New wheat variety making amber waves

By Jennifer M. Latzke

A new wheat variety is making waves on the High Plains--amber waves.

Denali is a hard red winter wheat variety with a Colorado heritage that has the potential for top dryland and irrigated yields in Colorado and throughout the High Plains.

Breeders at the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station first identified the particularly promising wheat cross in 2005 during a stripe rust epidemic in Colorado. "This particular cross was really interesting, it showed a very high level of stripe rust resistance overall," explained Scott Haley, Colorado State University breeder. "I recall my crew scratching their heads, wondering why I wanted so many lines selected from this cross. We began cooperative testing with Kansas State University in trials out in western Kansas. Hatcher is a variety that has done well in western Kansas and this one was showing to be about 8 percent or so better than Hatcher."

In 2010, Colorado submitted the experimental Denali line to the Southern Regional Performance Nursery for testing in plots from Texas to South Dakota. The breeders found that it did exceptionally well in western Kansas.

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