June 30, 2014 – PlainsGold varieties available for fall 2014 winter wheat planting were announced recently, including the highly popular PlainsGold Byrd and the newest addition, PlainsGold Antero.
Publicly-developedPlainsGold varieties continue to gain market share across the High Plains. Currently, more than 61 percent of winter wheat acres in Colorado are planted in PlainsGold varieties. The PlainsGold brand is expanding into more states, including Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Texas. There are more than 100 seed growers now offering PlainsGold varieties, compared to about 75 a year ago.
PlainsGold Byrd made its anticipated commercial debut in 2013, after extensive testing. This hard red winter wheat variety topped the Colorado State University (CSU) dryland and irrigated trials for three years in a row. Byrd shows excellent drought tolerance, good test weight, intermediate stripe rust resistance and superior end-use quality. This medium-maturing variety is of medium height, has medium-long coleoptile length and average straw strength. In 2013, 100 percent of available certified seed sold.
PlainsGold Antero, a hard white winter wheat variety, was the highest-yielding in the 2013 CSU Dryland Variety Performance Trials and was second only to the blockbuster hard red winter wheat variety PlainsGold Byrd in three-year yield averages. In addition to outstanding yields, Antero exhibits good drought tolerance and excellent test weights, is stripe rust resistant and has excellent milling and baking qualities. Antero has medium height and maturity.
PlainsGold Brawl CL Plus is a Clearfield® two-gene hard red winter wheat variety, which means it provides a greater degree of tolerance to Beyond™ herbicide for the control of winter annual grassy weeds, particularly feral rye. Brawl CL Plus is early maturing, high-yielding (comparable to PlainsGold Hatcher), has a tall plant stature and excellent test weight and straw strength, an intermediate reaction to stripe rust, moderate resistance to leaf rust, and excellent milling and baking characteristics. In addition, it has good drought tolerance.
PlainsGold Denali excels in Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. This hard red winter wheat variety has excellent yields on both dryland and irrigation, excellent test weight, resistance to Hessian fly, good drought tolerance, medium straw strength and good milling properties. In three-year dryland trials, Denali has consistently ranked near the top, beating out many popular, high-yielding varieties. This variety has medium-late maturity, is medium-tall and medium-long coleoptile length.
PlainsGold Hatcher is the hard red winter wheat market leader, planted on approximately 25 to 35 percent of winter wheat acres in Colorado for the past four years and has been the most popular winter wheat variety in Colorado for seven years, due in large part to Hatcher’s high dryland yields and good drought tolerance. This medium-maturing variety has good test weight, excellent baking quality, resistance to Russian wheat aphid biotype 1, and is moderately resistant to both stem rust and stripe rust.
PlainsGold Snowmass is PlainsGold’s leading hard white winter wheat variety and offers Colorado farmers premium pricing through the Ultragrain® Premium Program offered by Colorado Wheat Research Foundation (CWRF) and Ardent Mills. Snowmass combines good dryland yields and good test weights with excellent milling and baking characteristics. It is resistant to wheat streak mosaic virus and stem rust, has good drought tolerance, is medium-maturing with medium-tall height and has medium coleoptile length.
PlainsGold Thunder CL is a single-gene Clearfield® hard white winter wheat variety that is tolerant to Beyond™ herbicide for broad-spectrum weed control, including problematic winter annual grassy weeds. In addition, Thunder CL combines good yields, good stress tolerance, good stripe and stem rust resistance, good wheat streak mosaic virus tolerance, and good test weights with superior milling and baking qualities. Thunder CL is also an excellent irrigated wheat variety, has excellent straw strength, medium-early maturity and medium coleoptile length. This variety is eligible for the Ultragrain® Premium Program offered by CWRF and Ardent Mills.
Winter wheat farmers can find more information on PlainsGold, including a list of all new seed growers, on www.PlainsGold.com, or by contacting the PlainsGold office toll-free at 1-800-WHEAT-10, or (970) 449-6994. Farmers can also send an email to info@plainsgold.com.
The PlainsGold brand was introduced in 2012, yet its winter wheat varieties are some of the most well-known and innovative available today in the High Plains. The PlainsGold brand and varieties are owned by the farmer-governed CWRF board of directors. Royalties from the sale of PlainsGold seed support public wheat breeding at Colorado State University. This further enhances the funding provided by the wheat assessment paid by all Colorado wheat farmers.
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