Annual Meeting Summary 2005
Date:  February 22-24, 2005
Location:  KCI Embassy Suites Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri

WHEAT QUALITY COUNCIL ANNUAL MEETING SUMMARY

The Wheat Quality Council (WQC) held its annual meeting, forum and technical review sessions on February 22-24, 2005 at the KCI Embassy Suites Hotel in Kansas City with 113 industry participants attending.

The Wheat Quality Council is the only industry wide organization in existence that brings together every wheat industry participant from breeders to producers to millers and baker/processors. These participants are provided information on the milling and baking quality of wheat varieties that will be released and processed in their facilities in the next few years.

The breeders have an opportunity to network with industry as to what quality the industry would like to see in new wheat varieties.

• Board of Trustees

The meeting began with the WQC Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday evening. After dealing with financial reports, membership issues and budget issues, the annual election was conducted. The following people were selected to serve on the WQC governing board for 2005: Mark Hodges, OK Wheat Commission, Chair; Dave Katzke, General Mills, Past Chair; Mark Norton, Bay State Milling, Vice Chair. Those officers plus Dave Green, ADM; Rollin Sears, AgriPro Wheat and Brian Sorenson, NCI will make up the Executive Committee for 2005. The rest of the board members are Vance Taylor, ND Mill; Jan Levenhagen, Mennel Milling; Mike Fassezke, Star of the West Milling; Jon Faubion, Schwan Food Co; Jay Romsa, General Mills; Dave Venberg, Horizon/Cargill; Jim Powers, Perten Instruments; William Gambel, American Ingredients; Phil Farmer, Syngenta; William Johnson, AR Wheat Growers; Laird Larson, SD Wheat Commission; Virgil Smail, KSU and Charles Gaines, ARS Soft Wheat Lab.

• Forum
The forum this year was “New Developments In The Wheat Industry.” It was well received by those in attendance and many favorable comments were heard following it.

Dusti Fritz, Kansas Wheat Commission, discussed industry trends. She detailed how lower production costs in other parts of the world are effecting US wheat producers. She also showed what has resulted from past and current farm bills as they pertain to wheat production. Ms Fritz explained how non-traditional exporters are cutting into exports from the US.

Allan Fritz, Kansas State University, detailed the work being done in the wheat breeding community regarding the genetic mapping of wheat quality traits. The use of marker assisted selection will allow faster progress in getting quality traits into wheat varieties without resorting to genetic modification.

Ron Madl, Kansas State University, spoke to the group about work being done to promote the health attributes of wheat and whole grains. A considerable amount of work has already been done proving the antioxidant properties available in some wheat varieties and products made from them.

Brian Walker, Horizon Milling, was the dinner speaker. He talked about eating trends, both past and present. He emphasized the need for our industry to become more health conscious by producing the type of food ingredients needed to enhance healthy lifestyles in our consumers.

• Variety Reviews
Thirty-two new breeder submitted lines plus nine check varieties were entered for evaluation this year. All were grown and harvested during the 2004 crop year. These lines were broken down into nineteen hard winters, nine soft winters and nine hard springs.

As the result of the WQC evaluations, fifteen lines have been released or are scheduled for release. Thirteen lines have not been released or will be undergoing further evaluation.

In the hard winters, the following decisions have been made based on breeder comments at the meeting. Hays, Kansas (KSU) has a new hard white wheat with stripe rust resistance and sprout tolerance to be released next summer. Two other hard whites have not yet been released. Nebraska/USDA/ARS has released “Arrowsmith,” a hard white for the panhandle area. Their second line has not been released. The University of NE has a hard red slated for release next summer. Oklahoma State has released “Guymon,” a hard white for the panhandle area. They have also released “Okfield,” their first Clearfield release. Two other lines have not been released. South Dakota State has two lines undergoing further testing but has one hard white line for release in 2006. The millers evaluating it named this line “Best in Show”. Amir Ibrahim is the breeder.

In the Eastern soft winter wheats, Purdue has released two soft red varieties. INW0411 is early, short and has good scab resistance. INW0412 is also early, scab resistant and has large kernels and high test weight. One line will be back in the trials next year. VA Tech has two exclusive releases, 99176 and VA001-526 (for southern areas). One line has not been released. Syngenta has released Coker 9436, adapted for the lower corn belt, the northern mid south region and into the east coast area.

In the hard springs, the University of MN has two lines. One could be an exclusive release and one will be back for more evaluation. World Wide Wheat has two released lines. One is adapted for California regions and one for Chile and Argentina. Westbred has a possible release of a hard white spring. North Dakota State has two lines that will undergo more testing, but has released a high quality hard red spring named “Glenn.” It is scab resistant and is a replacement for the popular variety “Alsen.”

• Cooperators
A total of 30 cooperators from across the country helped to evaluate the milling and baking/processing qualities of the thirty-seven lines and checks entered from the 2004 growing season. The cooperators provide a tremendous service to the wheat industry of this country and deserve our thanks for their contributions.

• 2006 Annual Meeting
The 2006 Wheat Quality Council Annual Meeting dates are February 21-23, 2006 in Kansas City.

• Wheat Tours
The Hard Winter Wheat Tour dates are May 2-5, 2005.
The Hard Spring Wheat Tour dates are July 25-28, 2005.

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