Phil Bruckner, former Montana State University and Montana Ag Experiment Station winter wheat breeder, has left behind a long legacy of developing strong winter wheat varieties that were popular with farmers and helped them be successful in the marketplace over the years.
Bruckner began as MSU’s winter wheat breeder in 1992. He worked as breeder for 90 percent of his time and 10 percent teaching field crop production and genetics.
“I had a dream career working for Montana farmers for 30 years as the winter wheat breeder,” he said.
Bruckner and his winter wheat associates, Jim Berg and Ron Ramsfield, worked closely as a research team for more than 25 years and were collectively responsible for the development of many effective winter wheat varieties for Montana’s producers.
While Bruckner is retired from winter wheat breeding, he is professor emeritus in the plant sciences department at MSU. He also serves as a mentor for graduate students.
During his longtime career as winter wheat breeder (1992-2021), Bruckner’s four favorite hard red winter wheat (HRWW) varieties that he bred, developed, and released were Yellowstone, Rampart, Genou and Warhorse.
“I was proud of all the varieties we developed, but these four had special impacts on Montana farms,” he said.
When the wheat stem sawfly began invading more Montana farms, Bruckner began working on varieties that could fight it. The semi-solid and solid stem releases were the main tools in the sawfly battle.
“The sawfly was getting worse, and Luther Talbert (former spring wheat breeder and colleague of Bruckner) and I knew it was the most damaging insect to Montana wheat fields,” Bruckner said. “Sawfly resistance and development of solid stem winter wheat cultivars has probably been our biggest contribution to the winter wheat program for Montana farmers.”
But Bruckner could not just work on varieties resistant to the sawfly – every variety had to have yield, be resistant to certain diseases and insects, depending on the variety, and be able to have the quality necessary for milling and baking.
“We had to work on everything at once. We worked on varieties to expand the market for Montana farmers. They not only had to have disease and sawfly resistance for certain areas, but varieties were also developed to make sure millers and bakers had the highest quality of winter wheat,” he said.
Rampart was a cultivar released in 1996.
“Rampart was a solid-stem and resistant to wheat stem sawfly, so its increase in acreage reflected the trouble we were having with the sawfly in the state,” Bruckner said. “It was also resistant to stem rusts.”
Rampart was a sister line to Vanguard and both were solid stems.
By fall 2002, Rampart was the highest-planted winter wheat in the state with 488,300 acres seeded.
Genou was another solid-stem variety released to seed growers in 2004, and Rampart was one of its parents. The variety improved on yield with the stem not as solid as Rampart, and winter hardiness was improved, as well.
“Genou performed well in locations where sawfly cutting had occurred and where there was winter kill. It had good yield, winter hardiness, and sawfly resistance,” Bruckner said. “Unfortunately, Genou was susceptible to stripe rust, which previously had not been a serious winter wheat disease in Montana.”
Subsequently, stripe rust resistance was incorporated into newly developed varieties.
Yellowstone was a HRWW that Bruckner developed, and it became available in 2005. It was one of the most successful winter wheat varieties that came out of the winter wheat program.
How did Yellowstone get chosen as a line to develop?
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“It was really by chance. In Williston, N.D., we were growing some populations like we did every year. There was severe winter kill that year and in one population, only seven plants survived in the Williston nursery. One of those seven plants had increased yield, as well as winter hardiness and other traits. It became Yellowstone,” Bruckner explained.
During the years when Yellowstone was the leading variety (2012-17), the average yield of Yellowstone at Bozeman was 92 bushels per acres; at Kalispell, 113 bushels per acre; at Havre, 57 bushels per acre; and at Sidney, 59 bushels per acre.
In 2021, Yellowstone was the second-most common winter wheat variety in Montana. It accounted for 9.5 percent of the state’s planted winter wheat acreage.
“Yellowstone has lasted as a successful variety that is still grown today,” he said. “In addition, we have used Yellowstone as a parent in many crosses for new winter wheat cultivars.”
Warhorse was a solid-stemmed hard red winter wheat with improved yield potential relative to Genou and Rampart, whcih was released to seed growers in 2013.
“Warhorse was a top variety grown by producers with very good stem solidness. It yields well in the Golden Triangle, where sawfly can be devastating, and it has good quality, as well.”
In 2020, Warhorse claimed 48 percent of the acres; Keldin, 10 percent; Yellowstone, 10 percent; Judee, 7 percent; Brawl CLP, 4 percent; Decade, 3 percent; Northern, 3 percent; and Loma, 2 percent. Other varieties filled the rest of the acres in smaller numbers.
Many solid stems lost yield potential in the field, but Warhorse had yields that could stand up against hollow-stemmed varieties.
Warhorse has stem solidness similar to Bearpaw and Rampart, and the cultivar is resistant to prevalent races of stripe and stem rust, but it’s susceptible to leaf rust. Warhorse is a high PPO variety for the export market.
Another winter wheat Bruckner developed for winter hardiness was Decade. The material was evaluated with crews at Sidney and Williston. It was released jointly by MAES and the North Dakota Ag Experiment Station.
“Decade was our most winter hardy variety, as well as high-yielding,” he said.
Decade was well adapted to western North Dakota and eastern Montana with medium to high test weight, early maturity, reduced height, and medium to high grain protein, as well as having excellent milling and baking quality.
Bruckner is married to his wife, Cindy, and helps her with Heavenly Llamas, her organic garden and produce business/farm north of Bozeman. They also are part of the Bozeman Food Co-op.
“We adopted four children, including two special sons with disabilities,” he said.
Bruckner grew up on a diversified irrigated and dryland farm near Malta. The family raised dairy, beef cattle, hogs, and hay, along with small grains, mostly for feed.
“We had milking cows, and we would separate the cream and sell it in Glasgow,” he said.
After high school, Bruckner went to MSU at Bozeman where he had plans to return to the family farm after graduation. But after meeting his wife, Cindy, at MSU and developing a passion for agronomy and plant breeding, that plan changed.
At MSU, he received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in agronomy, from 1974-1981. He received a doctorate in philosophy and plant breeding at North Dakota State University in 1985.
“Essentially, you train to breed any crop,” he said.
In his first position, Bruckner was assistant professor at the University of Georgia from 1985-1992. He was stationed at the Coastal Plain Experiment Station in Tifton, Ga., where he was the small grain breeder of wheat, triticale, oats and rye.
“It was good training to develop varieties for the environment, which was humid, and that meant a lot of disease resistance bred into the varieties,” he said.
Bruckner will always be known for the kind of cultivars that impacted Montana farmers favorably and helped them compete in export markets. He created options for farmers because not every cultivar works the same on every farm, and Montana has diverse climates and diverse needs.