New variety development and marketing agreements between western universities and seed breeding in Washing and Idaho are focused on the wheat industry.

The University of Idaho field day earlier this year focused on Limagrain Cereal Seeds varieties,  highlighting collaborative UI-LCS research and breeding to help wheat growers in the state and Pacific  Northwest.

At Washington State University, an announcement that it will help Syngenta's AgriPro market a new variety of wheat called  "Dayn,'' means WSU will market the seeds within  the state, while AgriPro maintains the out-of-state sales licensing to registered seed dealers.

Two new wheats are available in the West thanks to collaborations between Washington and Idaho with Syngenta and Limagrain.

"Working with AgriPro offers us a fantastic opportunity to expand our capacity for h high-quality white wheat production in the Pacific Northwest, says Kim Kidwell, former WSU spring wheat breeder who developed Dayn.

Dayn comes with a high resistance to strip rust, excellent grain quality for food production, and superior yields in irrigated areas like southern Idaho, says Michael Pumphrey, WSU spring wheat breeder.

The agreement with AgriPro is part of a more aggressive approach by WSU to protect and market its wheat and barley varieties. Increasing competition coupled with the desire to breed varieties with superior end-use quality that adapt to the diverse climates of the Pacific Northwest drove the strategy.

"When opportunities exist to partner and market  varieties outside of Washington, we will explore agreements like this one on a case-by-case basis," explains WSU College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences Dean Jim Moyer.  "We took a Washington-firsts approach in which the needs of Washington wheat growers and seed dealers were met before going outside the area."

The agreement follows a Syngenta Cereals strategy of collaborating with partners to help improve varieties and get the best genetics to PNW producers, notes Paul Morano, Syngenta-GreenLeaf key account management chief.

Washington wheat growers helped support development of Dayn through assessment dollars administered by the Washington Grain Commission. Royalties collected from sales outside of the state will be reinvested in the WSU breeding program to develop new wheat varieties for Washington producers.

The UI collaboration with Limagrain marks a similar deal between commercial firms and public institutions to enhance genetic research of cereal varieties.

During the field  day, UI fanfared a new wheat jointly released by UI and WSU, called "UI-WSU Huffman,  in honor of the late UI College of Agricultural and Life Sciences  alumnus Bradley Huffman, who made "significant contributions" to the UI breeding program, according to UI plant breeder Jack Brown.

Huffman died last year at 22-years-old.

The new variety offers high yields under dryland conditions, with excellent quality and good resistance to two important wheat diseases -- Cephalosporium stripe and yellow stripe rust -- , says Brown, who oversaw the variety's later development and release when Huffman's development ended  suddenly due to …

UI-WSU Huffman is a joint release because it resulted from a cross between Bruneau, a cultivar developed by former UI wheat breeder Bob Zemetra, and a wheat breeding line developed at WSU.

The new variety will be licensed by and marketed exclusively by Limagrain, with all royalties that would normally go to the cultivar breeder and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences will go  to the Bradley Huffman Scholarship  for Plant Breeding and Plant Sciences.