Hank Classen and his associates stumbled onto the fact that durum is a
good feed source for poultry and possibly hogs.
For the livestock nutrition scientist and University of Saskatchewan
professor, the nearly accidental finding highlights the lack of
research on breeding feed grain.
Low cost and a big supply of poor durum in the 1990s prompted its
inclusion into a wheat feeding study. The grain instantly proved
superior to other wheats.
“It was almost by chance,” Classen said. “Who knows if we could breed a
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super high yielding durum just for the feed market? Or some other grain
that we haven’t considered?”
Stephen Fox knows. He is a wheat breeder with Agriculture Canada’s
cereal research facility in Winnipeg, and he said there is potential
for durum to be bred to “10 or more percent higher yields.
“I’ve had to walk away from much higher yielding varieties of durum and
other wheats because of protein, colour or other quality traits that
have nothing to do with feeding the grain to livestock,” he said.
“We haven’t done much work on the area of wheat breeding as a feed
grain. But it has the potential for much higher yields if we can stop
compromising for bread or pasta making qualities,” Fox said.
Richard Gray, head of the agricultural economics department at the
University of Saskatchewan, agrees.
“We aren’t likely going to see farmers selling high grade pasta durum
as feed. But it does raise the issue of a lack of plant breeding
research for the feed market. So far what has been done is limited to
barley,” said Gray.
Classen said feed is generally the result of poor weather conditions
rather than good planning.
“We talk about building a livestock industry in Saskatchewan and on the
Prairies, but we haven’t really done the work of looking at plants that
will produce the feed for that industry.”
Gray said there must be more study not only into what crops are best
for feed but also the whole feed grain complex in Western Canada.
“Can we even support both ethanol and pig barns? Maybe it has to be one
or the other? Where are all these feed grains going to come from? Do we
need specific grain varieties that compete with corn?”
Gray said the recent U.S. farm bill expands the problem for the prairie
economy.
“Price supports for wheat and corn mean that we may have to shift our
local thinking to (feed grain) prices basis Minneapolis,” he said.
U.S. price supports for feed grain could mean that these industries
could find feed cheaper at Minneapolis than in Saskatoon, including the
shipping.
“Suddenly the pig and ethanol businesses would be located in the wrong
place. Especially when feed grain supplies were tight (in Western
Canada),” Gray said. “We might need new varieties of grain to be
competitive in those areas.”
Fox said the feed industry is more decentralized and random, with lower
revenues than in the bread wheat, pulse grain and malting barley
businesses.
This has meant that it has not been able to muster the cash needed to
produce purely feed varieties of wheat.
