Future Aims In Wheat Breeding

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31542, 2 December 1967, Page 9

Future Aims In Wheat Breeding

“In the South Island work will continue towards the breeding of a new wheat variety which will combine the

high yields of Aotea with tiie excellent baking qualities of Hilgendorf 61,” says Mr L. GCopp, senior cereal breeder at the Crop

Research Division at Lincoln, in the latest issue of the “New Zealand Wheat Review.”

“Such a variety will be grown without the benefit of a subsidy, but will maintain or raise the general level of baking quality of the* wheat grown in the South Island. “The development of a sprouting-resistant wheat for Southland will be continued, and the search will be maintained for a variety which can be used for the breeding of strains of commercial varieties resistant to cereal yellow dwarf virus. “The possibility of using irrigation to offset spring droughts in Canterbury will be and the breeding of varieties suitable for growing under irrigation will be initiated.

“Throughout the breeding and testing work, the assistance of the plant pathologist, the entomologist arid the agronomist will be sought, and new techniques for the early rejection of lines of poor milling quality will be used. The requirements of the baking industry will be covered by insistence on a baking quality better than that of the present standard variety. ... “New wheats, after passing these stringent tests, must still meet the wheatgrowers’ requirements for high yield, short straw, freedom from lodging and shattering, resistance to major diseases,' and earliness,” Mr Copp says.

“The submissions to the Committee of Inquiry into the

Wheat, Flour and Bread Industries in 1963 drew attention to the need for wheats bred for specific purposes, such as the production of cake flours, biscuit manufacture and poultry feed, in addition to the requirement for bread baking. At present, lines of wheat are bought or rejected according to their compliance with the milling wheat standards based on bread baking tests.

“No provision is made in the wheat marketing regulations for the sale of wheats suitable for purposes alternative to that of bread baking, except under-grade wheat for poultry feed. In this respect, the full potential of hybrid lines produced by the wheat breeders is not being explored.”

Mr Copp says that New Zealand has an advantage over other countries in that technical services for the three main industries—wheat growing, flour milling and bread baking—are coordinated.

As each industry made advances in technique, the repercussions affected the general policy of the wheat breeder. For instance, a new wheat had been bred which had proved suitable for use in mechanised bakeries, and this had been achieved without neglecting the requirement of the flour miller.