New midge tolerant wheat will be available to all farmers in 2009 and 2010.
Federal seed regulations must first be amended to allow varietal blends to be certified for sale and the grain industry must decide how to protect the insect resistance within the plants.
Orange wheat blossom midge damage costs Canadian farmers more than $40 million annually, according to seed grower organizations. The losses arise from downgraded wheat and yield losses caused by midge feeding.
As grain prices rise, so do the value of losses.
Read Also
VIDEO: Green Lightning and Nytro Ag win sustainability innovation award
Nytro Ag Corp and Green Lightning recieved an innovation award at Ag in Motion 2025 for the Green Lightning Nitrogen Machine, which converts atmospheric nitrogen into a plant-usable form.
The bug has spread west to east across the Prairies with few acres in Western Canada not affected or not at risk.
Most of Saskatchewan’s wheat growing areas experienced damage to 25 percent of the current crop. In the central growing area, those levels reached 62 percent of Canadian Western Red Spring wheat samples tested in the fall of 2007.
A new registration of certified, blended-wheat varieties that can limit midge damage is being created but it requires intercropping to maintain a habitat for susceptible wheat midge that will be able to breed with those that are not susceptible to the effects of the resistant crop.
Seed growers on the Prairies are beginning to produce the new AC Unity and Goodeve, carried by Farm Pure Seeds. Both are midge tolerant CWRS thanks to the Sm1 gene, which was bred into them, and will be released into the market in 2010 and 2009 respectively.
However, seed growers attending the Saskatchewan Seed Growers Association annual meeting in Saskatoon, which was held as part of Crop Production Week, were concerned that if the new wheat is not properly managed, the long-term effectiveness of the Sm1 gene to control midge damage will be lost.
Jim Downey of Secan in Elstow, Sask., told producers that the wheat containing the Sm1 gene, isolated from an old variety of soft red winter wheat named Clark, produces a pair of acids when midge larvae feed on the cereal’s seedcoat. After a few bites the larvae die.
“This reduces losses in grade and nearly eliminates yield loss. By the time the wheat reaches maturity these acids are gone,” said Downey.
It does not offer complete control, said Downey, but it should end the need to spray insecticide.
To properly grow the new variety, farmers must plant two separate varieties of wheat in the same field: a variety containing the midge tolerant gene and a midge susceptible variety.
In the case of Goodeve, the tolerant crop that makes up 90 percent of the seed blend, its susceptible partner is AC Intrepid from Canterra Seeds. For Unity, its susceptible partner is Waskada.
It is believed that allowing some Sm1 susceptible midge to survive will allow them to mate with midge that are resistant to the effects of the gene. The resulting midge offspring would likely be susceptible to the effect of the Sm1 gene. Without the intercropping, resistant midge would mate only with resistant midge and the effect of the Sm1 gene would be lost through natural selection.
The registration of a certified varietal blend for inter-crop planting had never been done anywhere in the world, said Randy Preater, special projects manager with the Canadian Seed Growers Association in Ottawa.
“In July (the CSGA) decided not to register the blend, but producers and the grain industry lobbied hard to make it happen and change (CSGA’s) opinion,” he said.
He said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency also was not keen on the registration of a blend of two varieties, but there are few choices if the long-term sustainability of the Sm1 gene is going to be maintained.
Traditionally, certification of a seed variety is extended only to pure lines of that variety to ensure that its characteristics can be maintained.
Downey said the blending takes place at the breeder-seed level.
“Wheat isn’t prone to (genetic) out- crossing so these two should remain all right, provided the 90:10 sort of numbers are maintained. If we do that, we should get 90 years of resistance. If we don’t, we’ll get 10,” he said, citing the failure of the Hessian fly resistance strategy in cereal in the United States.
“It failed because of a lack of having that second, susceptible crop,” he said.
Peter Novak of Farm Pure Seeds said it took 15 years to find and breed the Sm1 gene into hard red spring wheat varieties.
“To lose this trait in 10 years to poor management would be an injustice to the breeders and the industry.”
Seed grower Tim Charabin of North Battleford, Sask., said the challenge to maintain the balance between the two varieties in one mix needs further study.
“We will need the seed industry communicating this to our customers. Heck, all of us in the grain business and government will need to be involved. We need producers to understand that to maintain this trait we will need to use certified seed at least every couple of crops. We have to get this right the first time. There is no going back if we (mess) this up,” he said, regarding the danger of planting multiple seasons of saved varietal blended seed.
DNA testing is being employed to ensure that seed lot samples have the right balance because there are no visibly distinguishable differences between the varietal blend partners.
Bruce Carriere of Discovery Seed Labs in Saskatoon said the high cost of that process, in excess of 80 cents per kernel tested, may be difficult for producers and seed growers to get used to.
Seed growers will face challenges growing the crops and then finding approved ways to balance the two grain varieties, said Charabin.
“I found (hand) roguing this stuff a real challenge. I think we still have some questions about this that need answering,” he said.
Saskatchewan Seed Growers Association president Joe Rennick of Milestone, Sask., said his organization and others have asked the federal government to cover DNA seedlot testing, communications and a farmer education strategy to support midge resistant wheat.
