b'Hybrid Wheat: More than YieldA global effort is underway to lower the cost of hybrid wheat seed production.Joe FunkEACH YEAR,Australian wheatwheat would be mostly restricted toovercome the added cost of hybrid seed growers plant one of the worlds larg- Australias higher-yielding zones whereproduction. est wheat crops (China, India and Russiahybrid seed could overcome some ofIn high yield environments with more plant the worlds most extensive wheatthese environmental and economic bar- rainfall, wheat yields 45 to 60 bushels acreage). In terms of total production,riers. Hybrid wheat seed will come at abu. per acre or more. Compare this to Australia produces the tenth-largest croppremium, whether planted in a high orEuropean production where it is a dif-of wheat. Whether or not hybrid wheatlow yield environment.ferent scenario. Hybrid wheat is more can boost Australian wheat yields andeconomical in the high-yield regions.raise its position among wheat-producing countries will depend on several signifi- Improved Yield Stabilitycant developments. Ryan Whitford, PhD,One feather of hybrid wheat is that it a plant molecular biologist at the hybridprovides better yield stability in more wheat program at the Australian CentreWe would need to get a hybridchallenging environments with there of Plant Functional Genomics, explainedyield advantage of 10% or more toare widely varying growing conditions to Seed World why hybrid wheat haswithin a field. Nonetheless, the fields been slow to be adopted in one of theovercome the added cost of hybridoverall hybrid yield advantage has to worlds largest wheat-growing regions. be enough to make the premium seed I dont think my Australian perspec- seed production.cost economically feasible. Another tive about hybrid wheat is different from Ryan Whitford issue for Australian growers is that they someone in the United States, he says.are assessed end-point royalties where Australias low-yield growing environ- breeder royalties are paid at the back end ment is different than growing conditionsof production when the crop is delivered in North America and Europe. That makesto market. Farmers may be reticent to the economics behind the commercializa- pay for hybrid wheat upfront because tion of hybrid wheat a little more chal- In our low yield environments wherethere is no guarantee that they will get a lenging for us. For that to happen, thelow moisture limits production, the aver- yield advantage. economics have to shift a bit. This is notage yield is just below 30 bu. per acre (2If there is a drought event, it can knock to say hybrid wheat will not come on intons per hectare). In this scenario, hybridthe crop over, Whitford says. In that situ-the future. Currently, however, there is notwheat gets about an 8% yield boostation, farmers are better off paying an much appetite for it.or about 2.5 bu. per acre, advantageend-point royalty rather than with the New technologies are lowering thefrom breeding. Economically, that is notup-front seed cost. There are multiple cost of hybrid seed production. This maygood enough. We would need to get afacets to their decision as they consider open that opportunity. Interest in hybridhybrid yield advantage of 10% or more towhether or not to purchase hybrid wheat. 8/ SEEDWORLD.COMFEBRUARY 2021'