Winter wheat for dry areas focus of study

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Published: January 10, 2002

A new research project will focus on drought-tolerant winter wheat

varieties.

It is hoped the program will produce winter wheat varieties that can

withstand the drought-prone conditions of Western Canada’s brown and

dark brown soil zones and still provide the high yields for which the

winter cereal is known.

Brian Fowler of the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development

Centre in Saskatoon says he has “all the pieces of the genetic puzzle”

and just has to put them together in the right balance.

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Yield and disease resistance in Canadian winter wheat varieties has

increased dramatically over the past decade. Most of the plant breeding

responsible for the increase was done at CDC.

Fowler said his breeding program can now focus on some new traits that

will open the possibilities for winter wheat production in Western

Canada’s semiarid areas.

The program had previously produced varieties best suited for areas

with higher average rainfall where disease resistance is critical.

Increased yield potential was accomplished by emphasizing tillering in

the plants.

“We now have producers in some of the high-production areas setting

yield targets of 80 bushels to the acre. Some are seeing 90. But that

is dependent on tillering,” he said.

Hot, dry conditions in mid to late June, like those often experienced

in the southern and western Prairies, can severely limit tillering and

in turn limit yields in winter wheat.

Fowler said the breeding program will attempt to boost yields by

increasing the seed and head size of the new genotypes.

“We have some great genotypes that are large seeded, but unfortunately

they have poor disease resistance,” he said.

“We have to strike a balance when manipulating the new lines so that we

can retain disease resistance of our new high-yield varieties while

increasing the kernel size.”

As well, the plants need to be able to adapt to variable moisture

conditions without producing a variety of kernel sizes that increase

dockage.

New plant breeding technology and labs at the CDC are cutting the time

needed to develop winter wheat varieties.

“We have always been limited in our breeding programs by a lack of

funding. Things are improving slowly in this area and it is making a

difference to our programs,” Fowler said.

Research is being funded in part by the Western Grains Foundation,

Ducks Unlimited and SeCan.

About the author

Michael Raine

Managing Editor, Saskatoon newsroom

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