Winter wheat groups want the Saskatchewan government to help fund a renewed winter wheat breeding program at the University of Saskatchewan.
Longtime winter wheat breeder Brian Fowler is no longer doing breeding work, focusing instead on a Genome Canada project looking into the genetics of cold hardiness.
Winter wheat industry officials say it’s crucial that the breeding program continue at the Crop Development Centre, using germplasm developed by Fowler.
“We can’t let his cold-hardiness germplasm work go,” said Jake Davidson, executive director of the Saskatchewan Winter Cereals Development Commission (SWCDC). “The world can’t afford to lose those genetics. We’re terrified.”
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He said the industry’s goal is to add at least two weeks to the levels of cold hardiness, extending the planting season in the fall by that amount to allow for more acres. That’s especially crucial with the increasing demand from the ethanol industry.
“If we have a bad fall and a bad year and the ethanol plants don’t have wheat, you’ve got a big problem.”
A coalition of groups, including the SWCDC, the Alberta Winter Wheat Producers Commission, Winter Cereals Canada, the Western Grains Research Foundation and Ducks Unlimited, met with the Saskatchewan agriculture minister in Regina in June.
The SWCDC said it would be willing to put the bulk of its checkoff revenue, about $150,000, toward the breeding program and asked the government to match that.
“That’s not a lot of money for the government,” said Davidson.
The money would be used to hire a new full-time winter wheat breeder and a technician to carry on Fowler’s work.
Rod Fedoruk, a Kamsack, Sask., farmer and chair of the commission, said the groups received a favourable response from the minister and expect a decision this fall.
“This is the top priority for us,” he said.
Amanda Soulodre, communications manager with the research foundation, which collects a checkoff on wheat and barley to finance wheat and barley breeding, agreed.
“It’s absolutely crucial,” she said, describing breeding as the “lifeblood” of the grain industry and the key to developing successful value-added industries such as ethanol.
There is winter cereals research at the University of Manitoba and the Agriculture Canada station at Lacombe, Alta., but it’s important that new varieties be developed for Saskatchewan conditions and that Fowler’s work be carried on, said Soulodre.
Davidson said it will also help if a winter cereals levy can be introduced in Manitoba to match the funds being contributed by Saskatchewan and Alberta producers through their provincial commissions.
