Beef sector support | Researcher pleased that forage research may get the attention it has long deserved
LANIGAN, Sask. — The number of forage breeders in Saskatchewan is poised to increase to three from two now that new funding has been secured from the provincial and federal governments.
The funding will allow the University of Saskatchewan to fill a recently announced forage research chair position.
“I’m getting a little older now and I’m not going to be around too much longer, so I think it’s great that we’ll be able to hire a younger person into this position and it will continue this important forage breeding work for the foreseeable future,” said Bruce Coulman of the U of S, who runs the joint forage breeding program in Saskatchewan with Agriculture Canada.
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The provincial government an-nounced last month that it will cost share $1.25 million over five years for the U of S position and breeding program.
Forage breeding has a 90-year history at the U of S and also occurs at Agriculture Canada in Lethbridge, but Coulman said the work hasn’t received the same kind of financial support as larger commodity crops. He credits renewed interest from the livestock sector for an effective lobby effort.
“We’re seeing an increased amount of funding from the beef industry through the Beef Cattle Research Council, and I think this is a very positive development,” said Coulman.
“One of the issues, though, is there is fewer people doing the research now, and so that’s a problem.”
Recruitment for the new spot is to start in the fall, he added.
“I doubt that we’re going to get young people applying who have a lot of experience with forage breeding. We’ll find people who have experience in plant breeding, probably another crop,” said Coulman.
“That’s not a big problem because the principles are basically the same. I’m going to be around for the next three years and can do some mentoring on the forage breeding.”
Coulman highlighted successful forage breeding work during a recent Western Beef Development Centre field day at the Termuende Research Ranch near Lanigan, including development of the hybrid bromegrass varieties AC Knowles and AC Success.
A new, yet unnamed hybrid variety, currently given the number S9478, is in trials at sites in Canada and the United States and could be released within two years.
“We do pay some attention to seed production in our breeding programs to make sure that the varieties that we release will have good seed production, will interest seed producers to grow and won’t require a large premium to the producer to buy them,” said Coulman.
