Minnesota farmers harvested about 10 bushels of wheat per acre in 1890. Up to that time feeding more people meant planting more land: by cultivating prairies, clearing forests, or draining wetlands. Today, yields of 60 bushels per acre are not uncommon, thanks largely to land grant university research. Society and scientists now face other land use issues: restoration to prairie or forest, conservation, recreation, or development.

Research to improve wheat started at the University of Minnesota in 1889 when plant breeders and a cereal chemist first evaluated wheat varieties from Minnesota, Hungary and other parts of Europe, Russia, and Canada. After 10 years, their report summarized work with 552 varieties planted on the St. Paul campus:

Plant breeding is in its infancy, and plans for extensive scientific breeding of this crop had to be devised rather than copied . . . Not only yield but the quality of the grain and other characteristics were taken into account in selecting plants to become the mother of varieties.

The first of 35 U of M wheat varieties was released to farmers in 1895.

This era marked the practical beginning of the science of genetics and plant breeding and of worldwide improvements in yield and grain quality. While Swedish monk Gregor Mendel discovered in the 1860s how traits were inherited by plants, the information was not widely known - and certainly not applied - until the 1890s.

The next revolution in plant breeding began with the 1970s discovery of how to view and change a plant's structure at the molecular level, rather than selecting chance variants from among tens of thousands of plant crosses. Still, the goals of wheat improvement are much the same as a century ago: high yield, good baking characteristics, disease resistance, and the ability to stand up until harvested. Growers contribute to the research efforts through the Minnesota Wheat Research and Promotion Council.

• GLYNDON, 1915, was the result of a cooperative UM-USDA breeding effort that began in 1907 and continues today
• MARQUILLO, 1928, was the first stem rust resistant variety from the U of M, but its flour was dark and was not accepted by the milling industry.
• THATCHER, 1934, became one of the most popular wheat varieties ever grown in the U.S. By 1941 it occupied 17 million acres here and in Canada. Good yielding and resistant to stem rust, it was the result of plant pathologists working closely with plant breeders. In 1951 "Thatcher" was still the principle wheat in North America.
• ERA, 1970, was the first semidwarf spring wheat released by a public institution. Semidwarfs are short and less likely to fall over before harvest, and growing energy is directed to the grain rather than leaves and stem. Era was the dominant variety in Minnesota until 1983.
• MARSHALL, 1982, quickly became a leading variety and was planted on 70 percent of the state's wheat acres and over 5 million acres in the U.S. until 1990.

U of M Wheat Varieties