What Millers Want: Perspectives on Soft Wheat Traits: How can seed breeders and producers help millers in today's market?

摘要

Two soft wheat millers (and members of the North American Millers' Association) recently took time from their busy schedules to reflect on the types of developments that they would like to see coming from the seed industry. While there isn't much thatseed breeders and producers can do to help these millers deal with the current low-carb craze, their continued work on scab resistance, standardized protein content and biotech education would be welcome. Wheat scab (or Fusarium head blight) has been the biggest problem for soft wheat millers over the last decade, says Rick Siemer, president, Siemer Milling Company, Teutopolis, Ill. While breeders are finding soft wheat varieties that can tolerate scab better than varieties did 15 years ago, there still are no truly resistant varieties, says Siemer. Scabby wheat can result in both yield and quality losses, but also can produce the mycotoxins DON (vomitoxin) and zearalenone (an estrogen analog). Neither is considered carcinogenic or highly toxic, but both can reduce the performance of livestock, reports Kansas State University.