AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — Wheat production in our region is challenged by diseases, insects, and our semi-arid climate. The Texas A&M AgriLife Wheat Breeding program in Bushland is researching ways to help local area farmers.

The goal behind the wheat breeding program is to produce the best product to local farmers and to improve wheat.

“The goal is to get better. Each variety needs to be better than what the farmers used to have,” explained Professor of Wheat Breeding with Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Dr. Jackie Rudd. “It’s a long-term process, we make a cross and then it’s almost 10 to 12, even sometimes up to 15 years later, before a variety comes from that.”

Senior Research Associate with Texas A&M AgriLife Research and PhD student in plant breeding with Texas A&M University, Shannon Baker, explained that wheat breeding is a long process and it starts with selecting two parents. It can take anywhere from 12-15 years, with newer methods, such as double haploid production, it can cut 2 to 3 years from the long process.

“Wheat has three genomes, so there is a lot of potential combinations that can happen when we cross two parents together. Wheat is self pollinated, it’s got the male and female parts together in the same flower, we remove the immature male reproductive parts of the pollen, we leave the female parts in, then we choose what we want the male of that cross to be,” said Baker. “A few days later, we shake in the pollen from the other parent that we want to include, and we cover it up with one of these bags, and we let the kernels mature.”

Baker further explained details on the wheat breeding process in an extended interview down below:

With wheat breeding improvements throughout the years, it has helped increase the wheat yield across our area.

“In the Texas High Plains, the yield was about 20 bushels per acre in the 1970s,” said Baker. Through the wheat breeding that has happened here at the Amarillo Center, it has increased to about 35 bushels per acre for dryland yield. For irrigated yields, they can be 100 bushels per acre or more.”

There are many different environments in Texas, from a dry climate in the Panhandle to wet and humid in East Texas. Professor of Wheat Breeding with Texas A&M AgriLife Research Dr. Jackie Rudd explained that the same experimental breeding lines are grown across the state to observe disease and insect resistance.

“In our area, it’s drought tolerance. We’ve had two really bad years in a row, and this year is looking better. But now in East Texas, this year, we’ve got too much water, there’s water standing in the fields. That’s hurting the wheat too,” explained Dr. Rudd. “That’s where we have to have that disease resistance. We have to have the roots be resistant to conditions that that are unexpected.”

Disease and insect resistance is only a small part of what the program does. They also focus on grain yield and quality. Dr. Rudd explains that the wheat breeding group is currently working on increasing fiber level in wheat, since they have the germplasm available.

“One of the human nutrition things that are very important, I think, in that we can work with wheat, is to increase that fiber level. We’re working on that right now,” said Dr. Rudd. “Whole wheat has that fiber level, but not everybody enjoys whole wheat products. So, what if we get the white bread to have the same fiber level that whole wheat bread does?”

An ongoing issue that has emerged for wheat producers has been stripe rust. “I’ve been here for 20 years, and it’s the most severe across the state that we’ve seen,” said Dr. Rudd. Below is an extended interview of Dr. Rudd talking about the stripe rust now found in the Texas High Plains.

On Thursday, May 23, the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center will have a Wheat Field Day in Bushland for the public. The USDA and Texas Wheat Producers Board and Association will also take part on the Wheat Field Day. The informative event will offer an update on the current conditions, a plot tour, information on wheat varieties, and more. The event will take place at the Porter Wheat Building, located at 2301 Experiment Station Road, starting at 8:00 a.m. with donuts and coffee and then following with the welcome ceremony. For a further look at the agenda, click here.

For more information about the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Amarillo, click here.