Copyright Prairie Grains Magazine
February 2001

AgriPro to Release Knudson, “Clearfield” Wheat in 2002

By Tracy Sayler

AgriPro Wheat is taking steps to raise awareness about using certified seed, and is gearing up to release several major spring wheat varieties in 2002.

The company kicked off its northern seed sales season in a meeting held recently in Fargo, N.D. Business manager Rob Bruns points to several moves with should help bolster AgriPro Wheat’s goal of increasing the use of certified seed.

AgriPro Wheat recently signed a licensing agreement with Texas A&M University to market Texas A&M winter wheat and triticale varieties. The partnership will allow Texas A&M greater commercial capability to market its varieties, and offers Agripro a platform to educate producers about the benefits of certified seed, which is planted on less than two percent of wheat acres in Texas.

The company is also stepping up efforts to protect its varieties from “brownbag-ging,” or knowingly selling and conditioning seed from protected, privately-developed varieties for unauthorized propagation. Last summer, a U.S. District Court ruled that a Texas farm supplier was distributing seed of a protected AgriPro wheat variety outside limits allowed by Title V of the Plant Variety Protection Act. A separate case is pending in North Dakota.

Also within the past year, AgriPro Wheat, a separate, revamped business unit of Advanta USA and the largest commercial wheat seed developer in North America, completed its new management team by naming Bill Kuntz as its national marketing manager. Kuntz formerly was director of field seed services for the North Dakota State Seed Department— the largest seed certification agency in the U.S.— and is recognized nationally for his grasp of the seed certification process.

Bruns says the company is planning to expand its presence in the Pacific Northwest, with an emphasis on hard red and soft white winter varieties.

Leading the effort will be Bob Knudson, former Northern Plains sales manager, and now senior consultant and Pacific Northwest business manager.

In 2002, AgriPro Wheat will release a new spring wheat variety honoring Knudson, who has worked for AgriPro for 24 years. AgriPro spring wheat breeder Joe Smith says the new variety is a tall semi-dwarf, with medium-early maturity, very good leaf rust protection and tolerance to scab, and high yield potential. “It has the potential to be adapted widely in the spring wheat growing region, and promises to be one of our best varieties yet,” says Smith.

AgriPro Wheat will also release two new spring wheat varieties in 2002 geared for the Clearfield Production System, trademarked formerly through American Cyanamid, now BASF.

Based upon the imazamox herbicide, AgriPro Wheat will provide Clearfield wheat varieties with herbicide tolerance that will enable season-long, broad-spectrum control of numerous weeds, including wild oats and foxtail.

AgriPro Wheat’s two new IMI-tolerant varieties are being developed through conventional breeding methods. One line is derived from the popular AgriPro spring wheat variety Gunner, and will be adapted for production north of I-94 in the Northern Plains, says Smith. The other variety AgriPro is developing for use in the Clearfield Production System is an Ivan/Russ cross, adapted for production primarily south of I-94.