Western Canada’s most promising new seed products went under the microscope last week as industry experts gathered in Saskatoon to determine which crop lines should be registered, multiplied and eventually made available to the country’s grain farmers.
More than 50 new crop lines were supported for commercial registration at the Prairie Grain Development Committee meeting in Saskatoon Feb. 22-25.
Lines that received support from individual recommending committees included 27 new wheat cultivars, four new oat lines, two barley lines, six bean lines, four lentils, four peas, four flax and one canarygrass line.
Read Also
VIDEO: Prairie crops on track for average yields
LANGHAM, SASK. – Western Canadian farmers will harvest an average crop this year provided cooler temperatures prevail and the region…
New crop lines that are recommended for registration by the PGDC are usually registered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s variety registration office within the next 12 months.
Then they are named, multiplied and distributed to farmers through established commercial channels in anticipation of widespread production by prairie growers.
PGDC chair Tom Fetch called the meeting a success and said attendance at the event was above average.
“I think the reason why the meetings are so successful is that you’ve got all the expertise there,” Fetch said.
“You’ve got … the scientists, the plant breeders, the industry folks, the seed growers and even some of the (farmers) there as well.”
The PGDC meetings are one of the key elements in a detailed peer evaluation process that has been in place for decades.
It ensures that all new crop lines that are commercialized in Canada offer an acceptable level of performance in terms of yield potential, disease resistance, agronomic performance and end-use quality.
Wheat experts attending this year’s meetings supported more than two dozen new wheat lines, including a handful of new cultivars that will be directed at Canada’s newest wheat class, Canadian Northern Hard Red.
John Peterson, assistant vice-president of wheat merchandising with Richardson International, told the meeting that Canada’s new wheat class will present both opportunities and challenges for wheat producers and grain export companies.
“As we look down the road and we start to see new wheat varieties being put into that class, I guess the question that will be answered in time, is that when you start to pull that class and you create a vessel composite of that class, exactly what are you getting in there?” Peterson said.
“You may be getting some high protein, you may be getting some low protein and … and you may end up with a wheat composite that has a number of varieties in it. So the big question is, how is that basket of varieties going to perform?
Peterson, who spoke to PGDC delegates during a Feb. 24 plenary session on grain marketing, said buyers who are familiar with CNHR varieties such as Faller and Prosper may have few reservations about buying a shipment CNHR wheat.
However, the task of marketing the grain is likely to be more difficult if a vessel filled with CNHR contains a mixture of established American and Canadian varieties as well as newly commercialized varieties.
“If you’ve got just Faller and Prosper in basket, I think there’s some understanding as to how that basket is going to perform,” Peterson said.
“But if you’ve got Faller, Prosper, Lillian, Harvest, Unity and who knows what else in there, then how does that mixture perform?
The Prairie Grain Development Committee meetings are held annually to ensure that new cereal grain, pulse, oilseed and specialty crop varieties are as good or better than existing varieties already on the market.
The PGDC and its sub-committees take an in-depth look at “candidate lines” to determine if they are a suitable fit for western Canadian growing conditions and if they will meet the expectations of end-users who buy and process Canadian crops.
