One of Western Canada’s most well-known and productive plant breeders is calling it quits after a 45-year career at Agriculture Canada.
Ron DePauw has retired as a senior principal wheat breeder at the department’s Semi-Arid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre in Swift Current, Sask.
DePauw has worked with Agriculture Canada since the early 1970s.
He began working for the department in Beaverlodge, Alta., but moved to Swift Current within a few years and has been there ever since.
DePauw is best known for his work as a spring wheat breeder but most recently, he headed the centre’s successful durum program.
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With DePauw’s departure, Yuefeng Ruan will now lead the durum program at Swift Current.
In an email, DePauw thanked those who collaborated with the Swift Current centre and acknowledged his colleagues, including Richard Cuthbert, who leads the centre’s spring wheat program, Ron Knox, who leads its work in applied biotechnology and doubled haploid technology, and Fran Clarke, who is in charge of the centre’s quantitative genetics programs.
He also acknowledged the contributions of postdoctoral fellows, technical support staff and labourers at the centre.
“The fruits of our labours have been the uptake and adoption of high value traits and performance of field-ready cultivars,” DePauw said.
“I intend to continue to be available to further genetic enhancement as a mentor, adviser and consultant.”
It has been estimated that the wheat varieties developed by DePauw have added billions of dollars to the bank accounts of Western Canada’s farmers.
He spearheaded the development of some of the country’s most valuable and productive varieties, which offered improved yield potential, better end-use quality, higher protein content, enhanced nutrient uptake, better disease resistance and improved insect resistance.
One of his most notable accomplishments was the development of spring wheat cultivars that produced bigger yields without negatively affecting protein content, something that was once considered impossible.
“There has always been this negative association between grain yield and protein,” DePauw said in an interview.
“But we shifted that relationship. We didn’t break it, but we shifted it so that we were able to increase grain yield significantly in wheat without losing any protein content.”
The list of Canadian wheat varieties developed by DePauw is long, but AC Barrie was arguably the most popular.
By virtue of its higher yield potential and consistent quality, the variety is believed to have boosted prairie farm incomes by more than $800 million.
It was the most widely grown spring wheat variety in Canada for eight consecutive years between 1998 and 2005.
DePauw also led the development of Lillian, a solid stemmed cultivar that became the most widely grown Canada Western Red Spring variety in Western Canada.
In addition to high protein content, Lillian also offered resistance to the wheat stem sawfly, a tiny insect that was costing the industry millions of dollars in lost production every year.
He also co-developed Carberry, a CWRS variety with improved resistance to fusarium head blight, and he played a key role in devising a strategy aimed at protecting the midge tolerant Sm1 gene in varietal blends.
Rob Graf, an Agriculture Canada winter wheat breeder at Lethbridge, said DePauw’s contributions have had a profound impact on the wheat industry in Canada and will be felt for decades to come.
“Over the years, the industry has had great trust in his opinion on various issues because of his broad knowledge, thoughtful consideration of concerns and the impacts of various actions,” Graf said.
“Although Ron has retired from AAFC, I trust that he will find new ways to stay involved … and that’s a good thing.”
Todd Hyrax, western Canadian business manager with SeCan, called DePauw’s career remarkable.
“He had a unique gift for developing varieties that make farmers money,” Hyra said.
“They want to grow (Ron’s varieties), and he’s been able to deliver products that captured very larger market share.”
Hyra said varieties with short strong straw such as Carberry are now setting a new standard in terms of farmers’ management expectations.
brian.cross@producer.com
