A new wheat variety named for football coach Bill Snyder hits the market
Will the legend known for achieving greatness on football fields also work wonders on the wheat fields of Kansas? Ask a farmer near you.
K-State researchers developed KS Bill Snyder, a new wheat variety named after our famed football coach.
Looks like a winner
Wheat breeders at the K-State Agricultural Research Center in Hays, Kansas, created the variety. The team, led by Guorong Zhang, says the new wheat has very high yield, good drought tolerance, excellent straw strength and other advantages.
In tests, KS Bill Snyder was No.1 in the Southern Regional Performance Nursery in 2022. SPRN is made up of 34 locations in seven states.
Although developed for western Kansas, the new variety’s solid disease resistance — including to soilborne mosaic virus — may also make it successful in central Kansas.
The potential
Why is this a cause for celebration? It’s more than just extreme fandom.
Of the thousands of experimental wheat lines created each year, only one might end up being released as a new variety. Hitting the market typically takes about 12 years, according to K-State’s Department of Grain Science and Industry experts.
Bill Snyder (the person) is K-State’s winningest football coach, racking up 215 wins across 27 seasons.
If Bill Snyder (the wheat) lives up to the fabled coach’s legacy, expect something great.
K-State’s wheat breeding program is supported by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Crop Improvement Association, Kansas Wheat Research Foundation and Kansas Wheat Alliance. The focus is to create varieties that meet the specific needs of Kansas wheat producers.
Curated from https://kswheat.com/bill-snyder
