Dr. Norman Borlaug was a scientist who revolutionized the way the world produces wheat. In Mexico in the 1960's he developed a system of high volume crossbreeding, then doubled the amount of crosses he was able to produce each year by "shuttle breeding." He would take the harvest from one location and move it to another location with a different climate and immediately plant it for the following crop season. The amount of new wheat varieties he produced allowed him to shift the architecture of the wheat plant towards higher and higher production capability.
The successful wheat varieties that he created through his system were all shorter in height, were resistant to a fungus that attacks wheat called rust and responded to a high degree to fertilizers. After his varieties were released to farmers in Mexico, within a few years Mexico had went from foreign aid depended to feed their citizens to completely self-sufficient. After the success of his wheat production system in Mexico, Dr. Borlaug was asked to help with similar issues in Pakistan and several Asian countries. So our notions of tall wheat are all outdated because scientists and farmers have focused on higher and higher yielding varieties. Which in turn made our wheat varieties shorter and shorter.
One morning in 1970 Dr. Borlaug was working in Mexico in a remote field on his wheat crosses. His wife received several phone calls for her husband but since he was out at work for the day she told them they'd have to call back later. Until she was told by one caller that her husband was going to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. After hearing the news, his wife drove to a research center and rode in a farm pickup to a remote field. There Dr. Borlaug was told about the winning the Nobel Prize. So, Dr. Borlaug was told that he was outstanding in his field while he was literally out standing in his field...
Wheat harvest for our farm this year was kind of a disappointment. In the month of May alone we had a blizzard, hail and a late freeze. All of which seriously hurt the yield average across our farm. On a positive note I think I got some good harvest pics out of the deal.
-Wheat Farmer Ryan
My Grain Headaches Suggested Reading:
- The Man Who Feed the World by Leon Hesser was a very interesting read about Norman Borlaug's life and his life's work on solving how to feed the population of the world.
- Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity Is an article originally published in The Atlantic.
