Registration expected this year | DT818 is the first solid stem durum line to make its way through the variety registration process
BANFF, Alta. — Prairie durum growers could soon have a new weapon in their ongoing battle against the wheat stem sawfly.
Wheat experts from the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale supported a new durum wheat line, DT818, for registration last week.
The new line is notable because it is the first solid stem durum line to make its way through the variety registration process in Western Canada.
With PRCWRT support, paperwork can now be sent to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s variety registration office and the new line is likely to be registered for commercial production some time in 2012.
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Certified seed supplies could be available to commercial durum growers within three years, depending on multiplication and marketing plans.
“It’s a low grain cadmium line that offers a good agronomic package of grain yield, straw strength, maturity, height and test weight, and has large-sized kernels,” said Danny Singh, an Agriculture Canada plant breeder who developed the new line along with other Agriculture Canada colleagues, as well as collaborators from other public breeding programs and the private sector.
Development of a sawfly resistant durum variety has been in the works for several years.
John Clarke, a retired Agriculture Canada wheat breeder, screened early plant material for the solid stem trait and produced some early experimental lines.
Clarke’s lines carried the solid stem trait but fell short of industry expectations in other areas such as agronomic performance, disease resistance and end-use quality.
DT818 is the first sawfly resistant line to meet or exceed the overall performance of existing durum varieties.
In pre-registration trials, grain protein levels were equal to or higher than grain protein checks in Avonlea and Strongfield, Singh said.
Grain cadmium levels are also well within established industry thresholds.
Ron DePauw, another Agriculture Canada wheat breeder who works with Singh at Swift Current, Sask., said a solid stem durum line could deliver significant economic benefits to durum growers.
In addition to yield and grain quality losses, farmers with heavily infested fields will often cut stubble closer to the ground to recover toppled wheat plants.
Reducing stubble height means farmers are putting more straw through their combines, burning more fuel and putting more stress on machinery.
Lower straw height also reduces winter snow trapping and can have a significant impact on crop yields the following year.
Producer support for solid stem durum research and varietal development was provided by the Western Grains Research Foundation and Secan.
