Western Canada got a sneak preview last week of the newest pulse, cereal and oilseed lines being developed by plant breeders across Canada.
The lines were highlighted in Saskatoon Feb. 23-25 during the Prairie Grain Development Committee’s annual meeting.
Cultivars up for consideration last week included 13 lines of wheat, three lines of triticale, 20 new lines of pulses and special crops, two canola, three oat lines and nine barley lines.
The PGDC meeting is an annual event that evaluates the latest crop creations and brings together farmers, plant breeders, plant pathologists, grain quality experts, food scientists, maltsters, brewers, agricultural exporters, seed growers, seed distributers and representatives from the feed and food processing industries.
Kelly Turkington, who chairs the PGDC, said the annual crop development meeting is a who’s who of the Canadian grain industry that attracts interest from stakeholders in various sectors.
“It is a unique meeting in that it brings together quite a wide range of disciplines,” said Turkington.
“It is very important in terms of varietal development … and it also brings together (interests) from the public and private sectors, various scientific disciplines, industry and individual producers.”
The primary purpose of the PGDC meetings is to evaluate new crop lines and to determine whether they are fit for registration and commercial production in Western Canada.
Crop lines developed and tested by plant breeders are put forward for registration, scrutinized by scientists and industry stakeholders, and either approved or rejected for registration.
Lines that are supported for registration are presented to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s variety registration office in Ottawa, where final registration approval is granted or denied.
Each year, dozens of new crop lines with agronomic improvements, better disease packages or improved end-use attributes are evaluated at the PGDC meetings.
Notable new lines evaluated at this year’s meetings included:
- new high-yielding malt barley lines;
- specialty high-amylose food barleys or waxy-starch barleys that offer relatively high levels of beta-glucan, a component linked to improved human nutrition and enhanced immunological function;
- a new midge-tolerant red spring wheat line with improved yield potential relative to other midge tolerant varieties and increased kernel size;
- a new select winter wheat that offers stronger straw, higher yield and improved kernel size relative to check varieties;
- new higher yielding general purpose wheat lines developed for ethanol production and;
- new lines of red spring and durum wheat that offer better resistance to fusarium head blight.
Lines that were recommended last week by the PGDC must now be registered, multiplied and distributed throughout the West before they reach the fields of commercial farmers.
Depending on growing conditions, that process can take three to five years.
