Future Course Of Wheat Breeding

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31862, 14 December 1968, Page 9

Future Course Of Wheat Breeding

“It largely incorporates the present wheat breeding policy at Lincoln with some modifications that can be made for the purpose of breeding wheats for high yield,” the director of the Crop Research Division, Dr H. C. Smith, told the Wheat Research Committee this week when he outlined the likely policy on wheat breeding at the division at Lincoln in the next five to 20 years.

' Dr Smith said that the introduction of high-yielding wheats from overseas as parent varieties, would be continued and crosses made with wheats already adapted to the New Zealand environment. The same procedure would be followed with highquality or disease-resistant wheats from overseas. Early selection of material in both projects would be on agronomic characters, with selection for short straw, resistance to shattering and lodging, freedom from serious leaf diseases, good ear type, and indication of good yield potential. Where all selected material was grown in the fifth generation stage for comparison of yield with the standard variety, samples of lines selected on yield would be milled and baked and at this stage the two projects could be separated, Dr Smith said.

■ High-yielding, good-quality ; lines could be continued as s potential bread wheats and ! high-yielding but indifferents quality lines would be further 1 tested. These would need to • promise reasonable yield in- > creases over the standard var- ■ iety to warrant further work. ' Testing of adaptability of lines in the two projects in the fifth and sixth genera- ! tions should be undertaken in : localities with different environments from Lincoln to make better use of the hybrid 1 material. The proposal to test 1 early generations of hybrid wheats at several localities might accelerate the testing procedure and result in the provision of more wheat varieties suitable for commercial crops. During the past 12 years. Dr Smith said, several com- ; pound crosses of dwarf wheats had been made with New Zealand wheats, but the

bulk of material had been rejected because of poor quality. It was planned to obtain further improved strains of dwarf and semidwarf wheats and to incorporate this material in the current wheat breeding programme. These wheats had been reported to be doing well in countries such as Mexico and Pakistan.

The growing of semidwarf wheats on deep soils under irrigation warranted a preliminary investigation and arrangements would be made to grow pilot trials in suitable areas. This was a new development in which a tentative start would be made.

Co-operative trials with the Department of Agriculture would be continued tri test advanced lines of potential bread wheats and potential feed wheats in the main wheatgrowing districts. The testing of high-yield-ing European wheats in cooperative trials in comparison with the New Zealand standard variety would be carried out as an extension of the second project, he said.

Dr Smith said it was not possible to produce certified basic seed of a new variety for allocation to seed merchants associations in under four years from the first single plant selection for nucleus seed. The first single plant propagations would be Initiated after the second year of full-scale trials so that certified first-generation seed would not be available to farmers until four years after the release of the new variety.! Therefore a new additional procedure would have to be adopted. Uncertified bulk seed could be hot-water treated and grown for increase by the seed certification officer of the Department of Agriculture for allocation to grain merchants’ associations for equitable distribution. From subsequent discussions with the Department of Agriculture, he said it seemed however, that the seed of a new variety might well be released as certified second generation seed. Such a line would be available to farmers three or four years earlier than certified seed would have been under the five-year trial system. Varying views were expressed about the policy by committee members. Dr Smith and Professor R. H. M. Langer, of Lincoln College, took the view that research should not be restricted by the current policy of the com- ; mittee to release only wheats of at least as good baking! quality as Aotea. They felt it: was desirable to have a range I of promising material to meet i possible future requirements' of the wheat industry that might not be foreseen at this | stage. From the growers’: point of view, Sir Walter Mulholland said there was growing interest in use bf feed grains and interest by farmers in high-yielding varieties. On the other band, there was concern from the baking section of the committee about the possible consequences of an increase in the growing of high-yielding wheats of not necessarily very high baking quality. In the face of this concern it was suggested the committee might have to devise systems of control, through perhaps price differentials, to ensure enough! high-quality wheat was grown for baking purposes.