“Healthy Wheat” Theme of 2007 Wheat Quality Council Meeting

The Wheat Quality Council (WQC) held its annual meeting, forum and wheat varietal technical review sessions recently in Kansas City, with about 120 representatives of the wheat industry attending. This annual meeting brings together wheat breeders, producers, millers, processors and bakers, where participants preview milling and baking qualities of wheat varieties that will be released, grown and processed in the next few years.

Wheat breeders have an opportunity to network with the industry to determine what quality characteristics the millers and bakers would like to see in new wheat varieties.  At the meeting, Brian Sorenson, technical director of the Northern Crops Institute in Fargo, was elected chair of the WQC governing board for 2007.

The health aspects of wheat were the focus of several speakers:

Len Marquart, Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota, presented information on “The Future of Grains and Health Research.” He discussed the perceived value of whole grains in preventing many diseases, but how enough research has not been done in many instances to be fully confident about making claims to consumers.  He urged academia, government and industry to work closer together to substantiate the value of whole grains. This could allow wheat breeders to actually breed healthier traits into future varieties.

Nurhan Dunford, Oklahoma State University Food and Agricultural Products Center, spoke on “Power Beyond the Flour in a Wheat Biorefinery System.” She too stressed how the nutritional and bioactive components of wheat might reduce the risks of coronary heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes and cancer. She stated that some by-products of the milling industry are much more valuable than is currently thought. For instance, wheat germ has three times as much protein, seven times as much oil, fifteen times as much sugar and six times as much mineral content as the flour itself.  She feels many of the components of wheat could be used as replacements for typical supplements found in health food and grocery stores.  Wheat could be used for many more value-added purposes.

Gerald Combs, USDA Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, talked about “Opportunities for High Selenium Wheat in Reducing Cancer Risk.” The country of Finland has actually added selenium to soil fertilizers to increase the human levels through plant and animal consumption. China has the world’s lowest known levels of blood plasma selenium content.  Selenium has been shown to reduce heart disease, viral infections (including HIV/AIDS) and cancer. 

Selenium has been effective in every animal tumor study ever conducted.  In one major trial, supplemental selenium reduced total mortality in humans from 129 to 108 and cancer deaths from 58-28.  It seems to be particularly effective against prostate cancer. The highest selenium soils in the U.S. are found in western North and South Dakota. Wheat grown there and processed into bread products could prove to be very effective in reducing some major health risks.

Hayden Wands is director of procurement for Sara Lee Corporation.  Sara Lee is the first genuine pan bread baker to join the Wheat Quality Council in several years. Wands described Sara Lee’s involvement in the baking, meat and food service areas of the industry.  He said they are looking for stronger gluten strength flours that will assure the bread will not ‘squash’ during stacking on the grocery shelves. He also noted that many of Sara Lee’s new bread products contain ingredients such as blueberries, further accentuating the need for stronger flours.

Wheat Variety Reviews
There were 51 breeder submitted lines and checks entered for evaluation this year, up from 35 last year. A total of 31 cooperators from across the U.S. helped in the evaluation of these lines harvested in 2006, which included hard winter, hard spring, and eastern soft winter wheat lines.

Among the hard winter lines, the following were decisions made based on breeder comments at the meeting:

WestBred LLC, has released two varieties.  One hard red named “Smoky Hill,” has good leaf and stripe rust protection along with soil borne and spindle streak mosaic virus resistance.  One hard white wheat named “Aspen” has good leaf and stripe rust resistance, good soil borne and spindle streak mosaic virus resistance plus good sprout resistance.

South Dakota State University entered two hard red winters and one hard white winter.  One hard red will probably not be released and the other is under consideration. The hard white has pretty good baking and noodle quality and is under consideration for release in the summer of 2007.

In the Hard Springs, results are as follows:

University of Minnesota entered two hard reds. One has large kernel size with good yield and scab resistance, a potential 2008 release. The other is on hold for now and may be back in a couple of years after further development.

North Dakota State had three hard red lines entered. One has been released as “Faller,” and has good dough quality, good yield plus scab and leaf resistance packages.  One is undergoing further evaluation.

South Dakota State entered one hard red line that is under consideration for release in 2008. It has high yield and is very rust and scab resistant.

WestBred has released one variety named “Bigg Red.”  It is on a managed release for scab impacted northern plains areas due to almost total scab resistance.  It will be on limited acres with low production expected.

AgriPro has released one hard red named “Kuntz,” with strong agronomic performance and some other good qualities. It is broadly adapted to the northern plains.

Meridian Seeds LLC entered the tests for the first time with two hard white spring lines.  One was rated only slightly lower than the excellent Glenn check. Both lines are slated for release in the spring of 2007.

WQC Summer Wheat Tours
The WQC set its Hard Winter Tour dates at April 30 – May 3, and the Hard Spring & Durum Tour dates are July 23-26. The annual industry tours give members of the industry a snapshot of new crop yields and quality.  More information on the WQC web site, www.wheatqualitycouncil.org.