Each year wheat farmers work tirelessly to get to this moment: Harvest
In order to meet the demands of our growing population, farmers need a consistent supply of new, improved wheat varieties. And we're proud to get those varieties into their hands as fast as possible.
Welcome to the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center, home of the Kansas Wheat farmer. The Innovation Center is located in Manhattan, Kansas, and is part of Kansas State University's Grain Science and Industry Complex. It cost $15 million to build this 48,000 square foot facility. And since its grand opening in 2012, has hosted over 10,000 visitors from around the world. The Innovation Center is the state's single largest farmer investment in wheat research, and it was primarily funded by the wheat checkoff, which is a two-cent assessment on each bushel of wheat sold in Kansas.
Our Mission: To use advanced techniques in wheat research to improve yield and quality of new wheat varieties while shortening the time needed to develop those varieties. We are getting improved varieties into the hands of farmers faster.
Ancient Wheat Relatives: Good wheat begins with good genetics. Scientists much find desirable traits like disease resistance or drought tolerance in wheat's relatives and cross them to create a new, higher quality variety. At Kansas State University's Wheat Genetics Resource Center, which is located in the Innovation Center, there are 10,000 lines of ancient wheat relatives. It is one of the most diverse and best curated collections in the world, and it allows scientists to go treasure hunting and find desirable genetic traits for new varieties.
Advanced Breeding: Developing a new wheat variety takes time. But Heartland Plant Innovations can significantly speed up this process. One of the key technologies they provide is doubled haploids. Doubled haploids are genetically pure plant lines that offer a quick route to new genet combinations for higher yield, improved quality, disease resistance, or other crop improvements. It normally takes 12 years for a new variety to get into the hands of farmers, but doubled haploid is a wheat breeding shortcut because it can cut four to six years off the breeding process. Doubled haploids are only one of the many advanced wheat breeding techniques used in the Innovation Center.
End Use Quality: After new wheat varieties have been planted, grown, and harvested by farmers, those grains are delivered to grain elevators or shipped directly to end users such as flour mills. Grain Craft actively collects wheat samples at harvest for milling and baking evaluation at the Innovation Center. Those samples are milled into flour and tested for dough strength and other end product quality attributes.
Consumer Outreach: Once wheat has been tested for quality, it's used to create a variety of products for people across the world to eat. These products can range from flours to breads to pastas and other packaged goods. Because of wheat's nutritional value and versatility, it's important to educate consumers about how to incorporate it into their diet.
And as Earth's population grows and the demand for food increases, the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center is uniquely positioned to be one of the leading wheat research facilities in the world that can improve the efficiency and productivity of Kansas wheat farmers while providing greater global food security.
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