During his brief tenure at Washington's land-grant college, Spillman established the economically important wheat breeding program that continues to this day. He asked the farmers of the fertile Palouse region what they grew and what they needed, the latter being a winter wheat. He used genetics as well as research trials to develop the varieties of wheat necessary for growers to continue to farm. In addition, he began to concentrate on the economics and methodology of practical agriculture for the farmer. He became known as the man with the knowledge to assist the farmer, not just a laboratory theorist.