Print This PageMonsanto's Wheat Program
Wheat is one of the world’s most vital crops – yet it has suffered from a lack of investment in technology. As a result, the productivity of wheat acres continues to fall behind other major row crops like corn, soybeans and cotton.
Since acquiring the WestBred brand in 2009, Monsanto has initiated an intensive effort to incorporate breakthrough breeding technologies – developed and deployed with notable success in other row crops – in wheat. The objective of these efforts is to enhance the productivity, sustainability and profitability of wheat through improved yield and quality, and the reduced input of resources.
Currently, our focus is on delivering high-performing, locally adapted varieties across all of the major wheat classes in the United States. Each year, our strong team of renowned breeders and scientists evaluates thousands of wheat candidates to deliver several new, specialized, proprietary varieties that meet the demands of growers and food processors. These certified WestBred varieties are then licensed and sold through a nationwide network of more than 100 licensed seed companies.
Our breeding team also works closely with food processors and private companies to verify the milling and baking qualities of each new WestBred variety. This enables the development of specialized, proprietary wheat varieties with desirable milling, color, gluten and protein characteristics. In fact, WestBred varieties Stout (hard red winter) and Samson (hard spring) received the Wheat Quality Council’s Millers Award for Best New Variety in 2010 and 2009 respectively.
Over the next few years, our wheat breeders will be expanding their use of molecular markers, applying a greater knowledge about wheat’s genome, and developing a novel, proprietary “wheat chipper” to accelerate their screening and development of wheat varieties. Through non-exclusive collaborative agreements with universities such as Kansas State University, Monsanto and university breeding programs will be exchanging their unique and complementary breeding research, which should result in a larger selection of better wheat varieties from each program in the coming years.
From a longer-term perspective, Monsanto’s Wheat Team is evaluating potential biotech products in wheat, which could be developed within 10 to 15 years. Potential traits will likely come from our current pipeline products in corn and soy such as improved yield, drought tolerance, and nitrogen-use efficiency – all of which meaningfully address the primary productivity challenges wheat growers also face. In addition, we’re evaluating all herbicide-tolerance and disease-resistance opportunities to meet wheat farmers’ needs as well, but our plans do not include further development of the first-generation Roundup Ready trait in wheat.
As we work to develop and apply these new technologies to wheat, the Wheat Team has established and is consulting with a Wheat Advisory Council comprised of representatives from across the wheat value chain including growers, academia, grain millers, bakers, processors and food companies. The Wheat Advisory Council is providing the Team with robust strategic advice, guidance and feedback on the research, development and commercialization of new varieties and technologies in wheat.
Carl Casale, Monsanto EVP of Strategy & Operations,
Talks about Why Monsanto Invested in Wheat
