WINNIPEG – A dozen new wheat varieties are on their way to prairie farmers, including five high yielding varieties designed for the ethanol and livestock industries.
The Prairie Grain Development Committee last week recommended for approval five general purpose wheats, along with three new bread wheats, three new durum varieties and one new CW extra strong.
The committee also rejected one variety proposed for CW general purpose and one CW red spring variety.
Breeders who developed the approved varieties can now apply to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for registration, a process that almost always results in a favourable decision.
Read Also
Rural Manitoba resources slim on natural disaster planning
A study from Brandon University’s Rural Development Institute has found that many rural and small municipalities don’t have the staff or resources to make formal climate plans against natural disaster.
The new varieties approved won’t be commercially available for two to three years.
The committee, which meets annually to consider new varieties, also approved new varieties of other cereal grains, oilseeds, pulses and special crops.
However, most of the attention going into this year’s meeting was focused on what would happen with the new CW general purpose class.
The five CWGP varieties approved include two hard red winter varieties from Brian Fowler of the University of Saskatchewan, one hard red winter from Rob Graf of Agriculture Canada in Lethbridge, one hard red winter from Anita Brule-Babel of the University of Manitoba and one white spring variety from Doug Brown of Agriculture Canada in Winnipeg.
Winter wheat breeders attending the meeting said the elimination of kernel visual distinguishability requirements as of Aug. 1, 2008, will make it easier to develop new winter wheats, many of which will be high yielding varieties destined for the CWGP class.
Before this year’s meeting, no new hard red winter wheat varieties had been registered since 2002. (CDC Ptarmigan, a soft white winter variety, was registered in 2007.)
Fowler said the elimination of KVD is good news for winter wheat breeders in particular.
“I think it opens up new opportunities,” he said, adding it allows consideration of all the germplasm in all the existing breeding programs.
“Before, we were being restricted to a very small percentage of it because everything else was failing KVD.”
Brule-Babel said KVD forced winter wheat to have a long, thin, narrow kernel in order to be visually distinguishable from hard red spring.
“We’ve been stalled for seven years, not being able to bring things forward because of KVD.”
“The changes will let us move to a larger kernel, which will probably be more beneficial for the feed and ethanol industries.”
The elimination of KVD will also make it easier to develop new milling quality winter wheat varieties.
Under KVD, new winter wheat varieties never got as far as being tested for milling quality because they were rejected under KVD.
“At least now we can get an assessment for milling quality without worrying about KVD,” said Brule-Babel.
She added her new variety that was approved at this year’s meeting would have been approved under KVD.
“It’s the first one in seven years that passed the KVD standard three years in a row,” she said with a laugh. “And now it doesn’t matter.”
