Reading Time: 4 minutes Today’s new generation of plant breeders are often called “gene jockeys,” although they’re actually more like cowboys rounding up “genotypes” into a common corral called a “genome.” Then they look for other genomes to add to the corral so they can improve the herd. Previous generations of plant breeders did the same thing, but they […] Read more
Still sifting through genes, but…
Plant breeding has always been about testing to see how one gene interacts with another, but today it can be done much more quickly
Showing how new wheat varieties perform
Cigi represents the end-use customer at the table when new varieties are being considered for registration
Reading Time: 3 minutes Last February the Prairie Grain Development Committee recommended registration of crop lines that included 27 new wheat varieties. Technical staff from the Canadian International Grains Institute participated on quality evaluation teams involved in the recommendations, representing end-use interests of customers of Canadian grains from around the world. “The annual meeting is designed to evaluate data […] Read more
Hopes grow for gene editing
This safe new technology promises to take us far beyond GMOs. But will consumers let us use it?
Reading Time: 5 minutes A new technology called gene editing promises to pick up where GMOs have fallen short. In other words, with gene editing, farmers and consumers may benefit as much as chemical and seed companies. But for that to happen, farmers must become familiar with this new technology, they must understand what it can offer agriculture and […] Read more
Wheat class changes see the end of KVD
Kernel visual distinguishability (KVD) ended on paper in 2008, but new changes to wheat classes mean it will also end in practice
Reading Time: 4 minutes For decades, it was “What you see is what you get” when buying Canadian wheat. Not only did new varieties have to perform well in the field and in the bakery, they had to look similar to all the other varieties in their class. That helped ensure the consistency which has been such a strong […] Read more
Forage breeding faces funding challenges
Government has cut back, private companies are not keen on crops that don’t need to be reseeded every year, and you can’t check off sales to farmers’ own livestock
Reading Time: 3 minutes Forages are Canada’s biggest crop but you wouldn’t know it because of the few resources that go into breeding them. You’d think that, given its size, forage would be a giant in the world of plant breeding. Unfortunately, it’s more of a midget. Canada has only four major publicly funded programs for breeding tame forages, […] Read more
New life for triticale
High yield, high nutrition, disease resistance and swath grazing potential are among the attractions of this wheat/rye hybrid
Reading Time: 6 minutes Triticale was introduced to Canada in the 1960s and got a bit of extra fanfare from a mention in the famous Star Trek episode “The Trouble With Tribbles.” Interest soon waned, but the wheat-rye hybrid is now getting some renewed attention as a versatile crop with potential for grain, forage and ethanol production. Breeding programs […] Read more
Unique farmer-driven funding model achieving the ‘im-pulse-able’
The Prairie pulse sector has developed from a few hundred acres to a few million
Reading Time: 6 minutes Sometime in the next year or two, University of Saskatchewan Crop Development Centre pulse breeder Bert Vandenberg expects the sector will quietly cross a very important milestone. In the early days people like him set themselves a lofty goal of capturing a significant number of acres with soil-building, protein-rich legume crops like field peas and […] Read more
The risk of tried-and-true cereal varieties
Many growers may not realize just how much the agronomic package has improved over the last few years
Reading Time: 7 minutes New cereal varieties sometimes just can’t seem to get any respect. While many of each season’s new canola hybrids are snapped up well before planting season, new wheats and barleys often linger on the showroom floor, hoping someone will notice them. That’s an unfair and out-of-date attitude, says respected wheat breeder Ron DePauw, recently retired […] Read more
Plant breeding basics
Plant breeding is a key driver of crop agriculture — but it’s even more complex than might first appear
Reading Time: 5 minutes The Italian pasta industry sent a ripple through Canadian agriculture a few years back when they changed the way they dry their noodles. Traditionally, pasta makers had hung the noodle for 15 hours or more at temperatures between 60 C to 70 C. Although this produced world-class spaghetti, it also took a fair amount of […] Read more
The wild side of chickpeas
New genes from wild relatives will make chickpeas a better option for more farmers
Reading Time: 4 minutes It wasn’t all that long ago in Canada that it was hard to find hummus in a grocery store — unless you went to a specialty shop. “Now hummus is everywhere!” says Bunyamin Tar’an, associate professor at the University of Saskatchewan. “Any food store you go to has it, so it’s a growing market, and […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
