Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
January 9, 2019
A field of the Panhandle Pride variety of Great Northern dry beans, growing in a plot at Kimberly, Idaho, where foundation seed numbers for the new variety are being increased.
Carlos Urrea’s dry bean breeding program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Panhandle Research and Extension Center at Scottsbluff has made progress in the past year in bringing three new varieties of dry edible beans to farmers in western Nebraska and elsewhere.
Panhandle Pride, a new Great Northern variety, is expected to be commercially available for the 2019 growing season, after foundation seed has been grown in Idaho and Wyoming, according to Urrea, the Dry Bean Breeding Specialist at the Panhandle Center.
Meanwhile, seed numbers are being increased in two other new bean lines – the first an upright Great Northern line (NE1-17-10) with enhanced disease resistance to common bacterial blight and bean rust, and the second a semi-upright, slow-darkening pinto line (NE2-17-18) with enhanced disease resistance. Urrea is hopeful that these two additional lines could be commercially available as soon as the 2020 growing season.
Panhandle Pride was developed by UNL’s dry bean breeding program and released in 2015. Foundation seed increases have been carried out by UNL’s Husker Genetics Foundation Seed Program in collaboration with the North Dakota Seed Foundation Program at Burlington, Wyo., and Kimberly, Idaho.
Panhandle Pride performed well in 2017 and 2018 at Kimberly, with an average yield of 3,000 pounds per acre, according to Urrea. The fields were on University of Idaho plots and two growers’ farms.
The process for increasing seeds spanned several years and two continents. During the winter of 2016-17, seed numbers were increased in a winter nursery in New Zealand that Urrea uses for his breeding program. The seeds from New Zealand went to a Powell, Wyo., farm, where they were planted in 2017. In 2018 they were introduced to Idaho.
For sales of commercial seed, Panhandle Pride has been licensed to Treasure Valley Seed Co., which has been acquired by Trinidad Benham Corp.
Urrea said Panhandle Pride’s genetics make it resistant to bean common rust (genes Ur-3 and Ur-6) and common bacterial blight (SAP6 and SU91), which were identified using molecular markers in Urrea’s laboratory at the UNL Panhandle Research and Extension Center at Scottsbluff.
This resistance package, upright plant architecture, and a larger seed size, are Panhandle Pride’s main selling points, Urrea said. The variety has higher yields than Coyne, the previous Great Northern variety released from his program. It is a mid-season variety, with an 87-day average time to maturity. It blooms 44 days after planting. It has white flowers and a bright white seed coat.
Development of Panhandle Pride was supported by the Nebraska Dry Bean Commission and the University of Nebraska Hatch Project. Seed increases were made possible by Husker Genetics Foundation Seed Program through the North Dakota Seed Foundation Program.
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