Dakota Farmer

MN-Washburn includes a gene for resistance to barley yellow dwarf virus.

September 13, 2019

2 Min Read
closeup of young wheat plants
NEW VARIETY: A new spring wheat is available from the University of Minnesota for planting in 2020.

There’s a new hard red spring wheat variety available for 2020 that contains a gene for resistance to barley yellow dwarf virus. The variety is call MN-Washburn. It was developed and released by the University of Minnesota earlier this year.

“MN-Washburn features excellent straw strength and good overall disease resistance. In Minnesota state trials, MN-Washburn stood out due to its consistent yield, superior straw strength and overall disease resistance,” according to Jim Anderson, University of Minnesota wheat breeder. “While lower in protein than other recent UMN releases, MN-Washburn still provides excellent milling and baking quality.”

The new release is named after the Washburn A flour mill, which was built in 1874 and then rebuilt in 1880 after a fire. The Washburn A mill was once the largest flour mill in the world. At its peak, it milled approximately two million pounds of flour a day. The Washburn A flour mill, along with others in the area, helped earn Minneapolis the nickname The Mill City.

“MN-Washburn is a great all-arounder in addition to being the first hard red spring wheat to contain the bdv2 gene for resistance to BYDV,” says Jochum Wiersma, University of Minnesota Extension agronomist, Crookston.

MN-Washburn joins several other recent University of Minnesota spring wheat varieties, including Lang-MN (2017), Shelly (2016), Bolles (2015), Linkert (2013) and Rollag (2011). These varieties offer growers a good combination of strong characteristics and perform well across the upper Midwest, Wiersma says.

More detailed performance data and comparisons of previously released varieties can be found on the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station website at maes.umn.edu. Prior to being formally named, MN-Washburn was tested as MN10201-4-A.

Source: University of Minnesota Extension Service, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.

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