The variety of soft-white wheat, which has been under development for a decade, was called “Ryan” in honor of the late Ryan Davis, a WSU alum and former manager of the university’s Spillman and Cook research farms who died of cancer in 2016 at age 38.
About 10 years ago, researchers mixed a mother variety that Davis helped develop, called Diva, with an experimental line from the University of Idaho. Year after year, the Ryan variety kept outproducing other varieties in the test plots.
While the wheat was first made available to growers in 2016, it’s taken a couple years to build up enough seed to market it on a large scale. This past spring, farmers planted about 80,000 acres of Ryan before the plant seed sold out.
In addition to the high yields, Ryan also produces its crop early for a spring wheat, which typically matures slower and must be harvested after winter wheat. The fast-maturing Ryan could save farmers costs if they can pick both at or about the same time.
Glen Squires, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission, which provides funds for WSU research, said Ryan is producing such good yields that farmers are going to grow the variety whether the noodle market develops or not.
Currently, fields planted in the Ryan variety would make up about 4 million of the 218 million bushels of white wheat grown in Washington. (Spokesman-Review)
