Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Lincoln, Nebraska » Wheat, Sorghum and Forage Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #141734
Title: REGISTRATION OF 'HARRY' WHEAT

Author
item BAENZIGER, P - UNI OF NE
item BEECHER, BRIAN - UNI OF NE
item Graybosch, Robert
item BALTENSPERGER, D - UNI OF NE
item NELSON, L - UNI OF NE
item McVey, Donald
item Chen, Ming-Shun
item WATKINS, J - UNI OF NE
item Hatchett, Jimmy

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/31/2003
Publication Date: 7/6/2004
Citation: Baenziger, P.S., Beecher, B., Graybosch, R.A., Baltensperger, D.D., Nelson, L., Mcvey, D.V., Chen, M., Watkins, J.E., Hatchett, J.H. 2004. Registration of 'harry' wheat. Crop Science.44:1474-1475.

Interpretive Summary: Wheat breeding is a continuous process. Breeders select adapted parents, cross (mate) them, and, from the progeny, select improved types. An increasing world population, coupled with global warming and decreasing amounts of arable land, will place more and more pressure on wheat breeding programs to continuously improve grain yield, even in environments plagued with periodic droughts. Developing high yielding lines with drought stress often requires a breeder to combine genes from many different parents, and select the few superior progeny. The hard wheat cultivar Harry was developed via such a process. Genes from wheats developed in Kansas, Nebraska and Russia were combined to develop Harry, a high-yielding drought tolerant hard red winter wheat. In its primary area of adaptation (western NE), Harry (17 environments from 2000 to 2002) has yielded 3000 kg ha-1 which was greater than Wesley (2650 kg ha-1), Culver (2770 kg ha-1), Millennium (2890 kg ha-1), Wahoo (2910 kg ha-1), and Alliance (2880 kg ha-1). Harry represents a significant achievement in the battle against world hunger.

Technical Abstract: `Harry¿ (Reg. No. Cv- , PI) is a hard red winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar developed cooperatively by the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station and the USDA-ARS and released in 2002 by the developing institutions. Harry was released primarily for its superior adaptation to rainfed wheat production systems in western Nebraska. The name Harry was chosen to honor Mr. Harry Cullan, deceased, who was a major certified seed producer in western Nebraska. Harry was selected from the cross `NE90614¿/¿NE87612¿ which was made in 1991. The pedigree of NE90614 is `Brule¿/4/¿Parker¿ *4/¿Agent¿//¿Beloterkovskaia 198¿/¿Lancer¿ /3/¿Newton¿/Brule. The pedigree of NE87612 is Newton//¿Warrior¿ *5/Agent/3/¿Agate¿ sib. The F1 to F3 generations were advanced using the bulk breeding method. Harry is an F3-derived line that was selected in the F4 generation. Harry was evaluated as NE97689 in Nebraska yield nurseries starting in 1998, in the Northern Regional Performance Nursery in 2000 and 2001, and in Nebraska cultivar performance trials in 2000 to 2002. In the Nebraska cultivar performance trials, it has performed well throughout most of Nebraska but is best adapted to western Nebraska.