A new line of durum is expected to bring back swing acres of the crop north of Highway No. 1 and even expand territory into southeastern Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
AAC Schrader, developed by Yuefeng Ruan from Agriculture Canada’s Swift Current Research and Development Centre, is the first durum in the world offering intermediate resistance to fusarium head blight.
It was registered with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency late last year and is expected to be available to growers in 2024.
Jack Leguee, vice-chair of the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission, is eagerly awaiting its arrival.
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Durum is a vital crop on his farm near Fillmore, Sask., which has been hit hard by the fungal disease in years with bad outbreaks like 2014 and 2016.
“We sold a lot of durum as No. 5 and sample in those years,” he said.
Leguee sprayed the crop with fungicide, used the right spray nozzle and hit the crop at the correct time.
“We did everything that we were supposed to do and we still had parts of the farm with levels of infection so extreme we couldn’t even use the stuff for seed,” he said.
“So, I have definitely felt first-hand the pain of that disease.”
He recognizes that an intermediate level of resistance isn’t a panacea but he considers it a big step in the right direction and a real “game changer.”
Leguee said it is a great example of grower check-off dollars at work.
Chris Churko, chief executive officer of FP Genetics, the company marketing the new variety, also referred to AAC Schrader as a “game changer.”
He noted that during the last bad outbreak of fusarium, grain companies paid farmers $8 per bushel for No. 1 CWAD compared to $2 for CWAD with high levels of fusarium.
“It’s pretty significant when you start thinking about $6 per bu.,” he said.
AAC Schrader has a fusarium resistance that is comparable to AAC Viewfield, the second most popular variety of Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat grown in Canada.
Four of the top five CWRS varieties grown in Canada have the same intermediate rating as Schrader. Only AAC Brandon has a higher rating of moderately resistant.
Churko said it will provide peace of mind to farmers in the traditional durum-growing areas of Saskatchewan and Alberta south of the Trans-Canada Highway.
But the real benefit will be to growers in the swing durum regions north of the Trans-Canada in southeastern Saskatchewan and even into Manitoba.
“This very well could open up the door for either going back to durum or a new crop type for a lot of these areas,” said Churko.
He estimated there are more than one million acres of good durum-growing land where farmers are hesitant to plant the crop due to steep grade discounts in years where there are severe outbreaks of the fungal disease.
Leguee sees that as a double-edged sword. By expanding the area where durum is grown, Canada can offer end users more consistent quality.
“The flipside of that, of course, is we need to be careful that we don’t overload the market,” he said.
“That can be a little bit concerning for a core durum-growing area to see it get too far outside of that area and attract a lot of acres.”
However, he noted that durum has been losing ground to spring wheat of late due to better yields.
Spring wheat yields recently pulled ahead of durum on his farm after decades of durum dominance and that is changing the economics of growing the two crops.
“(Durum) was always such a clear winner and now it’s not quite so clear with the yield difference being basically equal,” said Leguee.
He also noted that any new variety needs to have the full package of agronomic traits and not just fusarium resistance before it will be grown by farmers.
AAC Schrader delivers yields and straw strength similar to Brigade, has a protein concentration like Strongfield and plant height and maturity similar to AAC Cabri, according to an Agriculture Canada news release.
It also has resistance or moderate resistance to all rusts including Ug99 stem rust.
Churko said they are in the second year of seed production, which was set back by the drought of 2021.
FP Genetics expects to release “significant supplies” of seed for farmers to grow in 2024.
“I hope it’s the first of many varieties to come with improved resistance,” he said.
