Top wheat ‘Picks’ list released by AgriLife Extension

On the heels of the 2024 wheat harvest, Texas A&M AgriLife experts who evaluate how wheat varieties grow under adversity have selected top performers and released their annual Wheat Grain “Picks” List in time for producers to prepare for planting.

“It is always an exciting time closing out one season and looking onto the next,” said Brandon Gerrish, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service statewide small grains specialist, Bryan-College Station. “Though it feels like the harvest season just ended, planting season will be underway in another four to six weeks in the northern Panhandle, and we will start to collect seed for our trials in the coming weeks.”

Gerrish said the “Picks” list is for top-performing varieties based on a three-year running average, to account for the yearly wide-ranging conditions across the state.

AgriLife Extension agronomists and Texas A&M AgriLife Research wheat team members performed 46 trials in 31 locations this year. Gerrish said the trials are not just for grain but also provide a look at forage and silage production.

The varieties are selected not just on the highest yields, but also based on their milling and baking quality, important disease resistance traits for leaf or stripe rust and wheat streak mosaic virus, insect resistance to greenbugs, wheat curl mites and Hessian fly, and standability.

Growing conditions

Gerrish said it is always important to understand the growing conditions the yield trials were subjected to when looking at the yield data of a given year.

The 2023 planting season started under extreme drought throughout much of the state, Gerrish said. He is hopeful that some recent thunderstorms across the state will provide more favorable conditions for the new season.

“This year we had nearly 52 inches of rain in Greenville and then 1.5 inches of rain in Dumas, so there’s a broad spectrum of growing conditions,” he said. “That’s why our picks are region-based, because though there are some varieties that will do well in more than one region, finding varieties that perform well statewide are rare, and oftentimes varieties are not tested in all four regions.”

Gerrish said he is concentrating on getting the data to producers as early as possible so they can look at weather conditions and performance data and adjust their planting decisions accordingly.

He said producers in the southern part of the state will look to plant by early October if they are trying to get fall forage and by early to mid-November for grain-only production.

In the Panhandle, planting dates depend on the moisture, Gerrish said. With irrigation, some producers will plant in early to mid-October if it is wheat grown for grain. But if they need forage or are planting wheat for dual purposes, they could plant as early as Labor Day. Dryland producers will want to be ready to plant when the rains come.

“We are trying to release our Picks list earlier because we want to give producers a chance to evaluate their varieties and look at the data before they buy their seed,” he said.

Highlights from the 2023-2024 season

Gerrish said crop testing is a revolving door. Sometimes, a variety like TAM 111, released 21 years ago and still among the top five varieties planted around the state, hangs on. Some years, new varieties make the list. This was an exceptional year, with six new varieties in the testing, which will provide growers with new options moving into the next season.

Two of the top producers this year, he said, were TAM 116 and High Cotton, an Oklahoma State University release. High Cotton had a phenomenal season in its second year of testing, ranking third in South Texas, first in the Blacklands, seventh in the Rolling Plains and second in the High Plains irrigated trials for 2024, Gerrish said.

TAM 116, along with CP7017AX, continued to impress in the High Plains irrigated trials. TAM 116 ranks in the top yield group at all five locations. CP7017AX ranked in the top yield group at four of the five locations and maintained its first-place ranking in the four-year regional average.

“Next year could be a very different story, but it will be interesting to see if they can repeat their performance and yield stability over the years,” he said.

TAM 116 has been added to the “Picks” list because it was tested as an experimental line before becoming a named variety. High Cotton is only in the second year of testing, so it cannot be placed on the Picks list. However, Gerrish said they are definitely placing this one on the watch list.

Two other new varieties, Amigos and GoWheat 9216H, both Texas A&M AgriLife releases, have the traits — good resistance to leaf, stripe and stem rust as well as Hessian fly resistance — and yield potential to be great options for growers in the South Texas and Blackland regions.

Amigos has also shown good forage potential in its first year of forage trials in South Texas and the Blacklands. Bob Dole, an AgriPro variety, had another strong showing in the Blackland region for grain this year and also ranked first in the McGregor forage trial.

Another new Texas A&M variety, DynaGro7322, is an awnless variety that won’t typically be the best option for grain production but will give growers the flexibility to graze out or bale the wheat.

Gerrish said this year, the Rolling Plains Picks lists remained largely unchanged, with Amigos being added to the Northern Rolling Plains and Green Hammer to the Southern Rolling Plains. Both have also shown good potential as dual-purpose varieties.

Also, after losing all dryland trials in the High Plains, that list remained largely the same, with TAM 113 and TAM 116 at the top of the list, along with WB4792 and Canvas.

AP Prolific was added to the full and limited irrigation Picks list, while Showdown was added to the full irrigation list in the High Plains. Both appear in the top yield group for three-year, two-year and 2024 regional yield averages.

Full reports by region

The top wheat Picks and yield trial data are now posted on the TAMU Variety Testing Website.

“While this list is meant to serve as a guide of the varieties that we would choose to include and emphasize on our farm, farmers who are currently growing other varieties they are happy with should continue to do so,” Gerrish said. “It’s best they try these varieties on a limited basis first to see how they compare for their particular operation.”