Dave Gehl oversaw production of breeder seed at Indian Head’s federal research facility
INDIAN HEAD, Sask. — Dave Gehl closed his office door for the last time exactly 25 years to the day he first opened it.
He arrived as officer-in-charge at the Indian Head federal research farm Oct. 22, 1989, after four years at the Brandon research centre.
“That was a big chance in my career to come here and focus on what I had studied — plant breeding and agronomy,” Gehl said in an interview before his retirement.
The Indian Head farm is one of the original five established in 1886, along with Ottawa, Brandon, Nappan, N.S,. and Agassiz, B.C. They were set up to research the development of cereals, fruit and orchard crops, seeds, fertilizers, plant diseases and pests as well as livestock breeding, nutrition and disease.
Read Also
Alberta Beef Producers announces withdrawal from Canadian Cattle Association
Glacier FarmMedia – On August 12, 2025, the Alberta Beef Producers (ABP) announced their decision to withdraw their membership from…
Many of those mandates had already been phased out by the time Gehl arrived at Indian Head.
The livestock barn remains on site as a government heritage property, and ribbons hanging in out buildings showcase breeding success, particularly with Clydesdales through the 1930s.
However, the animals were mainly gone by the 1960s, and work has focused on agronomy since the 1970s.
Indian Head was a perfect fit for Gehl, who had a master’s degree from the University of Saskatchewan.
The federal seed increase unit had been transferred from the Regina research centre to Indian Head in 1984, and he became responsible for its operation.
The unit produces and distributes all the breeder seed for Agriculture Canada researchers across the country.
This involved propagation in winter nurseries in California, but the detection of a single spore of karnal bunt in a hulless oat seed crop in 1996 devastated the unit.
“That wiped us out completely,” Gehl said.
“Thirty acres of small plots and 14 tonnes of samples had to be incinerated to prevent introduction of the disease into Canada.”
The winter nursery moved to New Zealand, where work continues today.
Some increasing is still done in California, but Gehl expects it will be completely phased out this year.
He usually participated in the California harvest every second year, and said it was not a holiday despite the warm, dry location.
“We’re talking sickles, paper bags and rubber bands,” he said of the small-plot harvest.
“It certainly loses the glamour.”
Contractors do the fieldwork in New Zealand, but Gehl was still responsible for all the paperwork.
A five-tonne shipment went missing last spring, leading him on the proverbial wild goose chase before it was found in storage in Vancouver.
“Breeders are anxious to get this seed in time for spring planting,” he said.
“These are all germplasm that could be our next greatest variety.”
Gehl has a special affinity for oats. He was part of an Agriculture Canada research team honoured for achievement in developing new hulless oat varieties, and fellow researcher Vern Burrows even named a variety after him.
“I think it’s probably the crop with the most future,” Gehl said, citing the ability for people with celiac disease to eat oats but not wheat and barley.
However, he was also involved in developing fusarium resistance in wheat.
“We are the first ones to get to see these varieties,” he said.
“At Indian Head, fusarium is endemic.”
Gehl said making sure the breeder seed is pathogen-free was a major part of his job.
Alberta has a policy of zero tolerance for fusarium-infected seed, yet the best that researchers could offer was control, not eradication.
“That threatened our operation,” Gehl said.
“Here we were, a national program, and we can’t send seed into Alberta.”
Disinfecting seed using dry heat for fusarium control was first done at the farm in 2000. A large sample dryer was used for three years and then a walk-in oven replaced it.
“It’s really reduced seed-borne fusarium,” he said.
“It’s been a huge gain for us. We’re not limited shipping breeder seed into Alberta.”
Another breakthrough was how to treat bacterial blight in oats. The disease is not normally considered economically important, but it can cause problems. For example, infected seed shipped from Quebec to the Maritimes cost a farmer his entire crop, and at that time there was no way to treat the infection.
Indian Head researchers tried hot water baths and formaldehyde, and finally had success with an antibiotic used for scab on apples.
Gehl’s quarter-century of service puts him in the company of the first man to head the farm, Angus MacKay, who was superintendent from 1888 to 1913.
W.H. Gibson holds the longest service record: superintendent from 1915-1919 and again from 1924-49.
Gehl said the farm’s longevity is due to its Class 1 land, good location and stable environment. Results from research done there are representative of a much larger area, he added.
The farm planted a demonstration plot last year of all the registered varieties it distributes: 377 varieties of 42 crops.
Spring wheat is probably the best known, but Gehl said one-quarter to one-third of the work done at Indian Head is with forage crops.
Gehl will still be working with plants in his retirement. He will be farming with his brothers, and one of his hobbies is breeding minor crops.
His work with Seeds of Diversity Canada led to the registration of arikara, a yellow field bean historically grown by First Nations in North Dakota.
One of the organization’s members offered Gehl 12 dry bean varieties. One, arikara, grew and produced the best by far, and he got the same result the next year. So he grew a plot, harvested the seeds and sent them to a bean company.
“A bean breeder at Lethbridge put it in the preliminary trials and it beat the check,” Gehl said.
It was registered as a new variety after co-op trials, but it didn’t meet market class standards because of a brown ring around the hilum.
“Someone needs to find a market,” he said.
One constant during Gehl’s 25 years at Indian Head was the farm’s combine.
“It’s one of the first things I bought and it’s lasted the length of my career,” he said.
“The last thing I do is purchase a new one.”
karen.briere@producer.com
