|
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.
The Soo Line railroad, planned and paid for by the grain
millers, shipped flower to export markets via Sault Ste.Marie
beginning in 1887. Competing lines serving Chicago and
Milwaukee tried to divert milling business from Minneapolis -
the "Mill City" - by offering cheaper rates. Today, Minnesota
is the undisputed center for food and agriculture industries,
with over $200 billion of business annually.
In 1881 the Minneapolis Grain Exchange - originally called
the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce - was organized to
promote fair trade of wheat, corn and oats between growers
and millers. Today, options on 20 million bushels a day are
handled, making it the largest cash exchange market in the
world. Crops grown from the upper Midwest to the Pacific -
wheat, barley, oats, durum, rye, sunflower seeds, flax, corn,
soybeans, millet, and milo - are traded.
|
The U of M wheat breeding program has been a cooperative
project with USDA-ARS since 1907. These plots are at Morris,
next to both U of M and USDA research facilities.
In greenhouse laboratories, plant breeders use 100-year-old
techniques to painstakingly fertilize a head of wheat to
cross it with a plant possessing other desirable traits.
One plot at a time, small combines harvest, weigh, and
determine seed moisture content of potential new wheat
varieties at the Northwest Research and Outreach Center,
Crookston. Research began here after James J. Hill donated
the land to the University in 1895, to encourage development
of agriculture on the Great Plains.
|
Forage Legumes
