NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State
University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
April 1, 1999
The North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station has released Reeder, a new semidwarf hard red spring wheat variety. Reeder will be available this spring to North Dakota county crop improvement associations and the North Dakota Agricultural Association for increase during the 1999 growing season.
Named after the town in Adams County, Reeder is best adapted to western North Dakota, where it is expected to replace 2395, McNeal and 2398, says Al Schneiter, chairman of the Department of Plant Sciences at North Dakota State University. If Reeder were to replace only one-half of the current acreage of those older varieties in the western third of the state, producers' annual income in that area should grow by about $4.7 million, based on current wheat prices and Reeder's yield advantage compared to 2395, McNeal and 2398.
Reeder resulted from a complex cross involving a relative of Stoa, an NDSU experimental line and germplasm from a breeding program in Brazil, says Richard Frohberg, NDSU's hard red spring wheat breeder. The effort to produce Reeder began in 1989.
An awned variety, Reeder is similar to Grandin in maturity, plant height, lodging resistance and test weight. Reeder is slightly lower in protein content than either Grandin or Butte 86. Reeder's milling and baking properties are acceptable.
Frohberg says Reeder has demonstrated resistance to the predominant Upper Midwest races of leaf and stem rust, but it is susceptible to Fusarium head blight (scab) and common root rot.
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Source: Al Schneiter (701) 231-8137
Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136