The ‘Wolfe Population’

With thanks to our friends at Washington State University Bread Lab (who created it) you are looking at the Wolfe Population.

Learn about WSU Bread Lab here and here

Steve Jones of WSU Bread Lab says this:

The wheat variety Wolfe, was named in honor of the late Martin Wolfe. It is a hard red winter (HRW) wheat composite-cross population created by using natural selection and bulking of seed to exploit the variation within the population and give greater stability to adapt to different environments and changing climates.

Following the pioneering work of Martin Wolfe, Steve Lyon, the lead breeder at the Breadlab, has confirmed and demonstrated that by using bulk breeding and natural selection, the frequency of favorable genes in a highly diverse population will increase agronomic, quality, disease resistance and adaptability. 

Because this type of variety has so much inherent variation it reduces the need for testing in multiple environments as it adapts to wherever it is, from the
UK to the US. This ensures greater agronomic and rheological stability without sacrificing performance.

Similar to the YQ population but at a reduced scale, equal amounts of seed of sixteen different third generation HRW breeding lines using five different parents were combined to create Wolfe.  The parental cultivars in the composite were Renan, Evina, Colonia, Norwest 553 and Skagit 1109.  All have demonstrated adaptation to non-commodity wheat growing areas and have exhibited superior agronomic performance over multiple years even in times of climate chaos. Wolfe is consistently ranked as the best tasting wheat developed by the Breadlab.  It is designed for whole wheat uses in baked goods and does very well in a range of products.