Cornell small grains breeding strengthens local and global food systems

In the U.S., the overwhelming majority of wheat and other small grains are grown in western and midwestern states, where drier conditions help combat fungal-borne diseases and early sprouting, which can be brought on by rain and ruin crops for human consumption. Cornell’s is the only active small grains breeding program, public or private, in the Northeastern U.S. Over almost 120 years, it has been led by just three plant breeders. Mark Sorrells, professor of plant breeding and genetics in the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell, has led the program for 48 years and will be retiring at the end of this year. 

"Cornell has been instrumental in helping farmers to address disease and pest problems, have better varieties, and meet the growing demand for New York State-grown products." - Kyle Gifford

Driving progress for growers

New technologies have transformed society over the past 50 years, and scientific research has been at the forefront of that transformation. Sorrells remembers in 1978 when he was the first person in his department to purchase a personal computer. He taught himself how to program his new Apple II and wired the first network in the building so he could send messages to his assistant and print on a laser printer. Sorrells was an early adopter of many technologies, including molecular genetics for crop improvement – the once-revolutionary and now-standard practice of studying genes and genetic relationships to speed selection of new plant varieties. 

“Progress in plant breeding has always been based on new knowledge and new technology, so when something has come along – computers, genomic selection, drones – we’ve jumped right into it,” he said. 

Sorrells credits his adaptability to growing up on a farm in Southcentral Illinois, where his family raised cows, pigs, chickens, wheat, corn and soybeans. Sorrells’ brother-in-law and nephew still manage the 500-acre farm, and supporting the livelihoods and quality of life of farmers like his family is a constant source of inspiration. 

Thanks to dramatic improvements in plant varieties and farm management practices, per-acre yields of those staple crops have roughly doubled since he was a child, Sorrells said. Through his breeding efforts, Sorrells has released or co-released 27 new small grain varieties and seven germplasms (the full collection of genetic resources, including seeds, plant tissues, or pollen, that other breeders can pull from to develop improved plant varieties). 

“Agricultural systems are really so fundamental to society. If people don’t have enough to eat, you can’t make progress on any other front,” he said. “Supporting the farmers and growers, here in New York and around the world, underpins everything we do.”

Combating ‘vomitoxin’

New York’s humid climate is a boon for farmers who, unlike their Midwestern counterparts, don’t need to worry about or pay for irrigation water. But it can also be a bane, as humidity encourages fungal diseases, such as the dreaded Fusarium head blight. The disease causes wheat and barley grains to shrivel and creates dangerous mycotoxins. At just 2 parts per million, the grain becomes unsafe for human consumption. At 5-10 ppm, it’s unsafe even for livestock. 

Sorrells and Gary Bergstrom, professor emeritus of plant pathology and plant-microbe biology, worked together for decades to address that and other diseases. 

“One of the mycotoxins that is produced by Fusarium head blight is pejoratively called ‘vomitoxin’ because that’s what it does to people,” Bergstrom said. “If your grain has too many mycotoxins, your per-bushel grain price drops significantly, or the grain simply becomes unusable. That’s near the top of the list of concerns for both wheat and barley producers in New York.”

Bergstrom’s and Sorrell’s programs worked hard to combat Fusarium head blight, in collaboration with growers, processors, and extension specialists. This has included developing new resistant varieties, testing fungicides, and fine-tuning recommendations on planting and harvesting times. 

“Over the years, Mark has made incredible progress on releasing varieties that have reduced levels of susceptibility to the disease and lower potential for the toxin to be produced. But it’s such a serious and pervasive disease that just resistant varieties isn't enough,” Bergstrom said. “The varieties by themselves don’t get the job done, the chemicals by themselves don’t get the job done, the cultural practices by themselves don’t get the job done. All of these things working in concert keeps this disease at bay.”

Strengthening regional food systems

That disease resistance has been critical for all New York growers, but especially for organic farmers, who rely on a smaller suite of chemicals. In the mid-2000s, there were very few organic grain varieties available, and all of them had been developed for Midwestern growing conditions, said June Russell, director of regional food programs for Glynwood, a center for regional food and farming in Cold Spring, NY. Previously, Russell managed farm inspections and strategic development for the non-profit GrowNYC’s Greenmarket. In that role, she advocated for a policy change that required bakers selling at the city’s farmers’ markets to use at least 15% locally grown flour, and in 2010 she began collaborating with Bergstrom, Sorrells and many others on supporting Northeastern organic grain production. 

Since then, 20 new mills have come online across the Northeast, Russell said, specializing in local, organic grains, including the traditional wheat, oats and barley, but also less-common ancient grains like emmer, einkorn and spelt. In addition to disease resistance, the scientists, growers and processors have prioritized grains that are higher in protein, lower in gluten, and usable as a winter cover crop by growers – planted in the late fall and harvested in early summer, winter wheat gives growers another source of income, reduces soil erosion and sequesters more carbon, among other benefits. 

“Since we started this 20 years ago, everybody’s gotten better,” Russell said. “The research partners have created better varieties and management practices, the growers have gotten better at producing quality grains, our millers have gotten better at understanding what the bakers need, and the bakers have gotten better at adapting the flour. And all of this collaborative work has strengthened our regional food systems.”

A similar dynamic played out when the New York State legislature passed its Farm Brewery Bill in 2012, requiring New York craft brewers to source an increasing percentage of their hops and barley from the Empire State. Sorrells, Bergstrom, growers and processors worked together to develop and test new varieties adapted for the Northeast. Sorrells’ newest barley variety – and his first winter malting barley variety, LakeEffect – was released last summer. 

Collaboration grows impact, locally and globally

Sorrells’ half-century of research and leadership have strengthened New York’s food systems, but he has also bolstered food security worldwide. He has collaborated with universities and growers in China, Kenya and Ethiopia. He contributes to the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, which was formed in 2005 to combat the deadly “Ug99” wheat stem rust and continues to work toward better disease and climate resilience in wheat. One of Sorrells’ graduate students, Jessica Rutkoski, Ph.D. ‘14, now a breeder at the University of Illinois, led the genomic prediction and selection work that found a wheat variety resistant to stem rust, he said. Rutkoski and Juan Arbelaez, Ph.D. ‘15, have been hired to continue Cornell’s legacy in small grains breeding (Rutkoski in wheat; Arbelaez in oats and rice), and they are scheduled to begin in June 2027. 

Multi-disciplinary and external collaborations have been critical to any successes he’s achieved, Sorrells said. That includes working cooperatively with growers, millers, entomologists, pathologists, extension specialists and graduate students, at Cornell, across the country and around the world. 

“Of everything I’ve done over the last 48 years, I’m most proud of my graduate students and my relationships with colleagues,” Sorrells said, noting that some of his students have gone on to jobs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and three are small grains breeders at other land-grant universities. “I give my graduate students a lot of the credit for any successes we can claim. And I’m convinced that I’m a much better scientist here at Cornell than I would have been almost any other place, because of the inspiration I got from excellent colleagues.”

Much of Cornell’s small grains breeding work has been supported through Federal Capacity Funds distributed to land-grant universities and managed by the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (Cornell AES). The malting barley work is also supported by New York State.

Krisy Gashler is a freelance writer for the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station.