An effort to expand flax production to the northern region of the Prairies looks promising, says the project leader.
“I have to say I’m quite excited about the results that we are seeing so far,” said Paul Dribnenki, a Viterra flax breeder who is heading the Northern Adapted Flax Var iety Development Program.
The project that began in 2007 with seed money from Agriculture Canada got its legs in 2010 with the commitment of research and funding from a consortium of government agencies and private industry groups.
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Dribnenki has identified about 40 promising parent lines containing characteristics he is looking for from germplasm supplied by Viterra and Plant Gene Resources of Canada.
One of the traits being bred into hybrids made from the parent lines is tolerance to seeding in cold soils, which extends the plant’s growing season and decreases its time to maturity.
In that aspect, it appears the research team has hit a home run.
“The results last year were really incredible,” said Dribnenki.
The average maturity of the 132 northern flax lines that will be further evaluated at seven locations across Western Canada in 2011 was nine days earlier than CDC Bethune.
“I was absolutely blown away. The earliest lines we had were actually 25 days earlier than CDC Bethune. That’s huge,” said Dribnenki.
Lyle Simonson, chair of the Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission, the group administering the research program, is equally excited by the results.
“When you make a commitment to put a fair bit of our levy into a project like this and you see results like that, you’re really pleased. That’s good news for everybody,” he said.
Simonson is as thrilled by the yield of the new varieties as he is by how early they mature. The average yield of the 132 lines Dribnenki is advancing was 99 percent of CDC Bethune.
“He was getting some phenomenal yields out of some of the varieties,” said Simonson.
Another trait Dribnenki is selecting for is determinate maturity, which will prevent the crop from re-flowering during wet harvests like last year. He is also breeding for synchronicity between boll ripeness and stem ripeness, which should allow farmers to combine their flax one to two weeks earlier than if they have to wait for green stems to dry down.
Dribnenki said the combination of all those traits will enable flax production to expand beyond its traditional domain of southeastern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba.
“This will allow significant expansion of acres,” he said.
Simonson said the new varieties will open up all of northern Alberta and Saskatchewan.
“Especially in the parts of Alberta where they’ve had problems with clubroot, these varieties will give farmers an oilseed option in their rotations where they can’t use canola,” he said.
Dribnenki attributes the early success of the project to a simple yet critically important factor -that the breeding work is taking place in the targeted area of production.
Trials have been conducted in Vegreville, Alta., where Dribnenki works in addition to Dawson Creek, B.C., Lake Lenore, Sask., Melfort, Sask., Strasbourg, Sask., Roblin, Man., and Arborg, Man.
Earlier in his career Dribnenki attempted to accomplish the same northern trait objectives while working as a flax breeder in southern Manitoba. That project was a failure but it helped him realize that breeding and selection work for the Northern Adapted Flax Variety Development Program had to be done at a latitude where researchers can see which plants respond well to long days and short nights.
“You’ve got to work with the environment. Let the environment express the genetics that you’re looking at,” said Dribnenki.
“It’s actually really quite simple but the results are quite dramatic when you’re actually breeding in the right zone.”
Expected perks of expanding flax production into the cooler climate of the northern prairies are higher yields, increased oil content and boosted levels of omega 3 fatty acids, which should help the flax industry expand demand into high value food markets.
Dribnenki said if everything goes as planned with the 2011 trials, they will be advancing the best lines into a northern flax co-op program in 2012 with the first varieties being registered as early as February, 2014.
That means seed could be commercially available in 2015.
He stressed that the new varieties would benefit farmers in traditional flax growing regions as well by allowing them to seed and harvest their crops earlier.
“Last year was a perfect example. I think all flax farmers from Estevan to Edmonton would appreciate these northern traits.”
Simonson agreed that the appeal of the new varieties will be far-reaching. He looks forward to growing varieties with determinate maturity and stems and bolls that ripen at the same time on his farm near Swift Current, Sask.
“It will certainly make harvesting much easier. Straw management, when you’ve got green straw, is really difficult. If you’ve got nice ripe, dry straw it’s a whole lot easier,” he said.
