BANFF, Alta. – Three Manitoba farmers are leading an effort to develop new high yielding wheat varieties suited for ethanol production and livestock feed in Western Canada.
The three have formed a co-operative to breed new feed grains, with a particular emphasis on spring wheat.
Their efforts are driven by a concern that higher yielding feed varieties are being thwarted by the current crop variety registration system for the Prairies.
The current system is an echo of the days when the emphasis was on developing milling wheat varieties, but farmer attention is shifting to other opportunities.
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“I think the future is in feeding livestock and in biofuels, but we don’t have a variety of wheat that fits those markets,” said David Rourke, who joined with two other farmers in southwestern Manitoba to form Western Feed Grain Development Co-op Ltd.
“None of the plant breeders in Western Canada are looking for them because they can’t get them registered.”
The co-op is hoping to attract farmer membership from across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. An annual membership fee will pay the costs of the co-op’s plant breeding efforts.
Many prairie farmers this year are confronted with the prospect of negative farm incomes. The need to add value to crops in other ways has become critical, Rourke said.
Efforts to register high yielding feed wheat varieties can be daunting. One of the challenges is demonstrating that such a variety can be kept out of the region’s handling and transportation system for milling quality wheat.
Typically, the qualities needed for livestock or ethanol production are different from those of milling wheat. Rourke said the co-op will focus on high starch, high yield and good disease resistance.
The co-operative plans to distribute any feed grain varieties that it develops exclusively to its members, which could remove the need to go through the grain variety registration system.
“If we breed this for ourselves, we won’t sell it outside (the feed grain development co-op),” said Rourke, who farms near Minto, Man. “We won’t even sell it inside. We’ll only distribute it inside.
“Once the variety is developed, there would be no checkoffs or royalties at the end. We should be able to distribute it very inexpensively.”
Rourke presented the idea last week during the annual meeting of the Prairie Registration Recommending Committee for Grain. The committee reviews potential new crop varieties to determine whether they should be registered for release to prairie farmers.
Working alongside Rourke on the feed grain development co-op are David Day of Deloraine, Man., and Owen McAuley of McAuley, Man. More information can be found at www.wfgd.ca or phone 204-776-5561.
