Shirley (Reg. No. CV1039, PI 656753) soft red winter (SRW) wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), developed and tested as VA03W409 by the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, was released in March 2008. Shirley was derived from the threeway cross VA945225/Coker 9835//VA9654234. Shirley is widely adapted and provides producers and end users with a fullseason, shortstature, semidwarf (Rht1) cultivar that has very high yield potential and good milling and pastry baking qualities. Shirley also is notably resistant to leaf rust (Puccinia triticina Eriks.), stem rust (Puccinia graminis Pers.:Pers. f. sp. tritici Eriks. & E. Henn.), and powdery mildew [Blumeria graminis (DC.) E.O. Speer]. In Virginia Shirley had the highest 3yr (20062008) average grain yield (6316 kg ha1) among cultivars evaluated in the state variety trial. In USDAARS Uniform Eastern SRW Wheat Nursery Trials conducted at 29 locations in 2006 and at 22 locations in 2007, Shirley ranked first in grain yield in both years with mean yields of 6155 and 5456 kg ha1, respectively. Shirley has soft grain texture, low endosperm separation indices (score = 8.9), high break flour (323328 g kg1), and high straight grade (777779 g kg1) flour yields on an Allis mill. Flour protein concentration (7.628.65 g 100 g1) and gluten strength (84.693.6 g 100 g1) of Shirley are lower than average. These quality attributes combined with low flour sucrose solvent retention capacity (87.6 90.8 g 100 g1) contribute to Shirley's good pastry baking quality (cookie spread diameters of 17.1518.65 cm).
