A new blend of wheat seeds will help keep the orange wheat blossom midge in check and offer prairie producers another weapon in their arsenal to combat a common pest.
At eight sites across the Prairies, researchers planted blends of 90 percent midge-tolerant and 10 percent midge-susceptible spring wheat varieties.
The susceptible variety is AC Waskada. It will be sold with new midge tolerant varieties AC Unity and Freestar beginning in 2010.
When planted together, the midge has 10 percent of the crop to eat so its need to adapt to the tolerant variety is lessened.
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The larvae do not survive on the tolerant plants, which produce chemical compounds that prevent the insect from feeding on developing kernels.
The susceptible portion of the crop, also known as the refuge, allows low level midge survival with little crop damage.
Stephen Fox, research scientist with Agriculture Canada, said wheat midge numbers were higher than previously thought in Alberta and that the populations fluctuate with weather conditions.
This year, early seeding and dry weather in some regions could keep midge numbers lower than in recent years, he said.
“The midge isn’t going to stick around at high levels indefinitely and will probably crash,” Fox said.
“With these varieties, when they do come back, it will be easier to suppress that population so it’s not a problem.”
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency recently agreed upon regulations governing the 90-10 seed mix, the first such cereal offered in Canada.
A private company has also been established to do DNA testing of seeds to determine the seed mix.
“That’s critical for making all of this work,” said Fox.
“We are trying to avoid having large acreages of uniformly resistant wheat out there,” said Fox. “That provides the opportunity for virulent midge to create a population of wheat midge that can survive on wheat.”
He said most farmers get certified seed to try a new variety, with most buying new seed about once every six years.
First identified on the Prairies in 1984, wheat midge caused significant economic losses in Manitoba and Saskatchewan in 2006 and has since expanded its range.
Pesticides are the only defence once midge is found in fields.
Agriculture Canada, Saskatchewan Agriculture, the Western Grains Research Foundation and the Canadian Grain Commission are funding the wheat midge research.
