Phil Bruckner and Jim Berg, Winter Wheat Breeding Program
Updated 12/2018

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Northern is a hard red winter wheat developed by the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station and released to growers in fall 2015. Northern was named to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Northern Agricultural Research Center (NARC) in Havre, Montana. Northern is derived from a cross between a Yellowstone sib line (MT9982) and hard white winter Montana (MTW0072) and Nebraska (NW97S151) experimental lines. Northern is a medium-late maturing, medium-short statured wheat, with white chaff. Northern has average yield (similar to Yellowstone and Colter, see Table 1), average test weight, and average protein (Table 2). Northern is resistant to both stem and stripe rust. Northern has above average milling and average baking properties (Table 3). Northern is a low PPO cultivar with favorable Asian noodle color stability and noodle score. 
To be sold by variety name only as a class of certified seed. Montana State University Research Fees due on seed sold. PVP Title V is issued (Certificate #20160092).

 

Table 1. Yield of Northern vs. a Set of Varieties (2012-2018)1/

Variety
Districts
All Locations
1
2
3
4
5
5
6
Kalispell
Bozeman
Huntley2/
Moccasin3/
Conrad4/
Havre5/
Sidney & Williston
Location years 6 6 26 23 20 16 9 106
Yellowstone
 111.4 99.8 74.4 60.3 78.8 57.2 59.3 71.8
Northern
 113.1 97.0 73.8 58.6 77.9 57.6 55.6 70.8
SY Wolf
 98.1 94.3 73.7 59.6 78.1 55.7 51.0 69.4
Decade
 50.1 81.5 70.9 57.4 71.7 53.2 53.0 63.3
LSD (0.05) 19.4 12.7 ns ns 2.6 3.0 ns  
  • bold-italics indicates highest value within a column
  • bold indicates values equal to highest variety within a column based on Fisher's Protected LSD (p = 0.05)
  • ns = non-significant
  • 1/ includes 2012-2016, 2018 intrastate and 2015-2018 off station tests
  • 2/ includes data from Fort Smith, Hardin area, Hysham, Molt, Rapelje
  • 3/ includes data from Belt, Denton, Geraldine, Highwood, Winifred
  • 4/ includes data from Choteau, Cut Bank, The Knees, Shelby
  • 5/ includes data from Fort Benton, Loma, Turner

 

Table 2. Agronomic Characteristics of Northern vs. a Set of Varieties (2012-2018)1/

Variety
Test weight (lb/bu)
Winter survival (%)
Heading date
Plant height (in)
Lodging (%)
Protein (%)
Sawfly cutting (%)
Stripe rust (%)
Coleoptile length (in)
Julian
Calendar
Location years 106 6 56   106 16 104 15 7 2
Decade
 59.4 60 159.4 8-Jun 31.4 22 12.7 31 73 3.2
Northern
 59.6 49 162.6 12-Jun 31.5 23 12.7 33 25 2.5
SY Wolf
 60.9 40 158.4 7-Jun 30.3 27 12.4 28 26 3.0
Yellowstone
 59.5 55 161.6 10-Jun 33.0 24 12.3 40 38 2.7
LSD (0.05) 0.4 12 0.5   0.4 ns ns ns 15 0.2
  • bold-italics indicates highest value within a column
  • bold indicates values equal to highest variety within a column based on Fisher's Protected LSD (p = 0.05)
  • ns = non-significant
  • 1/ includes 2012-2016, 2018 intrastate and 2015-2018 off station tests

 

Table 3. Mill and Bake Characteristics of Northern vs. a Set of Varieties (2012-2016)

Variety
PPO1/
Kernel hardness
Flour
Mixograph
Baking
Yield (%)
Protein (%)
Ash (%)
Tolerance (1-6)
Mix time (min)
Absorption (%)
Mix time (min)
Absorption (%)
Volume (cc)

Location years

 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
Decade
 0.285 75.7 68.6 11.5 0.42 4.6 7.9 64.9 19.2 75.3 1044
Northern
 0.104 86.2 69.7 11.8 0.45 3.5 4.1 62.4 6.2 72.2 1076
SY Wolf
 0.278 76.3 68.7 11.3 0.41 2.5 4.4 59.2 6.6 69.3 979
Yellowstone
 0.217 78.9 68.9 11.3 0.43 4.4 8.3 64.2 16.0 75.0 1052

LSD (0.05)

 0.031 2.4 0.7 0.3 0.01 0.5 0.8 1.2 2.0 1.3 30
  • bold-italics indicates highest value within a column
  • bold indicates values equal to highest variety within a column based on Fisher's Protected LSD (p = 0.05)
  • ns = non-significant
  • 1/ polyphenol oxidase, low is best for noodles