The Western Grain Research Foundation has renewed its funding agreement with the University of Alberta’s wheat breeding program.
WGRF announced April 27 that it will invest more than $811,000 into the U of A program over the next five years. The investment doubles the WGRF’s previous five-year funding commitment.
Dean Spaner, a wheat breeder and professor at the U of A, said WGRF support has been integral to the success of the U of A program.
The program has produced five new wheat varieties in the past four years including Thorsby, Coleman, Go Early, Paratha and BW986.
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All of the varieties fall within the Canada Western Red Spring class.
“All of our varieties have an element of earliness to them … largely because we’re the northern most breeding program in the western Canadian network,” said Spaner.
“Three of our varieties — Thorsby, Paratha and Coleman — also had really good resistance to stripe rust, which is a disease more prevalent in Alberta than in other provinces.”
Spaner said the new U of A varieties are just starting to hit the commercial market. Certified seed supplies of Thorsby will be commercially available in 2016.
Spaner said the program will continue to focus on developing high quality CWRS varieties with shorter straw.
