The committee that recommends new varieties has approved 39 cereal grain, oilseed, pulse and special crop varieties for registration.
The 2011 list includes 14 wheat varieties, five oat and barley, two oilseeds and 18 pulses and special crops.
The varieties were approved last month during the annual meeting of the Prairie Grain Development Committee in Winnipeg.
“It was a successful meeting,” said Brian Beres, chair of the wheat, rye and triticale committee, which considered only wheat varieties this year.
“Fourteen of 17 is a reasonable number to get through. If we were just recommending everything that came forward, there wouldn’t be much point in going through this exercise.”
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•Wheat– Five CW Western red spring cultivars, one Canada Prairie Spring red wheat, two CW red winter cultivars, five CW general purpose (three winter and two spring) and a one-year registration for a CW hard white variety. Improved characteristics include higher yield potential, improved quality, early maturity, improved disease resistance, resistance to orange wheat blossom and solid structure.
•Oats and barley– One spring milling oat, one two-row forage barley, one six-row malting barley, one six-row general purpose barley and one two-row hull-less malting barley. All were approved without debate. One variety was withdrawn before consideration and another was defeated in a vote.
•Oilseeds– The committee recommended two new linseed flax lines. Both are adaptable to all flax growing regions of Western Canada.
They have greater yield, similar maturity and lodging resistance than the check variety Flanders. One has better oil quality and larger seeds. Both are immune to rust and moderately resistant to fusarium wilt.
•Pulses and special crops– A dry (navy) bean, a faba bean cultivar (white-flowered), eight field pea varieties and eight lentils. The new varieties have increased yield potential and lodging resistance. The new classes of lentils are tolerant to the imidazolinone herbicides and have improved disease tolerance and seed quality.
