Faller
Faller hard red spring wheat, is expected to be best adapted to eastern and central North Dakota, western Minnesota and northeast South Dakota.
Faller has parentage that includes Amidon, Stoa, Kitt and an NDSU experimental line derived from Sumai 3, a Chinese spring wheat that is the source of the fusarium head blight (scab) resistance in Alsen.
Faller has a level of scab resistance similar to Alsen. It also has a relatively low DON level. Faller has an excellent leaf disease resistance package, particularly stem and leaf rust.
Faller has excellent yield potential under more optimum growing conditions. In three years of tests in eastern and central North Dakota, Faller yielded an average of 12.7 bushels per acre more than Alsen and 9.7 bushels per acre more than Briggs. In trials at drier locations in western North Dakota, Faller yielded less than Alsen, Howard, Steele-ND and Reeder.
Faller is a semidwarf line with maturity and straw strength about equal to Alsen. It has slightly lower protein and test weight than recent NDSU releases, but is still in a very acceptable range and the milling and baking parameters are good.
Faller is named after Jim Faller, who had been a technician in the NDSU hard red spring wheat breeding program for 29 years. Jim, originally from Dickinson, lost a courageous battle with cancer in August 2006.
This variety is protected by the Plant Variety Protection Act of 1970 as amended in 1994 (“PVPA”). The PVPA prohibits, among other things, the propagation, multiplication, production, sale, use or advertisement of this protected variety without either an assignment or license from the NDSU Research Foundation. Please use the “Contact by Email” link below if interested in obtaining a license for this variety.
The North Dakota Wheat Commission provided some of the funding for the development of Faller.