Agricultural News
'Duster' Worthy of Consideration After Solid 2014 Performance
Mon, 28 Jul 2014 16:58:04 CDT
As wheat planting plans come into focus, the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and Oklahoma Farm Report.com want to help you consider how the genetics developed by Dr. Brett Carver and his Wheat Improvement Team may fit into your wheat production system. A profile of several of the major wheat varieties that have come from the Oklahoma State University program will be offered for the next few weeks. To hear an audio version of this story Click on the LISTEN Bar at the bottom of this story. Today, our initial installment considers Duster.
The 'Duster' germplasm forms a lot of the base of the OSU breeding program. Carver this variety took the longest to get right. This line originally came from Pioneer and testing at OSU began in 1993. The experimental line went through three reconstruction phases from 1993 until the line was released in 2006. Carver says the experimental line had some good yield potential, but it had some flaws.
"The earliest flaws were trying to purify some of the disease reactions of Duster for soil borne mosaic, for leaf rust, those were the primary flaws," Carver said. "There was not a homogenous or more uniform type of reaction in that variety."
In 1995 Dr. Bob Hunger identified single plants that display leaf rust and soilborne mosaic virus resistance. Several other reselections during the next ten years lead to the advanced line. Carver says there was a lot of crossing with the experimental line long before variety was released and today Duster is a pillar in the OSU breeding program. Duster is able to perform well in a wide range of conditions across the entire state of Oklahoma as well as Kansas and Texas.
"The reason this is such a strong foundation for our program, it provided that adaptation that we really needed for Oklahoma in a grazed environment, for a non-grazed, it really didn't matter, and disease resistance was fit for our state," Carver said.
Duster has also shown resistance to Hessian fly. Carver says they are starting to learn that the resistance is unique. Carver says they believe they are finding a way to select for it without having Hessian fly occurring in the field.
In the 2014 OSU wheat variety trial, Duster returned to its position of dominance in terms of grain yield. OSU Wheat Extension Specialist Dr. Jeff Edwards says over the past two or three years Duster's yields have fallen off, but they bounced back in 2014.
"It seemed to do well in the drought stressed environment that we had and was near the top of my trials, in addition to being the excellent forage producer that it has always been," Edwards said.
"I think some producers that were maybe thinking about discarding Duster might decide to hold onto a little longer after the performance this year," he said.
You can find results of the 2014 OSU wheat variety trail by going by Clicking Here.
Click here for the OSU informational brochure for Duster.
Click Here for more information from Oklahoma Genetics Inc.
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