U.S. Interest In Wheat Sprouting

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30064, 23 February 1963, Page 7

U.S. Interest In Wheat Sprouting

r PHE problem of sprouting A wheat will be one of the main interests of Professor Everett Everson, of the Michigan State University, East Lansing, who is spending his sabbatical leave in New Zealand and Australia studying wheat breeding and genetics, which are his particular interests. Professor Everson said that there were only three major growers of soft white wheats in the world—the United States, Australia and New Zealand—apart from a few localised areas in Europe. Elsewhere red wheats were used almost solely for bread making. Michigan specialised in soft white wheats which were bred for pastry quality, while in New Zealand the breeding emphasis was for bread quality. Because of this requirement for the pastry industry the Michigan industry could not move towards the red wheats to counteract sprouting as New Zealand could.

Sprouting was one of the major wheat problems in the world, he said, but it was not publicised as widely as disease and pest problems. Many Asiatic and European countries were deficient in production and were not yet looking seriously at quality. “With the need to fill empty bellies, quality is not looked for and hungry people will eat bread from sprouted wheat readily.” Pests and disease limited yields and were thus taken more notice of, he said.

Mexico was a typical example, he said. That country was now starting to export wheat and was revising its whole programme to produce good quality wheat. Research in Michigan on sprouting was being directed towards isolating the biochemical factor in the seed coat of the red wheat which inhibited sprouting. It was suspected that it existed in varying degrees in the seed coats of all wheat but was greater in red wheats. It might be possible to prepare the chemical in sufficient quantities to • investigate spraying It on wheat crops when weather conditions were liable to cause sprouting, he said. Michigan was fortunate in not having cereal yellow dwarf virus as a problem because the winters were severe and when the aphis flights did occur they were too late to cause trouble. In other states it was a problem.

Hessian fly was widespread and took an annual toll of crops but the loss in yield was about two per cent, on the average. Michigan was fortunate in avoiding much of the rust problem of other wheat growing states as the spores blew northwards. Because it was so close to the lakes the prevailing winds kept a big area free from serious rust problems.

Winter hardiness was a factor which was bred for. With winter snows covering the wheat lands there was some insulation, but the spring thawing and refreezing with sharp frosts could have serious effects.