MOUNT VERNON — Longtime Washington State University specialty crop breeder Kevin Murphy will now oversee the university’s bread research laboratory.

The Mount Vernon, Wash.-based Breadlab works with farmers, millers and bakers to develop varieties for nutritious whole-grain products.

“It’s a perfect fit,” Murphy told the Capital Press. “I’m really excited about working with all those West Side growers, millers, restaurants, end-users and food companies, and doing that kind of research that can be impactful to all those stakeholders.”

Murphy replaces longtime director Stephen Jones, who founded the lab in 2011. Murphy said Jones will remain as a researcher. Murphy received his doctorate at WSU under Jones.

“It will be fun to see where Kevin takes things, and the staff in place are excited for his leadership as well,” Jones said in a WSU press release.

Murphy joined the WSU faculty in 2009, developing new varieties of barley, quinoa, buckwheat and spelt.

He began July 1 as the Clif Bar and King Arthur Baking Company Endowed Chair in Organic Grain Breeding and Innovation.

Launching WSU’s Sustainable Seed Systems Lab in 2016, he currently leads a $3.3 million research project breeding improved organic buckwheat. Murphy is also lead investigator on Soil to Society, a $10 million, WSU-led, USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative-funded effort to create more nutritious, affordable and accessible whole grain-based foods.

Murphy is in the process of moving from WSU’s campus in Pullman to the lab in Mount Vernon. He will alternate weeks in both locations over the next few months.

Murphy plans to ramp up visits with farmers over the next few months, hearing about their goals and needs.

He hopes to hear from anyone interested in hosting test plots on their farms.

“They can plant an acre, 5 acres, 10 acres, instead of these teeny little plots,” he said. “If they’re interested in working with us on plant breeding, we’d love for forge new partnerships with them.”

Wheat and barley

“It will be fun to get back into wheat,” Murphy said, noting he studied wheat under Jones as a graduate student. “The bread part will be a really fun challenge, too. Just doing good science on bread and the different varieties involved.”

He’s also excited to breed barley varieties again, too. Murphy was the barley breeder for about eight years.

Murphy said the lab is already collaborating closely with WSU wheat breeders Arron Carter and Mike Pumphrey and USDA club wheat breeder Kim Garland-Campbell to advance wheat nutrition.

“We’ll focus on wheat and barley varieties that are different,” he said. “Breeding for nutrition in wheat in Washington is fairly new and very exciting. It’s great seeing their enthusiasm.”

The lab will host variety trials in western Washington.

Does that mean more wheat on the West Side?

“I don’t know, to be honest,” Murphy said. “I haven’t heard that wheat acreage needs to be increased, but I know the wheat price per acre needs to be increased so it’s more profitable than it is, right now. That will be our focus.”

Roughly 10,000 acres of wheat are grown in western Washington, as a rotation for higher-value crops.

“We’re not trying to make Western Washington a major wheat-growing area, but we want it to be a very productive, high-yielding and economical and unique wheat-growing area,” Murphy said.

Other grains

Murphy will keep working with buckwheat, proso millet, spelt, rye, perennial grains and possibly oat.

“We’ll have to test the waters on all of these,” he said. “Which ones do we want active, larger breeding programs? Which ones do we want more targeted, smaller breeding programs and which ones do we really focus on agronomy projects and cropping systems, because breeding programs are expensive. We don’t need one for every crop.”

For proso millet, for example, the lab will focus on nutrition and brewing, but rely on colleagues with existing breeding programs, Murphy said.

Quinoa

Murphy’s waiting on final mineral analyses for WSU’s quinoa varieties, long in development.

“We know which ones we want to release,” he said. “It’s just figuring out how we want to commercialize these varieties…. Who’s interested in them, how do we want to release them?”

Yields in Western Washington are usually two to three times higher, but there’s still potential for Eastern Washington quinoa varieties, Murphy said. He’s working on heat tolerance and pre-harvest sprouting in tests.

“It’s still a high priority for us,” he said.