Barley producers see the value in new breeding efforts and know if they don’t do it, it might not get done.
Canada’s most popular feedgrain has long faced challenges when it comes to advancing its genetics. But the crop has remained in many farmer’s rotations. Whether it’s for feeding livestock or making liquor, the crop’s all-weather reliability, lower cost of production and ready regional markets make it an attractive alternative to wheat, corn or oats.
Crop variety development in cereals has been a challenge in Canada. Money has been invested by seed and biotech organizations and businesses, and farmers, too, have taken up the challenge of building better genetics for their farms.
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The Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission is providing a barley breeding boost of $2.63 million to its current investments in the crop.
Putting this into perspective, SaskBarley will bring in about $1.8 million in check-off dollars this season. The cost of annual investments in breeding run about 0.14 percent of the crop’s farmgate value, which is lower than other crops in the region. Compared to major competitor Australia, Canada spends about eight times less on barley breeding.
Canada’s existing malt barley varieties have been so successful that there has been little demand from large maltsters to develop new genetics.
The major barley gains began in the 1980s with the release of Harrington, followed by Metcalfe in 1997, Copeland in 2002 and now Synergy.
Those successes might sustain growers and end users for a few years, but over time, these older varieties develop some tarnish as yield and disease packages begin to show their age.
Meanwhile, due to limited market adoptions of new varieties, other lines with higher yields are passed by.
Improving malt variety yields to bring them into parity with those offered by feed barley varieties has long been a goal, but one that has been difficult to reach. Malt varieties that perform better have been challenging to market to established buyers.
Global consumption trends for barley have shown significant growth, even as Canadian production growth has been flat.
The University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre, the Agriculture Canada research centre at Brandon and the Field Crop Development Centre in Lacombe, Alta., is where most barley breeding has taken place and capacity has been under pressure.
Typically, the annual investment in barley breeding in Western Canada has been about $2.9 million. University of Saskatchewan researchers estimate that in Alberta and Saskatchewan, farmers have seen seven percent increases in yield with varieties since 2004. It’s estimated Manitoba farmers have seen 12 percent yield increases due to breeding efforts. That investment, according to researchers, yields a 26-to-one return.
SaskBarley is on the right track to ensure future barley development.
Canada has challenges to overcome to ensure that seed companies are paid and value-added streams are built.
Seed variety-use agreements that provide development incentives are needed, but in a manner that doesn’t price seed out of reach for growers.
Governments, at all levels, despite budgetary challenges, can make no better investments than in crop development and marketing. They must carefully consider which funding efforts to support to enhance producers’ investments.
These are decades-long investments and the best time to make them was yesterday, followed by today.
Karen Briere, Bruce Dyck, Barb Glen and Mike Raine collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
