OSU to release new “heavyweight” wheat variety this fall
Oklahoma State University (OSU) recently announced a new wheat variety, will be on its way to the market this fall. It will be the university’s most widely adapted wheat since Duster in the early 2000s.
“This variety will compete on the farm at the highest levels of yield potential,” said Brett Carver, wheat genetics chair and regents professor in the OSU Department of Plant and Soil Sciences.
“I could have just as easily called it ‘Heavyweight,’ because if it were a wrestler, that is the weight class it would compete in,” he said. “Currently, we don’t have any other varieties with this level of yield competitiveness and straw strength to keep them standing in the field under typical Oklahoma conditions in June.”
Wheat namesake
The experimental variety OK20708, will be commercially known as Wyatt, named after former OSU Wrestler Wyatt Hendrickson, who received the 2025 Dan Hodge Trophy, which is awarded to the nation’s best collegiate wrestler.
During wheat research trials supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, Wyatt wheat performed well across the Great Plains from Central Texas to Central South Dakota, ranking as a top yielder in Kansas and Nebraska in 2024 and in Texas and South Dakota in 2025.
From 2020-23, Wyatt demonstrated yield superiority over three competitive OSU varieties – Showdown, Smith’s Gold and High Cotton – averaging five or more bushels per acre more than Showdown and six bushels per acre more than Smith’s Gold.
Wyatt was bred from the Romanian variety FDL Miranda and OSU variety Smith’s Gold, giving it lineage to the OSU variety Gallagher, another variety with strong yield.
By 2017, the Miranda variety accounted for the second-highest area of seed wheat produced in Romania.
Both Miranda and Smith’s Gold have strong yield properties, with Smith’s Gold also carrying strong stripe rust resistance.
Wheat attributes
Wyatt variety attributes include very large kernel size with acceptable test weight and strong milling quality; a high-yielding ceiling with excellent straw strength and intermediate height; average protein content; moderately strong adult plant resistance to stripe rust; moderate resistance to leaf rust, with fungicide application being necessary within environmentally-challenged conditions to maintain kernel size and yield and moderately strong resistance to barley yellow dwarf.
Wyatt wheat also boasts intermediate resistance to tan spot; good grazing tolerance and yield recovery from grazing; variable baking quality, with slightly below-average dough strength; moderate susceptibility to Septoria nodorum blotch and Septoria tritici blotch under severe pressure and low tolerance to suboptimal nitrogen applications.
Wyatt has moderate but variable gluten strength which would be best used in commodity grain channels where it would be blended with other varieties and sources, according to Carver.
“I usually prefer many of our varieties to be marketed without blending because they stand so well on their own for baking functionality, but this one does not have enough dough strength to stand on its own,” Carver said.
“However, Wyatt can provide good baking performance with a reasonable balance of dough strength and extensibility. This, combined with an exceptional kernel size, carries a dual benefit for both farmers and millers,” he added.
Alisa Boswell-Gore is the communications coordinator for OSU Agricultural Communications Services. This article was originally published by Southwest FarmPress on Feb. 18.
