Babe and JD; new spring wheats

Babe and JD; new spring wheats

Farm and Ranch January 27, 2010 A new soft white, common spring wheat called Babe was released this past year by Washington State University. The variety comes from the program of former WSU spring wheat breeder Kim Kidwell. She says Babe is the replacement for Alpowa.

Kidwell: “Babe is a derivative of Alpowa. It has a lot of Alpowa in its pedigree. But what we managed to do is overcome the emergence problem that a lot of people have had with Alpowa. It is more upright that prostrate when it comes out of the ground, which is really a good thing as far as stand establishment goes. It has very similar yield potential. Test weight still high. It has better high temperature adult plant resistance than Alpowa does which is a good thing too. End use quality is a little bit better. So, straight out we think it is a really good tradeoff for Alpowa.”

Another variety released this past year from Kidwell’s program was JD, a spring club wheat.

Kidwell: “And it is a nice little club wheat. The thing that has been great about JD is that it has had great stable performance. A little bit taller than Eden. Yield potential is really good. The test weight is really high and it also has high temperature adult plant resistance to stripe rust, which is a big upside compared to Eden. The thing about that club too is it has exceptional club quality so there are some good marketing interest in JD as well. So if people are growing soft white spring and they are interested in club it is a thing to take a look at because you might be able to take advantage of a club premium.”

Former WSU spring wheat breeder Kim Kidwell.

I’m Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

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