Wheat production in the Pacific Northwest consists
mainly of the soft white wheat market class. Over 80% of
this wheat is exported. In recent years there has been an
increase in soft white wheat production (due in a large part
to improvements in the yielding capabilities of the
genotypes grown in the Pacific Northwest). To expand into
different commodity markets, it would be desirable to
diversify and produce wheat cultivars representing more
market classes and product uses. One opportunity would be
to develop cultivars representing the Hard Red Winter market
class. An effort to breed high yielding, high protein Hard
Red Winter wheats is now underway at Oregon State
University.
This research was conducted to gain a better
understanding of the components (genetic and/or
environmental) that determine yield and grain protein
content of hard red wheat genotypes. There were two general
objectives of the research. One was to study the
differences in nitrogen assimilation and remobilization in a
diverse group of winter wheat genotypes grown in the
different agricultural environments of Oregon. The second
objective was to determine the efficacy of using "hill
plots" (micro-plots) as a planting method to screen for
agronomic and nitrogen assimilation traits in geneticly
distinct genotypes which may be used as parents in breeding
efforts.
Results of this study indicate that genetic differences
for nitrogen assimilation and remobilization do exist, and
improvements in Pacific Northwest hard red wheat genotypes
can be made with appropriate selection techniques. Data
also indicate that the traditional high protein wheat
genotypes (from the U.S. Great Plains) do not show an
advantage from a grain protein concentration standpoint when
produced in the Pacific Northwest. Additionally, the
environment played a critical role in determining expression
of harvest index, grain protein concentration, and nitrogen
harvest index. Genotype by environment interactions were
high, suggesting that zone-specific varieties may need to be
developed in order to attain both high grain yields and high
grain protein yields. / Graduation date: 1992
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/36731 |
| Date | 09 January 1992 |
| Creators | Holmer, Judith C. |
| Contributors | Hayes, Patrick M. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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