California Wheat Commission  

Home | Directories | Quality Info | Variety Survey | CAWG Update | News/Info. | Laboratory | Links

April 15, 2007

SENATE BACK IN SESSION, BUT NO ACTION ON SUPPLEMENTAL. The Senate returned to session from Easter Recess last week, but the supplemental spending bill containing agricultural disaster assistance saw no forward movement pending the naming on conferees on the House side.

The supplemental is primarily intended to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but bills in both chambers include about $4 billion for agricultural disaster assistance. The agriculture provision is a traditional disaster assistance program providing payments to producers who experienced crop losses exceeding 35 percent in 2005 or 2006.

The House and Senate bills contain several differences that will be need to be worked out before a final bill can be sent to President George W. Bush, who has indicated he will veto it if it contains a definite date for troop withdrawal from Iraq or spending levels above his request.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) said this week that his goal was to have final supplemental legislation to Bush for signature by the end of the month. If the bill is vetoed, the bill would have to be rewritten unless 2/3 of votes in the House and Senate could be found for a veto override. The House is scheduled to resume work next Tuesday, April 17.

IMPORTANT WHEAT RESEARCH PROJECTS FUNDED FOR FY2007. One of the many things NAWG follows in Washington is the status of funding for priority USDA wheat research programs.  There has been a lot of confusion about which projects were funded in the continuing resolution that served as a substitute for the FY2007 funding bills left undone at the end of the 109th Congress. The following information was provided by Dr. Kay Simmons, national program leader for plant genetics and grain crops at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

ARS wheat genotyping, quality, genetics, breeding and disease research appears to be fully funded for FY07. The U.S. Wheat & Barley Scab Initiative (USWBSI) is managed by ARS and those awards are now being processed. ARS has also distributed funds from the U S. Wheat and Barley Stripe Rust Initiative to university scientists as per National Wheat Improvement Committee and ARS stripe rust research priorities. ARS is providing funds from the Stripe Rust Initiative to a number of public wheat and barley breeders who conduct regional testing and stripe rust resistance breeding.

In 2007, ARS will provide one-year funding from the National Plant Disease Recovery System to address urgent needs related to Ug99, a new African stem rust mutant.  Those one-year funds will support the ARS cooperative agreement with CIMMYT and Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute to screen U.S. wheat and barley breeding lines in East Africa for resistance.

Funds will also be provided to enhance ARS seedling screening for wheat and barley breeders at the Cereal Disease Lab, St. Paul. ARS is monitoring for the appearance of any new cereal rust strains throughout the U.S. in cooperation with U.S. wheat and barley breeders and pathologists. 

(The Web site for the Cereal Rust Bulletins is:  http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=9757)

ARS one-year stem rust funds will also be stretched to initiate the “Southern Shield Strategy”. Small, specific cooperative awards are being provided to wheat breeders in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and West Virginia to help support resistance breeding for Ug99.  The focus is on enhancing resistance along the southern border of the U.S.  This research will be expanded if the Cereal Rust Initiative is funded in FY08. 

VIRULENT STEM RUST SPREADS FROM AFRICA TO ARABIAN PENINSULA. The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization reported last week that Ug99, a new and virulent fungus that attacks a wide range of wheat varieties, has spread from East Africa to Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula.

The wheat stem rust, also known as black rust, is capable of causing severe losses and can destroy entire wheat fields. It is estimated that as much as 80 percent of wheat varieties planted in Asia and Africa are susceptible to the strain. The spores of wheat rust are mostly carried by wind over long distances and across continents.

A recent FAO mission in the field has confirmed for the first time that Ug99 has affected wheat fields in Yemen, apparently in a more virulent strain than the one found in East Africa. Samples of the pathogen were sent to the United States and Canada for further analysis. There is a high risk that the disease could also spread to Sudan.

April 15, 2007

SENATE BACK IN SESSION, BUT NO ACTION ON SUPPLEMENTAL. The Senate returned to session from Easter Recess last week, but the supplemental spending bill containing agricultural disaster assistance saw no forward movement pending the naming on conferees on the House side.

The supplemental is primarily intended to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but bills in both chambers include about $4 billion for agricultural disaster assistance. The agriculture provision is a traditional disaster assistance program providing payments to producers who experienced crop losses exceeding 35 percent in 2005 or 2006.

The House and Senate bills contain several differences that will be need to be worked out before a final bill can be sent to President George W. Bush, who has indicated he will veto it if it contains a definite date for troop withdrawal from Iraq or spending levels above his request.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) said this week that his goal was to have final supplemental legislation to Bush for signature by the end of the month. If the bill is vetoed, the bill would have to be rewritten unless 2/3 of votes in the House and Senate could be found for a veto override. The House is scheduled to resume work next Tuesday, April 17.

IMPORTANT WHEAT RESEARCH PROJECTS FUNDED FOR FY2007. One of the many things NAWG follows in Washington is the status of funding for priority USDA wheat research programs.  There has been a lot of confusion about which projects were funded in the continuing resolution that served as a substitute for the FY2007 funding bills left undone at the end of the 109th Congress. The following information was provided by Dr. Kay Simmons, national program leader for plant genetics and grain crops at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

ARS wheat genotyping, quality, genetics, breeding and disease research appears to be fully funded for FY07. The U.S. Wheat & Barley Scab Initiative (USWBSI) is managed by ARS and those awards are now being processed. ARS has also distributed funds from the U S. Wheat and Barley Stripe Rust Initiative to university scientists as per National Wheat Improvement Committee and ARS stripe rust research priorities. ARS is providing funds from the Stripe Rust Initiative to a number of public wheat and barley breeders who conduct regional testing and stripe rust resistance breeding.

In 2007, ARS will provide one-year funding from the National Plant Disease Recovery System to address urgent needs related to Ug99, a new African stem rust mutant.  Those one-year funds will support the ARS cooperative agreement with CIMMYT and Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute to screen U.S. wheat and barley breeding lines in East Africa for resistance.

Funds will also be provided to enhance ARS seedling screening for wheat and barley breeders at the Cereal Disease Lab, St. Paul. ARS is monitoring for the appearance of any new cereal rust strains throughout the U.S. in cooperation with U.S. wheat and barley breeders and pathologists. 

(The Web site for the Cereal Rust Bulletins is:  http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=9757)

ARS one-year stem rust funds will also be stretched to initiate the “Southern Shield Strategy”. Small, specific cooperative awards are being provided to wheat breeders in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and West Virginia to help support resistance breeding for Ug99.  The focus is on enhancing resistance along the southern border of the U.S.  This research will be expanded if the Cereal Rust Initiative is funded in FY08. 

VIRULENT STEM RUST SPREADS FROM AFRICA TO ARABIAN PENINSULA. The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization reported last week that Ug99, a new and virulent fungus that attacks a wide range of wheat varieties, has spread from East Africa to Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula.

The wheat stem rust, also known as black rust, is capable of causing severe losses and can destroy entire wheat fields. It is estimated that as much as 80 percent of wheat varieties planted in Asia and Africa are susceptible to the strain. The spores of wheat rust are mostly carried by wind over long distances and across continents.

A recent FAO mission in the field has confirmed for the first time that Ug99 has affected wheat fields in Yemen, apparently in a more virulent strain than the one found in East Africa. Samples of the pathogen were sent to the United States and Canada for further analysis. There is a high risk that the disease could also spread to Sudan.

FAO has joined the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, which are leading the Global Rust Initiative, an international consortium to fight the spread of rust fungus diseases around the world.

WASDE: U.S. WHEAT EXPORTS AND USE TO RISE, STOCKS TO FALL. (U.S. Wheat Associates) USDA made several significant revisions to the U.S. and world wheat situation in its World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates released this week, including a 25 million bushel (mbu) increase in U.S. exports and a 50 mbu decline in U.S. ending stocks. USDA also revised down export forecasts for Canada and the European Union while exports from the Black Sea region were revised up. USDA maintained its estimate for farm gate prices at $4.20 to $4.30, up from $3.42 last year.

The report said exports will increase because U.S. wheat, especially SRW, is more price competitive. Currently SRW is priced $35/MT under French supplies and $20/MT under Black Sea origins. Despite lower grain prices, ocean freight rates are at multi-year highs, so landed prices in the North African markets for Black Sea wheat are still cheaper than U.S. SRW. USDA increased its estimate of exports from the Black Sea region by 1 MMT (37 mbu). Tight supplies in the EU-27 and rail strikes in Canada that have complicated logistics have led USDA to decrease export estimates by 1 MMT from both regions.

Wheat is being substituted for expensive corn in livestock feed rations, so USDA increased its estimate for feed use by 25 mbu this month.

USDA estimates that the average price, for the entire year and for all classes, received by producers will be 26 percent higher than last year. Export prices for both SRW and HRW have averaged 22 percent higher than last year while HRS prices are 12 percent above last year and SW is up 31 percent.