem rust, a fungal disease that is hampering wheat production throughout Africa and Asia and threatening food security worldwide.

    The discovery by UC Davis wheat geneticist Jorge Dubcovsky and his team will help breeders more quickly develop varieties that can fend off the deadly pathogens and halt a worldwide wheat epidemic. The findings were recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    Wheat and stem rust have been in an evolutionary arms race for more than 10,000 years. In the 1950s, a major epidemic of the disease spread through North America and destroyed up to 40 percent of the wheat crop, the world’s second most important grain next to rice.

    Since then, scientists have developed rust-resistant varieties to boost wheat’s immunity to stem rust. But the pathogens are making a comeback. A new strain of the stem rust — called Ug99 after it was discovered in Uganda in 1999 — is spreading throughout the region. About 90 percent of the wheat varieties grown worldwide are susceptible to Ug99.

    “Ug99 has expanded to most of the wheat-growing regions in Africa and has crossed the Red Sea to Yemen and Iran,” said Dubcovsky, a professor with the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. “Ug99 is now at the door of the Punjab region — the bread basket of Asia — and identification and deployment of effective resistance genes are critical to mitigate this threat.”

    Dubcovsky and his team identified three different resistance forms of Sr13, a gene from pasta wheat that is effective against Ug99 and another group of virulent stem-rust strains from Yemen and Ethiopia. In 2013, Dubcovsky and fellow researchers discovered another gene called Sr35 that also provides resistance to Ug99. The team is close to identifying a third gene that confers protection from the virulent strain.

    Why genetics matter – To develop better varieties, breeders cross plants with desired traits and select the best offspring over multiple generations. Once stem-rust resistant genes have been identified, breeders can use molecular markers (specific regions of DNA) to select for the genes at the seed or seedling stage. This accelerates the crop-improvement process.

    These molecular markers allow breeders to pyramid multiple stem-rust-resistant genes in the same plant to extend the durability of resistance.

    “Wheat provides a substantial amount of calories and proteins consumed by humans,” Dubcovsky said. “We hope that a better understanding of the wheat-rust pathosystem will speed the development of new strategies to control this devastating pathogen.”

  • Genome of Wheat Ancestor Sequenced

    Davis, Calif., (November 17, 2017) – Sequencing the bread wheat genome has long been considered an almost insurmountable task, due to its enormous size and complexity. Yet it is vitally important for the global food supply, providing more than 20 percent of the calories and 23 percent of the protein consumed by humans.

    Now, an international team of scientists led by researchers at the University of California, Davis, has come a step closer to solving the puzzle by sequencing the genome of a wild ancestor of bread wheat known as Aegilops tauschii, a type of goatgrass.

    In the study, published Nov. 15 in the journal Nature, researchers applied a combination of advanced technologies to generate a reference-quality genome sequence for Ae. tauschii, which is highly adaptable and tolerant of diseases. It is also the primary source of genes for the bread-making properties of wheat flour.

    The findings will allow researchers to discover new genes that can improve wheat baking quality, resistance to diseases, and tolerance to extreme environmental conditions like frost, drought and salinity.

    The effort has already had one practical result: the discovery of two new genes for resistance to a race of wheat stem rust to which there is virtually no resistance in wheat. The genes were transferred from Ae. tauschii into wheat and are now available to wheat breeders.

    Piecing together the puzzle

    Wheat and its wild ancestors have genomes much larger than humans, which makes sequencing difficult.

    “When we started this project nearly two decades ago, there was no technology to sequence genomes of that size and complexity,” said Jan Dvorak, a leader of the project and professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis. “This group of plants are unique because their genomes are just absolutely full of repeated sequences. We found more than 84 percent of the Ae. tauschii genome consists of closely related repeated sequences.”

    Dvorak describes the project as like tearing up pages of a thick book and trying to piece it back together. “Only imagine that every sentence on the page is nearly identical. That was our task,” said Dvorak.

    The technologies used by the researchers can be applied to any plant genome, so the implications extend beyond wheat.

    Contributors to the research include scientists from USDA-ARS, Albany, California; John Hopkins University, Maryland; University of Georgia, Athens in the U.S.; and from Germany, Canada, China, U.K., France, and Switzerland. The research was funded with a grant from the National Science Foundation.

  • Soft Durum Wheat Opens Door to Expand Food Uses

    Pullman, Wash. (October 5, 2017) – Soft Svevo, a new soft durum wheat variety developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their collaborators, could expand the market for wheat.

    Traditional durum wheats are primarily grown as a source of semolina—a coarse meal used to make pasta, couscous and other products. However, producing semolina requires specialized mills that can grind durum wheat’s rock-hard kernels. This, in turn, has limited the food uses for durum wheat, which comprises 3 to 5 percent of the total U.S. wheat crop.

    Craig Morris, an ARS chemist in Pullman, Washington, has a soft spot for durum which, despite the hard nature of its kernels, is better adapted to hot, arid growing regions of the United States than the more commonly grown bread wheat varieties. Over the past 20 years, he and colleagues have delved into the genetics of wheat kernel development for clues that could broaden the number of products made from durum.

    Along the way, the team determined that durum’s hard kernel texture has no relationship to pasta quality. Rather, it is durum’s yellow kernel color and high-protein content that gives pasta its desirable firmness. Additionally, these features have nothing to do with the particle size of semolina made from the kernels, according to Morris.

    Based on that premise, the researchers set out to create a soft durum wheat with kernels easily milled into a fine flour instead of semolina. Finding two genes that control kernel texture in soft bread wheats—Puroindoline a (Pina) and Puroindoline b (Pinb)—proved a breakthrough. The team moved these genes into a prized Italian durum variety to eventually produce Soft Svevo, marking the first soft durum of its kind.

    Tests show Soft Svevo’s flour is similar to soft bread wheat flour. According to Morris, it imparts an appealing aroma, flavor and color to pizza crusts, baguettes and other baked goods.

    Read more about this research in the September 2017 issue of AgResearch magazine.

    For more information contact Jan Suszkiw, ARS Office of Communications.

    The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

  • New $9.7 Million Grant Funds Search for Wheat Yield Genes

    Featured Image Credit: (Karin Higgins/UC Davis photo)

    – Increasing wheat yield rapidly enough to meet population growth has been a challenge for wheat breeders. An international research project, headed by plant geneticist Jorge Dubcovsky, professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, is using new technology to identify the wheat genes that impact yield.

    “Grain yield is one of the most difficult traits to address in wheat,” said Dubcovsky. “Fortunately, we now have more powerful tools, so we’re tackling this important trait even though it is difficult. We need to identify the genes that make the grains bigger, that increase the number of grains per spikelet, and that result in more-productive tillers.” (Tillers are segmented stems found in wheat and other grasses.)

    The importance of wheat – In contrast to crops like maize and soybean, 65 percent of the wheat varieties in the U.S. come from the public sector (in contrast to private-sector plant-breeding companies). The wheat industry in the U.S. therefore relies on public-sector wheat breeders to develop improved wheat varieties.

    Wheat is different from other cereals, in that it has a higher protein content than rice or maize, so it’s important for humans. More than 700 million tons of wheat is produced worldwide each year, and 20 percent of the global caloric and protein intake comes from wheat.

    Public-sector wheat breeders in the U.S. have worked together for many years with the support of USDA Coordinated Agricultural Projects (CAP) to characterize agronomically important traits such as disease resistance and quality, but significantly increasing wheat yield has been an elusive goal. This year the Wheat CAP project is joining forces with the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP), a consortium coordinating efforts across the world to accelerate improvements in wheat yield.

    Research support from NIFA – A new five-year $9.7 million grant, from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), will continue to support the coordination of public wheat-breeding programs in the U.S. The research focus is on the identification of genes controlling grain yield and their utilization to improve wheat productivity through breeding research at UC Davis and partnering universities.

    The wheat-breeding program at UC Davis has long-used traditional breeding combined with molecular markers to accelerate the deployment of other traits, but no molecular markers were available for yield. The new molecular markers for genes controlling yield traits will accelerate progress in this area. A wheat yield increase of about 1 percent per year, typical up until now, will not meet the needs of a fast-growing human population.

    According to Dubcovsky, “This new project will allow us to understand the genes that control the different yield components, along with total yield.”

    It sounds straightforward, but it’s extremely difficult to breed for yield components. Yield in wheat consists of the average weight of the grain, the number of grains produced per plant, and the number of spikes produced per unit of growing area—these all contribute to total grain yield.

    Sequencing most wheat genes – In collaboration with a group in the UK, Dubcovsky’s group previously developed a tool called “exome-capture” (or gene capture) that can be used to sequence most of the wheat genes at a low cost, while ignoring the repetitive part of the very large wheat genome.

    “Using this new technology, we’ve had to sequence only 180 megabases, rather than the entire 16,000 megabases of the complete bread-wheat genome,” Dubcovsky said. The researchers used this tool to identify more than 10 million mutations in all the wheat genes.

    Dubcovsky’s lab is working to increase the number of grains in the wheat spike, while other groups in the WheatCAP team and IWYP are focusing on increasing grain size.

    Researchers are already testing a gene that increases grain size by 7 percent in wheat varieties grown in California and the UK. It is not yet clear, however, whether the increased grain size will result in an increase in total yield. As part of this project, breeders will move the large-grain trait into varieties known to have the potential for producing high biomass and high yield.

    The need for future plant breeders

    At least 15 graduate students will be trained in this project at different universities. Each student will be in charge of the identification and deployment of one of the beneficial genes. This training is important because there is an increasing demand for modern plant breeders, and limited places to train them.

    “With fewer active breeding programs in the universities, the wheat industry – breeding companies, growers, millers, bakers, and the National Association of Wheat Growers – strongly supports this program because they desperately need people with technical skills to do the breeding,” Dubcovsky said. “Public breeding programs play an important role in training a new generations of breeders that are critical for our future food security.”