SASKATOON – Grandin, the new wheat that farmers are buzzing about, has lived up to expectations, says the managing director of the company licensed to sell it in Canada.
Preliminary results show Gran-din yielded eight to 15 percent higher than Katepwa wheat, the industry standard, said Larry White of SeCan Association in Ottawa.
Yields of the semi-dwarf variety were similar in all the prairie provinces. In Manitoba, where there were problems with cool, wet weather, Grandin wasn’t “significantly better or worse than any other variety” for disease, White said.
Read Also
Short rapeseed crop may put China in a bind
Industry thinks China’s rapeseed crop is way smaller than the official government estimate. The country’s canola imports will also be down, so there will be a lot of unmet demand.
The company hopes to get full registration for the variety in February 1994. The wheat was granted interim registration by Agriculture Canada in the spring of 1993 and preliminary yield results were released early in December.
There were 79,000 acres approved for pedigreed seed production by SeCan last year, although the Canadian Wheat Board recorded 310,000 acres of Grandin seeded in the spring and registered in permit books. White said much of the seed for the 300,000 acres was smuggled across the border.
Grandin is the first variety of wheat in Canada protected by plant breeders’ rights. It gives the seller of the seed the right to collect royalties on behalf of the developer of the seed. The royalty money for Grandin is split evenly between Agriculture Canada and its North Dakota breeder.
There has been a problem with illegal use, said White. A notice in The Western Producer early in December warned producers it was illegal to sell the seed from a nonregistered source. He said the company is taking the position most farmers are unaware they can only buy seed from seed growers authorized to sell Grandin on behalf of SeCan.
“It’s going to be challenging,” he said.
