01/06/05 Oregon ponders exclusive wheat release

01/06/05 Oregon ponders exclusive wheat release

Farm and Ranch January 7, 2005 The superior quality of a soft white winter wheat developed at Oregon State University may be of economic value in the market place if the variety's identity can be preserved throughout the production and marketing process. And to do that OSU is considering an exclusive or semi-exclusive release of this super soft variety OR9801757 that was developed with growers' dollars. That's never been done before by OSU for field crops. Groups from the Oregon Wheat Commission to the Wheat Growers League have agreed there is merit in considering some type of semi-exclusive release but recognize more input is needed. To provide that discussion and input a meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday, January 11th in Boardman at the Port of Morrow meeting facility from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. OSU wheat breeder Jim Peterson will be there as will department chair Russ Karow. Karow: "From the comments that we are getting from people to this point, there is still a lot of confusion about what we are doing per se. So there are still a number of people who don't understand what we are proposing to do. So one of the main points of the meeting is to try to inform people yet as to those who do have questions." Karow emphasizes no final decision has been made. The OSU Cereal Advisory Committee will convene later in January to consider all the input and make a final recommendation to College of Agricultural Sciences Dean Thayne Dutson. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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