The Idaho Wheat Commission (IWC) invested 53% of its 3.15 million dollar budget for FY 2013 in research projects with public and private entities. The IWC utilizes its grower check-off dollars to go directly towards research, no check-off dollars are used to fund overhead of the cooperating research institution. Research collaborators include UI, WSU, OSU, BYU-ID, USU, USDA_ARS, ARS Western Genotyping Lab, Western Wheat Quality Lab, PNW Wheat Quality Council, Wheat Marketing Center, Limagrain Cereal Seeds to mention a few. Information gained from these projects when applied by producers will increase overall farm profits.
Idaho wheat growers joined the University of Idaho-Limagrain Cereal Seeds collaboration on wheat breeding to develop SWW varieties for the PNW, by continuing support of the UI's North Idaho Soft Winter Wheat breeding program.
A new iniative for IWC Research was taking the Idaho Wheat Variety Survey. The survey solicited wheat variety planting information using a traditional paper survey or an online survey format. Conducting the survey ourselves resulted in a cost savings of $20,000.
Grower research dollars funded a new small plot combine for the Aberdeen wheat breeding program conducted by Jianli Chen. These are a few of the ways in which Idaho Wheat Growers invest in the future of Idaho's wheat industry with their check-off dollars .
