Wheat breeders need to know what the ethanol and livestock industries want from the new Canada Western General Purpose wheat class.
The new class was established last year to accommodate the introduction of new non-food quality wheat lines for uses such as fuel and feed.
But scientists are still somewhat in the dark when it comes to designing those new CWGP varieties.
Rob Graf, who runs the winter wheat breeding program at the Agriculture Canada research centre at Lethbridge, said the ethanol and livestock industries need to provide more information to plant breeders.
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“There’s been some discussion, but we certainly need to do more,” he said in an interview after speaking to a winter cereal growers meeting in Saskatoon last week.
He said issues need to be resolved before new varieties can be developed.
At the simplest level, it’s understood that the new class is intended to be a home for high yielding wheat, with high starch and lower protein.
But Graf said there are many unanswered questions.
For example, does the industry want hard or soft kernels? Does it matter whether kernels are red or white or something else? Should the kernels contain regular starch levels, or be partly or fully waxy?
The ethanol industry might favour fully waxy varieties, while the livestock industry wouldn’t.
“Some of that can be sorted out simply by putting a number of varieties out there and seeing what happens,” he said.
But there is also a need for some face-to-face discussion among breeders, and ethanol and livestock producers.
He added it might turn out that separate standards will have to be established for varieties designed specifically for the ethanol and livestock sectors.
Graf said there are 18 new potential CWGP lines in various stages of development.
