cwc nEWSLETTERS
February 2019
02
Grower Thomas Traphagan spent 3 days learning about Wheat Quality at our Lab. He tested his own 2018 wheat crop.
Are you interested in learning more about Wheat Quality and our Wheat Lab?
Please email Claudia Carter to carter@californiawheat.org and schedule a visit!
VARIETY SURVEY – We are currently receiving 2019 Wheat Variety Surveys. Please do not forget to submit yours!
Thank you for help.
03
Our Baker and Lab Manager, Teng Vang, spent 2 days testing and baking sourdough breads at the Artisan Baking Center with Keith Giusto from Central Milling. The idea was to test California Wheat varieties and obtain feedback from our customers who interact directly with Bakers. To see the final results, please click below:
04
NEW Wheat Varieties Available
UC Davis
Central Red – Hard Red Spring
Available from: Penny Newman Grain and Baglietto Seeds
Desert Gold – Durum
Available from: Penny Newman Grain
Syngenta
SY Sienna – Hard Red Spring
Hard Red Spring Wheat developed by Syngenta Seeds, Inc. SY Sienna was derived from a cross between 08W11052 (Madsen/00W880404) and Cal Rojo. High yield potential with average test weight, good protein, and acceptable end-use quality. It is a semi-dwarf with plant height similar to Redwing and expressing very good straw strength, medium to late maturity, awed, white chaff and strap head type. SY Sienna has a good general foliar disease package which includes a resistance reaction to current stripe rust races. SY Sienna has been in the California Variety Testing program for several years with favorable performance (experimental number 13W00886) and was evaluated very favorable by the California Wheat Quality Council. SY Sienna has performed very well in the Central Valley and Sacramento area. SY Sienna will be commercially available fall of 2019 from Penny Newman Grain and Farmers Grain Elevator.
WestBred
To learn more about Varieties: WB9350, WB9699, and WB9490. Please click below:
05
Welcoming our partners and customers at our Wheat Lab
It has already been a good and busy year!
The California Wheat Commission has hosted several representatives from the public and private sector. One of the Commission’s biggest advantages is having its own Wheat Quality Laboratory, which helps to interact and connect with Researchers and Customers. Since January 2019 we hosted:
~ Twenty-two students from Nanjing Agricultural University who are visiting the University of California, Davis.
~ Center for Ecoliteracy Executive Director, Adam Kesselman, and Program Manager, Leyla Marandi. We also had the opportunity to visit and tour the new Bay State Milling facility in Woodland.
~ Ardent Mills and UC Davis – Food Science Professors Dr. Gail Bornhorst and Dr. Matthew Lange, and Ph.D student Tarini Naravane and PostDoc Silvia Keppler. Also, Dr. Sumana Bell and Mr. Gang Guo from Ardent Mills were part of this visit.
~ Dr. Atena Haghighattalab who leads a very important initiative to develop a long range plan for research infrastructure investments that create opportunities for public-private partnerships. Her work is supported by PepsiCo and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Minnesota.
~ Mr. Sho Nakajima from Nippon Flour Mills, Japan. Mr. Nakajima visited our Lab to learn more about California Wheat and its unique quality characteristics.
We look forward to hosting many more at our Wheat Lab, as we are very proud of all the amazing work that happens right behind our doors to meet our customers’ demand for QUALITY!
06
Wheat varieties vary greatly in their properties
Issue Date: January 23, 2019
By Bob Johnson
AgAlert
California Farm Bureau Federation
Wheat growers are cooperating closely with end users to make sure their grain suits the highly specific needs of producers like tortilla makers and local artisan bread bakers.
The result of this cooperative farm to bread or tortilla approach is unprecedented, detailed knowledge of how specific wheat varieties translate after they are milled and put to the baking test.
“We look for machinability, flavor, no off color, visual appeal, and soft and flexible tortillas strong enough to hold up with fillings,” said Joe Trummer, research and development director at Mi Rancho.
Trummer described Mi Rancho as a medium-sized producer that makes a couple million corn and wheat tortillas a day at its facility in San Leandro.
He discussed the results of tests of new varieties entered in trials in Fresno and Yolo counties during the 23rd annual California Wheat Collaborator Meeting, an event that brings together growers, breeders, brokers, millers and bakers every year to share information at the University of California, Davis.
A numbered hard red variety from Arizona Plant Breeders, W510477, a numbered experimental University of California variety, and the next UC hard red release, Central Red, passed the first round of tests at Mi Rancho, while the other hard red varieties were eliminated because of slow development time or, in one case, poor absorption.
“We will get complaints if our tortillas are not strong enough,” Trummer said. “We do a puncture test at seven and 14 days. The numbered UC variety and Central Red looked great on the puncture test, and W510477 looked pretty good. The results were similar on the extensibility test. Ultimately, I landed on Central Red as the one I would want to move forward with.”
This new variety looks to be a step above the other public hard red wheat that is already available in a number of ways.
“The mean yield performance of Central Red from the 2016 and 2017 regional trials was higher than that of Yurok, and similar to Summit 515,” said Jorge Dubcovsky, UC Davis leader of the wheat breeding program. “Central Red showed resistance to stripe rust, leaf rust and to the main field strains of septoria tritici blotch. Central Red has excellent bread-making quality with higher falling number, gluten index, development time and stability than Yurok.”
After years of trials, this variety is ready for release. A number of the varieties in the trial were also put to the test.
“We tested them by adding water, sourdough mix and salt, and fermenting them overnight,” said Josey Baker, who heads the operation at the Mill in San Francisco, which specializes in artisan sourdough. “We baked them the next morning.”
The San Francisco bakers also tried W510477, Syngenta’s Sienna, a hard red cross between Cal Rojo and Madsen, West Bred’s experimental WB9433 and UC’s Yecora Rojo 515HP.
(Bob Johnson is a reporter in Davis. He may be contacted at bjohn11135@aol.com.)
Announcements
UC Davis – Wheat Field Day – For more information click here.
Colusa County, CA
Tuesday March 12th, 2019 ~ 8:30-11:00 am
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California Farm Service Agency Stands Ready to Assist Agricultural Producers Slammed by Recent Heavy Rains. For more information: