New varieties on the road from lab to field

Crop Production Week | Testing program designed to help companies develop the most beneficial genetics

There were errors in a chart on page 52 of the annual SaskSeed Guide that arrived recently in the Western Producer. We have corrected that information and it appears here.

Mike Raine, managing editor

Every year, government and academic plant breeding institutions offer, through a request for proposals process, some of their grain and oilseed varieties that have received support from the industry’s recommending committee. Seed companies compete for the right to multiply and distribute these lines.

This seed becomes, in three or four years, the varieties that commercial producers plant on their farms.

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Seed companies make proposals that they hope will be both financially enticing and beneficial to the industry over time.

Agriculture Canada offered 31 lines of seed through the RFP process for the 2012 growing season and selected 14 companies’ offers to take seed through to commercialization. Of the 17 varieties from 2011 that weren’t assigned a commercialization contract, eight are still being offered to seed companies and will be added to the 2012 RFP process.

“It’s important and highly competitive for seed companies. The better the seed, the more they have to offer (Agriculture Canada) in terms of a distribution plan, marketing program and money,” said Les Trowell, a Saltcoats, Sask., seed grower and president of the Saskatchewan Seed Growers Association, at last week’s Crop Production Show in Saskatoon.

“As a seed grower who grows for several different seed companies, I want to see the companies I deal with getting the varieties that my farmer customers will want me to have on hand.… So what happens with this year’s release will be the profits for the seed companies, in three or four years, for seed growers and ultimately for the commercial grower.”

Agriculture Canada will post a list of varieties on its website at www.agr.gc.ca March 1 that are available to companies to make proposals for.