BANFF, Alta. – Plant breeders are working to develop new lines of hard white spring wheat, at the same time as the future of the class is up in the air.
Seventeen first-year lines of Canada Western Hard White Spring are in development at six private and public programs in Western Canada.
That despite the fact only 80,000 acres were seeded to existing CWHWS varieties in 2008.
One of those breeders is Ron DePauw of the Agriculture Canada research centre in Swift Current, Sask.
He said the situation is a result of drastic changes in the hard white wheat market.
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“When this class was introduced six or seven years ago, it was projected that it would become the second biggest class with three to five million acres,” he said in an interview during the annual meeting of the Prairie Grain Development Committee in Banff.
Plant breeders responded by setting up programs to create the varieties needed to meet the expected demand.
But CWHWS never lived up to those expectations, largely because of agronomic problems with the early varieties that soured many potential growers.
As well, the class had originally been targeted to supply the growing market for noodle wheat in Asia, but as CWHWS was coming on line, rapidly rising ocean freight rates made it impossible for Canada to compete with Australia for those markets.
“I think it’s a big surprise for everybody that the class is where it is,” DePauw said.
Among the surprised is Graham Worden, manager of technical services for the Canadian Wheat Board and chair of an industry group that met in Banff last week to evaluate the quality of proposed new wheat varieties. One of those was a new CWHWS, which triggered a discussion about the class’s past, present and future.
“I really had high hopes when the first lines came out,” Worden said. “I saw a four or five million tonne crop. I’ve changed my view on that now.”
But demand for hard white wheat may return from an unexpected source.
Representatives of the milling and baking industries said they foresee big increases in domestic demand for hard white wheat.
Some said hard white wheat could displace Canada Western Red Spring as the variety of choice for the domestic industry.
It’s all based on growing consumer demand for white whole grain bread and bread products.
Hard white wheat produces white flour, meaning consumers can gain the benefits of eating whole grain while continuing to eat white bread rather than brown.
Officials said many consumers prefer the appearance and flavour of white whole grain bread, which tends to be sweeter and less bitter than traditional brown whole grain.
Worden said all stakeholders in the industry must work together to take advantage of this new opportunity.
“It’s in our interest to get some varieties out there that will provide good returns to farmers and fill a market need,” he told the meeting.
Plant breeders said the rest of the industry must provide them with the right targets as they come up with appropriate lines.
“We just need to all understand the system and we have to respond together,” said Stephen Fox of Agriculture Canada in Winnipeg.
Worden said the intention in developing CWHWS was to develop new markets overseas rather than “cannibalize” the market for CWRS, but the board can’t be choosy.
“We’ve never had many customers come to us saying, ‘we want hard white wheat.’ “
All this has Worden feeling a little more optimistic about the future of hard white wheat.
“It may never be millions of tonnes, but it could be hundreds of thousands,” he said.
