Wheat has taken a back seat to corn and soybeans in recent years. However, companies are placing more emphasis on wheat these days.

“Wheat is a bastion of potential improvement in yield potential,” says Mike Deall, vice president of marketing, portfolio management for Bayer Crop Science. Deall and other Bayer executives gave an update of their wheat activities at the Commodity Classic earlier this year.

Here are some highlights:

·      Bayer is emphasizing winter wheat through an initiative it initially launched in 2009 with Ducks Unlimited. Winfield Solutions has also joined the effort by featuring winter wheat demonstration plots at sites in North Dakota. South Dakota Statue University, North Dakota State University, and the University of Minnesota have also joined this program as research partners. The program is intended to promote the expansion of winter cereals in one of the most critical waterfowl nesting regions in the world.

“We are looking at cold tolerance, disease resistance and abiotic stress tolerance,” says Geoff Keen, vice president and head of bioscience Research Triangle Park Operations for Bayer CropScience.

·      This June, Bayer entered into a license and cooperation agreement RAGT Semences S.A.S., a French-based company. Under the agreement, RAGT grants Bayer CropScience access to winter wheat germplasm and associated molecular markers.