Evolution of the WSU Variety Testing Program with Drs. Garland-Campbell and Pumphrey

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Drew Lyon: Hello, welcome to the WSU Wheat Beat podcast. I’m your host, Drew Lyon, and I want to thank you for joining me as we explore the world of small grains production and research at Washington State University. In each episode, I speak with researchers from WSU and the USDA-ARS to provide you with insights into the latest research on wheat and barley production.

If you enjoy the WSU Wheat Beat podcast, do us a favor and subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast app and leave us a review so others can find the show too.

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My guests today are Dr. Mike Pumphrey and Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell. Mike is a professor of spring wheat breeding and genetics at WSU. His breeding program focuses on the development of high-yielding, high-quality and pest- and disease-resistant spring wheat varieties for diverse Washington production environments. His current releases are the most widely planted spring wheats in the northwest.

Breeding goals in his program also include herbicide-tolerant wheat varieties, high falling numbers, and varieties with specific value-added end-use characteristics. Mike teaches courses in crop growth and development and advanced principles in plant breeding and genetics, in addition to broad involvement in WSU Extension programs.

Kim is a research geneticist in the USDA-ARS Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality Research Unit in Pullman. Kim has been a wheat breeder since 1992 and has been in Pullman since 1999. Her research focuses on genetic improvement of wheat to reduce grower risk and improve marketability and end-use quality. Her research emphasizes the use of quantitative genetics for analysis and control of genotype by environment (genotype x environment) interaction. She has the distinction of being the only wheat breeder who has a primary focus on club wheat.

Hello, Mike.

Dr. Mike Pumphrey: Hi, Drew.

Drew Lyon: Hello, Kim.

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: Hi, Drew.

Drew Lyon: So, can one of you tell me what the role of the WSU cereal variety testing program is?

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: That program has a role that is larger than what many people realize. It’s one of the programs that provides an objective source of data testing public and private wheat lines together all over the state. The information is also used by the wheat breeders to justify release of lines–and that’s also public and private wheat breeders to justify release. And it’s also used by several other researchers in agronomy, herbicide, weed control, and soil microbiology as a source of plots and grain for testing. The wheat that’s harvested from the Variety Testing Program also goes over to the USDA [Wheat] Quality Lab and becomes the source of the samples that are used to do the preferred variety brochure. So, it’s a really important program.

Drew Lyon: Okay. It does a lot of things. I ask because the release of the 2024 data has been a little slow this year. Can you tell us why that has been?

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: Yeah. The Variety Testing Program experienced some staffing shortages in 2024. And after harvest, well during harvest, you know, in this part of the country, for winter wheat especially, we are harvesting and planting at the same time. And so, the decision was made to get the harvest in and then turnaround and immediately prep and prepare the samples for timely fall seeding of the winter wheat plots. And they all went in on time and they came up and we’ve taken a look at them and they all look pretty good right now. And then after that, we went back and started analyzing the data because we really wanted to take time with the data to validate it and make sure that we are putting really good data out.

Drew Lyon: Okay. And I also noticed that the data this year has come out in a new format. Can you explain why the new format this year?

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: Yeah, I’ll let Mike explain that one.

Dr. Mike Pumphrey: Yeah. You know, it’s time with–as an institution and state policy, there are certain requirements for accessibility and how the data is presented. And the system that was used before was not compliant with how we’re going to be legally allowed to present information and, honestly, maybe even not the most user friendly. So, we’re really trying to take this opportunity of complying with the new requirements and to, you know, give the growers information in a clearer way, but also develop some new tools that will be accessible that will allow them to explore the data even more effectively.

Drew Lyon: Okay. Excellent. So, plots have all been planted on time for the coming year. The data that’s showing up is good data; it’s all been looked at closely and it’s just presented a little differently and so people should take a look and see what they find there, I assume.

Dr. Mike Pumphrey: Yeah. And that’s currently live on the variety testing website, already accessible for the spring wheat with winter wheat data being added right now as well.

Drew Lyon: Okay. So, it’ll all be up to date, which is a little behind normal but still it’s going to be there and people should trust what they see up there. If it gets posted, it’s good data.

Dr. Mike Pumphrey: That’s correct.

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: That’s true. Yeah. We wouldn’t post it if it wasn’t. And I—the [combination]–having to go back and do the, you know, wait to analyze the data after harvest and then developing the websites for this accessibility, that’s what has made it a little bit slower this year. But, we should have everything up by next week.

Drew Lyon: Okay. So, it’s kind of the perfect storm that we’ve been through, but we’ve gotten through it now. All right.

You mentioned, having to harvest and plant right away. I did notice that when I moved from Nebraska to here, that there is no—there’s six weeks there in Nebraska between harvest completing and getting seed in the ground. And here, there is no time there.

So, the data is good. What did we learn from the winter wheat and spring wheat data from 2024? Are there general trends of how varieties performed?

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: Yeah. Mike and I were talking a little bit about this this morning before we started. The winter wheat data, there’s just a lot of it, you know. We have the CLOAX trials, which is all the herbicide-resistant lines. We have the soft winter wheat trials and then we also have the hard winter wheat trials.

And in the CLOAX trials, there’s a set of about five lines that pretty much are, you know, if you’re looking at those, if you’re picking one of those, you’re probably okay. And I would say some of the Limagrain, Clearfield, and CoAX lines and then also Piranha and Sockeye and the new one from WSU, Nova AX, they’re just at the top in all the rainfall zones.

And then, the soft winter wheat, it was interesting to me. The emergence–in 2023 fall, we didn’t have the problems with emergence that we have seen in most years. We actually had some good rainfall in September that year. And so, in the negative 12 rainfall zone, you get some lines you wouldn’t expect doing really well. I think, you know, in that case you really have to look at multiyear data.

And then in the other rainfall zones, it was interesting that some of the older lines, like Norwest Tandem seem to do really well and Norwest Duet. And I think part of that reason is the environments really favored earlier lines this year.

And then the other line that it kind of comes across as doing well quite a bit is LCS Shine, which has been near the top of a lot of the soft white trials for quite a bit. It was interesting also, if you look at the proteins, proteins are pretty low across the board, but at Pullman they were quite high last year, and that was due to that heat that we got–I think it was in mid-July, end of July. That shut down a lot of the grain maturity and we’ve seen that at the Pullman locations and my own breeding trials too.

And then in the hard wheat, again, it pretty much, you know, LCS Jet I think is the number one hard wheat. And you can see why that is as you look across the trials. There [are] some other very good ones too that are competitive.

And again, the proteins tended to be a little low. In fact, Mike and I were talking about this protein management—well, nitrogen management as an area that needs research because the weather, you know, you think you have the nitrogen on at the right time and then all the rain leaches it away in the winter. And then you go out to put more on in the spring and then we don’t get rain and it doesn’t get incorporated. And it’s just like we–it’s a struggle with nitrogen management.

Drew Lyon: Points to the reason why you should look at multiyear data though, because every year seems to have something a little different about it and so you don’t really get a good feel ‘til you look over a number of years and sites even.

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: That’s right. And then, Mike, you might want to talk about the spring wheat a little bit.

Dr. Mike Pumphrey: Yeah. I’ll just end with a comment on the protein because we see it in hard red spring wheat as well. That’s why we do, you know, soil sample at all these locations. We rely in many locations on the growers and their traditional, you know, practice or whatever they’re doing in that field. But we monitor that and try to make sure that if there is a clear deficiency, we’re building it up to be reasonable for that crop, because we might be planning a hard red trial on soft white acres.

But it’s a challenge. And so that extra layer of complexity of managing, you know, hard red winter wheat trials on traditional soft white spring wheat or soft white winter wheat ground adds a little bit more, you know, challenge to the system. But, we’re very well aware and try to keep that in mind.

As far as spring wheat variety performance in 2024, it’s similar to what Kim mentioned with earliness. The heat wave that came in mid-July this year, you know, the stands across the state looked a lot better than I’d seen them, you know, the year before. And, [I] was really optimistic. But that heat wave basically forced maturity on a lot of lines.

And so, we saw that with test weights. We saw that with, you know, how much volunteer’s going out the back of the combine with shriveled seeds. The potential of the crop was much greater than the finish of the crop because of that heat wave. With that, the varieties like Ryan, Butch CL+, the hard red spring wheats that are earlier in maturity, like Hale, really shined again.

So, the fact that those are lines that are at the top of the yield level in a good year, but also in a hot, dry, early year, you know, shows us that for spring wheat in particular, maturity is important. Keep that in mind and kind of the direction of that farmers have told us they want to go is earlier maturing lines that yield more. And that’s always a challenge. But that’s what we continue to focus on.

But basically, the usual suspects continued to perform quite well with a few lines like Seahawk or Tekoa being good examples that we know are later in maturity. They can really shine in a year that has abundant moisture and favorable temperatures. Last year, they took a hit. Whether it was in yield or seed quality, they really took a hit with that heat wave. You know, they may have maintained test weight, but they got cut on yield or they may have maintained yield, but they got cut on test weight. So, early adaptation, high test weight, those were the real winners.

Drew Lyon: Okay. So, nothing really surprising about the year, especially given the type of environment.

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: Yeah, I think the only thing that was gratifying in a way was, you know, I had been looking at the data from Pullman and was, you know, kind of disappointed. But when I saw–the test weights are a little low at Pullman, too, because of that heat, but then you go up to Creston and man, that trial and the yields up there were great. And so, there actually were some areas in the state that were quite good last year. And so, that was nice to see.

Dr. Mike Pumphrey: I summarized in a Wheat Life article that I think is coming out within the next few weeks. Overall, our production in 2024 spring wheat was up about 15% compared to 2023 on the same acres. So, it wasn’t the worst year in the world. It’s just without that heat, I like to imagine what it could have been.

Drew Lyon: Yeah. It sure started off well; it had good moisture, we were cool. But when things changed, they really changed.

So, you mentioned personnel issues with the Variety Testing Program. The Variety Testing Program is being reorganized and you two are heavily involved in that. Are there any big changes this year and how the Variety Testing Program will be run?

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: Yeah. What we decided to do was have–we have the breeders kind of being the overall management of the Variety Testing Program this year and actually because Arron Carter and Mike and I and Bob Brueggeman get along so well, it’s actually working really well. And we all kind of have our own roles that we’ve adopted, and we communicate quite often.

And then we have two technicians. My technician, Tricia Demacon and Mike’s technician, Vadim Jitkov, who’ve both been here for quite a while and they’ve taken over kind of the day-to-day management. And I need to add, Alecia Kiszonas is in there, too. She’s the director of the cultivar testing program at the Quality Lab and she is working with them to make sure we get all of the sampling correct and get all the samples where they have to go in the fall.

Dr. Mike Pumphrey: And this goes back to the fact, you know, the program ended up short on technical staff. And so, our best way forward is to take technical staff that are really in tune and know this to help them train the next generation of staff that we’re currently recruiting and getting in place to operate the program moving forward.

Drew Lyon: Okay, so a plan is in place. The program is set to move forward. As you’ve mentioned, the winter wheat trials were all successfully put in the ground last fall. I assume, Mike, the spring wheat trials are all set to go or are being prepared to go this spring as well?

Dr. Mike Pumphrey: That’s correct. We have sent out the normal solicitation for entries to all the public and private breeding companies. We’ve got seeds, you know, stacking up already. The paperwork’s getting done and everything’s on time as far as, you know–and as expected for spring planting at this point.

Drew Lyon: Okay, I know a lot of growers go to the Small Grains website and the variety testing pages on that website to find out where trials are located. Are those maps going to be available soon for growers?

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: Yeah, they should. The 2025 maps for the winter wheat should go up at the same time as the 2024 data goes up. We’ve sent all that over too–it’s being formatted for the webpage right now.

Drew Lyon: Okay.

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: And, it’s the typical, you know, we will put a map in there so you can–it’s a Google map, so you can see how to get to things. And then we put the GPS location too. And it would be great, you know, if people are out and they see that they’re near a variety testing site and they want to get out and take a picture for us and send it back, you know, that would be wonderful.

Drew Lyon: Okay, well, we’ll make sure we get your contact information in our show notes so people can do that if they want to do that.

Dr. Mike Pumphrey: I’ll just add, Drew, that the traditional way of having just an individual PDF file with a map that’s been one of the sort of casualties of our new data accessibility and compliance rules. So, we’re looking at–the good news is we’re looking at really modern, you know, easy ways to access that now, instead of a specific file type that even I, when I would look at the map, would have a hard time with with normal vision or no accessibility issues reading the font. And so, we’re trying to make this come up to a digital age.

Drew Lyon: Yeah, yeah. Accessibility is a real issue for–I work with a team on the website and we’re all having to learn how to make our documents more accessible, which is a good thing, but it’s teaching, in this case, an old dog a new trick, so it takes a little while for the dog to figure it out.

Dr. Mike Pumphrey: I’d like to say we appreciate that. And I think, you know, the nice thing is that growers are going to see this difference in the benefit of all of us kind of coming on board at the same time.

Drew Lyon: Okay. So, that leaves the question as you go into this new arrangement of the Variety Testing Program: what are you two excited about going forward?

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: Well, we are, you know, the other part of the Variety Testing Program is the variety selection tool, which has operated as a website. And you can also pull it up on your phone, but it was pretty clunky on the phone, frankly. And it allowed you to kind of select which varieties you wanted and, you know, certain rainfall zones and then ranked them according to various traits, and that’s being upgraded. And again, Mike, you should give more details on that.

Dr. Mike Pumphrey: Yeah. We’re fortunate in the team we have, you know, between research, Extension, and even other departments, you know, related to plant sciences here at WSU. So, David Crowder in the Department of Entomology already leads some decision support aids and online tools for the orchard and vineyard industry and others. And so, we’ve got a great deal of expertise to draw on. We’ve already got a beta website being developed that’s going to allow us to access and basically communicate with our database of our research in wheat in ways that are more “query-able”, more immediately, you know, accessible to get the kind of information you want instead of the static, you know, reports that we’ve been generating and presenting.

So, I think growers, you know, that we’ve spoken with so far, seed dealers, other industry leaders, and, you know, consultants have been very positive about the things we’ve told them to date because they can see how this is going to benefit everyone across the board. Like I said, mainly as a casualty of accessibility, but it’s an opportune time to upgrade this whole system.

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: Yeah. And we’ve been able to talk with them and kind of explain what the features can be and received some input back like, “Oh, I’d like to see it sorted this way. I’d like to choose it this way.” And we’ve fed that back to the programmers. And so, that’s great to have it all integrated in a way people will want to look at it.

Dr. Mike Pumphrey: I do want to recognize right now that, you know, the variety testing program has an advisory committee made up of farmers, of seed dealers, of grain commissioners, of other industry representatives, and scientists. And, we’re fortunate to have them volunteer their time. But, you know, they will always get input into these things as they’re developed and launched so that we make sure that we’re staying in tune with those needs and that there’s direct industry and grower feedback all throughout the process.

Drew Lyon: All right. Well, that does sound like change is coming, but it sounds [like] very positive change. So, I hope growers and listeners out there will check out the variety testing pages on the Small Grains website and when this new tool is available, go use it. I know when I came in 2012, I worked to develop the tool that had been up there and it was developed with an old [programming] language that nobody understands anymore and so it really was in need of some updating. So, I’m glad that’s happening.

And I think wheat is extremely important in our cropping systems in this part of the world and this is an important program to help support growers and their efforts to grow the best crop they possibly can. Thanks for your efforts. Thanks for being on my show today.

Dr. Kim Garland-Campbell: Thanks, Drew.

Dr. Mike Pumphrey: Thanks, Drew. We’re excited.

Drew Lyon:

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Thanks for joining us and listening to the WSU Wheat Beat podcast. If you like what you hear don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or your favorite podcast app. If you have questions or topics you’d like to hear on future episodes, please email me at drew.lyon — that’s lyon@wsu.edu — (drew.lyon@wsu.edu). You can find us online at smallgrains.wsu.edu and on Facebook and Twitter [X] @WSUSmallGrains. The WSU Wheat Beat podcast is a production of CAHNRS Communications and the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University.

I’m Drew Lyon, we’ll see you next time.

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The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by guests of this podcast are their own and does not imply Washington State University’s endorsement.