News Update
September 9, 2011
Colorado State University Releases Two Promising Wheat Varieties
Wheat researcher Scott Haley recently walked through a maze of carefully labeled seed packets in a Colorado State University (CSU) workroom, knowing that amid the array there just might be a new variety that yields success for state wheat growers.
The cache represents more than 30,000 experimental varieties that Haley and his team have developed and will plant in 14 Colorado test plots in September in their ongoing hunt for wheat that thrives in the state’s harsh growing conditions.
“Plant breeding has been likened to a numbers game because genetics is all about probability,” said Haley, who leads the renowned CSU Wheat Breeding and Genetics Program. “From crosses with just a few varieties, you can develop millions of possible trait outcomes, and that’s what we do. We’re looking for the needle in the haystack that will perform well and become the new variety we release to farmers.”
Haley and his team released two such varieties of hard red winter wheat in August, following more than eight years of development and analysis. Research data suggest the varieties — called “Byrd” and “Brawl CL Plus” — have the capacity to produce higher yields and excellent baking flour, even in the face of Colorado farming challenges, including drought, changing climactic conditions, and newly emergent insects and disease.
The CSU Wheat Breeding and Genetics Program is considered exemplary in research and farming circles for its fruitful 50-year partnership with Colorado wheat organizations — a partnership that has provided critical funding for university research while producing varieties that have helped to significantly boost wheat as a state commodity.
In 2010-2011 alone, the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee and Colorado Wheat Research Foundation provided nearly $800,000 to support CSU wheat breeding and wheat-related research. The Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station provided about $1.6 million in state, federal and grant funds. In addition, CSU Extension supports the wheat program with specialists on campus and in statewide offices.
The result is clear: Colorado farmers plant nearly 2.5 million acres of winter wheat each year, and more than 65% of this acreage is planted in varieties developed at CSU, according to the Colorado Agricultural Statistics Service. In 2011, Colorado ranked fourth in the nation in winter wheat production, behind Kansas, Washington and Montana, the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee reported.
Indeed, wheat growers and officials dubbed wheat harvested in 2011 a “miracle crop,” due in large part to CSU wheat varieties that overcame a parched fall, winter and early spring.
“With the drought tolerance that CSU has bred into these varieties, they were able to hold on, and when we did get moisture this spring, it was amazing to see the yields around the state,” said Tom Neira, a Bennett wheat farmer and president of the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee.
That’s significant given the vital role of dryland wheat farming in rural communities stretching up and down Colorado’s Eastern Plains, and demand for wheat among both domestic and export markets.
“We have a phenomenal wheat-research program with CSU, and it’s getting stronger,” said Darrell Hanavan, executive director of the three organizations that make up Colorado Wheat. “There is a dynamic relationship between Colorado wheat producers and our land-grant university.”
Haley is almost giddy when he considers the potential for CSU’s two newest varieties. The Colorado Wheat Research Foundation now holds the ownership and marketing rights for Byrd and Brawl CL Plus, according to an agreement that also involves the CSU Research Foundation and the Colorado Seed Growers Association.
In field trials, Byrd has produced 10% higher yields than CSU’s popular Hatcher variety, which accounts for 35% of Colorado’s total wheat acreage because of its own high, stable yields.
“This is a blockbuster,” Hanavan said of Byrd. “It’s got a 10% yield advantage over the No. 1 variety in Colorado. That’s really significant.”
The variety is named for Byrd Curtis, who was CSU’s first wheat breeder and led the university program for five years beginning in 1963, before moving on to a distinguished international career.
Brawl CL Plus, meantime, is notable for its tolerance to Beyond® herbicide used to combat winter annual grassy weeds in wheat fields, particularly feral rye. “Brawl” alludes to a battle with rye, Haley said.
Among such tolerant varieties, known as Clearfield wheat, Brawl CL Plus is the first publicly developed winter wheat variety that carries a second gene for tolerance to the herbicide. The new varieties are not genetically modified.
Groups Support Committee’s Passage of Senate Ag Appropriations Bill
National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson issued the following statement after the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations passed an ag appropriations bill that did not include a rider that would prevent the implementation of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) rule:
“We are very pleased that Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., chairman of the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, and the rest of committee did not include an anti-GIPSA rider similar to the one passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Just as he has been throughout his legislative career, Sen. Kohl has once again championed the cause of independent farmers and ranchers.
“The GIPSA rule will go a long way towards restoring market competition and helping ensure large producers cannot exert illegal market power over farmers and ranchers. The committee did the right thing in allowing the GIPSA rule to proceed. The rule must be funded and allowed to continue to help reduce the concentration that has taken place in the livestock industry over the past 30 years.”
The South Dakota Stockgrowers Association also applauded the Senate Appropriations Committee. South Dakota Stockgrowers Associaiton Vice President Shane Kolb, Meadow, S.D., said, “This is a huge vote of confidence, from the Senate, for our farmers and ranchers especially in view of the fact that the meat packing industry is working extremely hard to kill this rule. However, we need to be vigilant and supportive of this 2010 Senate Appropriations Bill as itmoves through the channels.”
The Stockgrowers also said they were pleased that the Senate Appropriations Bill did not include the requested $150 million for the Manhattan, Kan., construction of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, which was to be moved from Plum Island, N.Y. Stockgrowers have long objected to moving such a laboratory to the center of livestock country.
USDA’s Mandatory Animal Identification Plan “Is a Packer’s Dream”
Speaking to nearly 200 cattle-producing members in attendance at the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) 12th Annual Convention in Rapid City, S.D., R-CALF USA’s Animal ID Committee Chair, Kenny Fox, described the mandatory animal identification rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Aug. 11, 2011, as “a packer’s dream, a beef packer’s dream.”
Fox explained the new identification rule titled “Traceability for Livestock Moving Interstate” is a thinly-veiled scheme to force U.S. livestock producers to provide economically valuable, source-verification information to beef packers, at no cost to the packers.
“This deceptive rule will change the current standard that export customers now require for verifying the traceability of U.S. beef,” Fox said. “Once a government-sanctioned traceability program is implemented, our export customers will rely on that for verifying the origins of U.S. beef and the premiums many U.S. producers are now receiving from export-oriented packers will evaporate.”
Fox said this will occur because packers would have no reason to continue paying financial premiums to producers, who now voluntarily provide traceability information in return for marketplace premiums, when the federal government intercedes in the market and provides packers with a verifiable traceability trail for free.
“Anyone who thinks current source-verification requirements imposed by exporters will not be relaxed after USDA declares that all U.S. cattle are traceable is naïve,” Fox said, adding, “In fact, it is the goal of the WTO’s (World Trade Organization’s) reference organization, the OIE (the World Organization for Animal Health), which is pushing USDA and all other nations to implement a national animal identification system, to encourage all nations to rely on the one-size-fits-all minimum standards established by the OIE for the purpose of facilitating more trade among nations.”
Fox said the proposed rule is designed to bring the U.S. into compliance with the WTO and OIE in yet another way.
“By delisting the hot-iron brand as an official U.S. identification device or method, USDA is inviting Canada and Mexico to file yet another WTO complaint just as they did against our new country-of-origin labeling law. That’s because we currently require hot-iron brands on Mexican and Canadian imports. After the rule takes effect, both Canada and Mexico can legitimately claim we are imposing a higher standard on their imports than we require of our domestic herds and if they prevail, our ability to trace foreign animal diseases would be severely reduced. This is absurd.”
Fox said the financial windfall for packers is hidden within the proposed rule. He explained that during the initial period of the rule, during which only breeding-age cattle — the beef from which is not typically exported — would be subject to USDA’s new identification requirements, farmers and ranchers are exempt from those official identification requirements if the cattle are being shipped directly to slaughter.
However, he said, “As soon as younger feeder cattle — cattle from which exportable beef is produced — are included under the identification requirements, the rule states the exemption will expire for cattle shipped directly to slaughter. That means in the very near future all cattle delivered to a packer must bear an official identification number, and packers then can legitimately claim that they only sell traceable beef, without having to pay a dime for this value-added information.
“USDA is giving the packers a valuable present by taking away from U.S. livestock producers an economically rewarding opportunity to add value to their cattle.
“I’m convinced the driving force behind this proposed rule is not disease control or prevention. Even the Agriculture Secretary touts the rule as an export enhancement tool, though he failed to disclose that the benefits are intended for exporting packers and not for the livestock producers who would bear the cost of the new system.
“If the purpose of this proposed rule was to improve our nation’s disease control capabilities, then USDA would not have removed the hot-iron brand and tattoos from the agency’s current list of official animal identification devices or methods as these traditional identification methods are far more permanent than the ear tags USDA prefers.
“In addition, USDA would not have ignored the livestock industry’s specific request that younger feeder cattle — cattle that can readily be identified under current interstate shipment requirements and that are typically slaughtered before reaching 18 months of age — not be included in the agency’s initial rule.
“This proposed rule should be flatly rejected by every U.S. livestock producer and we should continue heeding the advice of our sister organization in Australia that has urged us to fight any government-led mandatory animal identification system to the last cowboy,” Fox concluded.
The deadline for submitting public comments on USDA’s proposed rule “Traceability for Livestock Moving Interstate” is Nov. 9, 2011, though R-CALF USA and several other groups already have asked USDA for a 60-day extension. The public may submit comments by either of the following methods:
- Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov/
#!documentDetail;D=APHIS-2009-0091-0001. - Postal Mail/Commercial Delivery: Send your comment to Docket No. APHIS-2009-0091, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238.
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