The importance of staff members to the work of faculty is clear in the partnership between Gary Shelton, research supervisor in WSU’s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, and Kimberlee K. Kidwell, associate professor, spring wheat breeder and geneticist. Both are recent award winners for their efforts to advance the wheat industry in Washington.
Shelton received the 2003 O.A. Vogel-Washington State Crop Improvement Association award, having been nominated by Kidwell. He serves as primary field technician, data manager and project coordinator for WSU’s spring wheat variety development program.
“I have come to refer to Gary as the heartbeat of the program because without him, the variety development component of my research would come to a screeching halt,” Kidwell said. “He has the experience and expertise to manage the breeding program without me, and I can honestly say that I could not, nor would I choose to, run the program without him.
“When I refer to the breeding project as ‘ours,’ I truly mean that Gary and I rebuilt this program together,” she said. “Fortunately for me, Gary was working for the breeding program when I took over primary investigator responsibilities in 1994.”
Starting with inadequate funding, an obsolete data collection and management system, and dilapidated equipment, Kidwell and Shelton committed to getting the program on a proactive, productive track, which they have done. Kidwell said Shelton’s key steps were incorporating a reliable data management system and selecting, designing or repairing all necessary equipment secured through Kidwell’s funding.
“I completely relied on his field experience and expertise as a farmer to make all equipment decisions. Gary never asked for more than he needed to do the job well, and what he couldn’t buy, he built himself,” she said. As a result, all the field equipment needed to create a world-class field breeding program at WSU is available.
Together, Kidwell and Shelton then updated and integrated novel technologies into the breeding strategy to improve efficacy. They also incorporated strategies to assess end-use quality in collaboration with personnel from the Western Wheat Quality Laboratory. “As a result, our recent varieties releases have established new standards of excellence for milling and baking quality of spring wheat from the Pacific Northwest,” Kidwell explained.
The wheat breeding program has nearly doubled in size since 1994, with eight new varieties released for commercial production since 1998 — three hard reds, two soft whites, two hard whites and one spring club.
“In each case, Gary was the first person on the project to realize that a (plant) line had potential for variety release. He has a keen eye for desirable plant type,” said Kidwell, who herself received the 2003 Young Crop Scientist of the Year award from the Crop Science Society of America.
The award recognizes her “stellar research in crop genetics and breeding that blends classical wheat breeding with current techniques in biotechnology to improve yield and end-use quality in spring wheat, and her outstanding teaching.”Shelton began his career with WSU’s spring wheat breeding program as a time-slip assistant in the fall of 1986. Having grown up on a farm in Pomeroy, he quickly became a valuable asset due to his high level of productivity and his ability to operate and fix virtually any piece of farm machinery, Kidwell said. In 1990, he was hired as a full-time plant technician and then was promoted to research supervisor.
“Gary Shelton is the Orville Vogel of technicians in my opinion, and he embodies the phrase World Class. Face to Face. in his endless commitment to spring wheat variety development and to making the needs of the farmer his highest priority,” Kidwell said.
