Written by: Ian Doig

Canada is the fifth largest wheat producing nation in the world, and most of the nation’s crop is grown on the Prairies. As wheat represents such a foundational part of the region’s farm economy, the importance of cultivar development is self-evident. “It’s very, very critical to continuously develop new varieties of CPS wheat for Western Canada,” said Harpinder Randhawa, research scientist and wheat breeder with the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Lethbridge Research and Development Centre. CPS breeding and end-use quality has evolved over the years, he added.

 “We do three levels of cultivar improvement,” said Randhawa. “We look into their economic performance, disease package and resistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses. We also either maintain or improve the functional quality and use quality of wheat.”

 CPSR varieties have typically exhibited protein, hardness and gluten strength in the medium category. While protein and hardness characteristics have remained in this desirable range, the development of various types of bread by grain purchasing nations has changed market requirements for gluten characteristics. Demand has pushed breeders to increase gluten strength to where it is on par with CWRS varieties and even beyond.

HY2090 is a Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) cultivar Randhawa and his AAFC team have developed with supplementary funding under the most recent five-year Canadian National Wheat Cluster. Now in the seed production stage, it has been given the name AAC Westlock. The moniker is a tip of the hat to the town of Westlock, which is located north of Edmonton where CPS acreage is particularly high. It exhibits the qualities end-users demand as well as a strong agronomic package. AAC Westlock is six to seven per cent higher yielding than control variety AAC Penhold. A semi-dwarf cultivar preferred by farmers, it has excellent straw strength. The variety’s very good disease package includes resistance to FHB, leaf rust, stripe rust, stem rust and common bunt as well as to stem rust varieties not yet prevalent in Canada. In the aggregate, these positives add up to an economic win on a farmer’s balance sheet.

Notably, AAC Westlock was developed with the assistance of the double haploid breeding process and genetic marker technology in a mere six years, whereas 10 years has been more typical. “Genomic selection is one of the tools that we have,” said Randhawa. “We try to deploy all the breeding tools that are available to us to aid in making selections or predictions for development of new cultivars.” The new variety will be marketed by SeCan and is expected to be available for purchase by farmers in 2024.

As pleased as he is with this latest breeding success story, Randhawa emphasized that cultivar improvement is an ongoing process that responds to the evolving needs of farmers and end users. The low moisture conditions experienced during the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons seriously impacted crops in various regions of the Prairies. In response, the AAFC breeding program is now examining its germplasm stock for traits that can boost the resilience of crops in the face of harsh summer conditions. “The last couple of years, we have been hit very hard with drought and heat, and we are looking into germplasm that can help us develop cultivars that are resistant to abiotic stresses, especially drought,” said Randhawa.

Written by: Ian Doig

In April 2022, Harwinder Sidhu took the reins of the winter wheat breeding program at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Lethbridge Research Centre. For the full year prior, he worked with now-retired head breeder Rob Graf on the transition. Sidhu’s first year with program coincided with the final field season for its winter wheat cultivar development under the most recent five-year Canadian National Wheat Cluster.

Sidhu plans to maintain the program’s track record as a producer of valuable, new CWRW varieties with a focus on improvement to yield and quality as well as pest and disease resistance. “You always want to keep improving your germplasm and your varieties,” he said. “New or evolved pathogens arise that render your previous varieties either susceptible or no longer the best fit. Updated varieties are our best bet to ensure wheat production on the Prairies is robust.”

 The program will see two lines move to registration over the next two to three years. The most recently registered line, W614 has been named AAC Overdrive. As its name suggests, the variety exhibits qualities that go above and beyond. “It’s one of the most disease resistant winter wheat varieties to come out of this program,” said Sidhu. “Our goal is that every next line that is supported for registration strives to match its disease resistance profile so farmers can trust that their lines will perform well in the field under high disease pressure.”

While spring wheat breeding can be sped up by contra-seasonal cropping in locations such as New Zealand, this is not possible with winter wheat, which remains dormant in the soil over winter. The program will also work to adopt new genotyping tools and processes to reduce cost and speed up the variety development pipeline that now takes 10 to 12 years. For instance, this will include the use of drone sensor and software technology to conduct field work such as measuring the height of field plots over the course of hours rather than days as is the case when done manually. Such processes speed up the rate at which germplasm with unfavourable traits is discarded, which accelerates development.

Part of its ongoing work, the Lethbridge program has built an extensive germplasm bank to support breeding activities. This allows breeders to target diverse traits that include disease and drought resistance, and its solid-stem germ plasm may aid the fight against wheat stem sawfly.

Sidhu emphasized the AAFC winter wheat program works for farmers. He welcomes their input, which he said shapes the direction of breeding targets. “This is their own program. We produce varieties that work best for them.”

The crop has well-known inherent strengths as a rotational option, but Sidhu emphasized continuous variety improvement will ensure this remains the case. “We will continue developing varieties that increase the confidence of farmers in growing winter wheat and also providing them options for different market classes. We will keep targeting our key areas of yield improvement, resistance and quality, but also foray into new tool exploration and development and see how we can improve winter wheat breeding even further.”

Written by: Ian Doig

In 2016, winter wheat yielded substantially higher than spring wheat across all three Prairie provinces. Statistics Canada pegged the numbers at six per cent in Alberta, 26.5 per cent in Saskatchewan and 25.4 per cent in Manitoba. This alone makes a compelling case for increased acreage, but there are many reasons farmers should grow more winter wheat, according to Brian Beres, a senior research scientist at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Lethbridge Research and Development Centre.

It is resilient to climate challenges, performs ecological services and simply makes business sense, said Beres. His research project conducted for the latest five-year wheat cluster sought to improve winter wheat agronomic management. While field work wrapped in 2022, certain aspects will remain ongoing.

The crop’s competitive lifecycle is certainly central to its high yield potential. Seeded in fall, the young plants capture early spring sunshine and moisture that fuels their growth. As they out-compete weeds and avoid certain insect cycles, this may reduce the need for inputs. Further, winter wheat can be employed like a cover crop that anchors residue in the fall and produces a harvestable crop rather than requiring termination. Early harvest also benefits cashflow. Generating dollars earlier in the year allows for better business management. With field work spread over the year, sowing winter wheat can also reduce capital expenditure on equipment. All this while it provides habitat for waterfowl and upland game birds.

Because it requires fall seeding, farmers are often reluctant to take on the logistical challenge of additional field work. Beres is adamant it’s possible and cited the example of farmers who sow winter wheat in the morning and harvest crops in the afternoon. In fact, Alberta winter wheat farmers have their practices nicely dialled in, said Beres. He has spent much of the past 25 years on management improvement while AAFC Lethbridge breeder Rob Graf, now retired, handled the genetic side. “The way science works, it’s not always sexy, transformational innovations,” said Beres. “Together, we incrementally improved the system to the point where it has become harder and harder for somebody say, ‘Well, the practices and the genetics just aren’t there.’”

His work now focuses on the wheat phase of crop rotation. Because canola maturity has become progressively later, his team has developed ways to better sequence it with winter wheat. And there is work yet to be done on yield with an increased focus on yield stability. “It’s great for us to demonstrate improved yield, but can you bring that yield up and maintain it from field to field, year to year, province to province?” Ongoing research will also examine new and emerging crops for their potential compatibility with winter wheat. An additional component of the project is a long-term rotational study to measure potential advantages in the substitution of winter wheat for wheat classes such as CWRS, CPSW and CNHR.

This farmer-funded and driven line of study continues to generate innovative management practices, said Beres. “This project is going to give farmers further confidence they can adopt winter wheat and be successful at in their area.”

Written by: Ian Doig

On the northern Prairies, diseases and growing conditions, including soil type and climate, differ considerably from those to the south. Funded by the Canadian National Wheat Cluster, Santosh Kumar and his team at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Brandon Research and Development Centre develop CWRS wheat varieties in line with the unique requirements of northern farmers.

With the short growing season and colder nights, plants have less time to complete their lifecycle, said Kumar. “Plants must have certain unique traits to survive the northern Prairies. We do additional adaptation testing on the northern area to acclimatize the plants, so they can survive these pressures but also yield premium quality CWRS wheat.”

Growth conditions are not uniform within the vast parkland region that extends from northeastern British Columbia to northern Manitoba. While northern CWRS varieties are tested in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and B.C.’s Peace River Country, northern Alberta is the focus of breeding work. “We target our lines where maximum acreage is located, because that’s where the maximum benefit to the farmers is,” said Kumar. Primary variety crossing work is carried out at the AAFC Beaver Lodge Research Farm. “We grow and select the early generation germ plasm there, so it is screened in the region where it is targeted.”

Further development is carried out in Brandon, where the resistance package is broadened to include pests and diseases not prevalent in the north. This increases the resilience of northern varieties in the event these threats invade the region. This versatile resistance package has seen northern CWRS varieties adopted beyond the region. For example, though developed for the north, AAC Redwater has been grown by farmers across Manitoba for its early maturity as well as Fusarium and midge resistance.

Two years ago, Kumar’s team improved upon AAC Redwater with the release of AAC Redstar. Though it is northern-specific, with its maximized resistance to Fusarium, it can be grown across the Prairies. The team also recently developed early maturing, highly midge resistant AAC Darby and its refuge pairing AAC Hassler.

Farmers are the biggest motivators of this breeding program. Their input has identified three focus areas, said Kumar. With older varieties, northern farmers often produced feed wheat. “We took that to heart, and we said, ‘OK, what do we need to improve?’” Paying close attention to falling number as a quality indicator, Kumar worked to improve resistance to pre-harvest sprouting by pyramiding multiple genes that have this effect. “Sometimes farmers are harvesting when it’s snowing,” he said. “So, if the temperature is low and moisture conditions are high, AAC Redstar does not lose the grade.”

Stripe rust resistance is also critical to northern varieties. This, too, was strengthened in AAC Redstar. Thirdly, southern semi-dwarf varieties tend to grow taller when seeded in the north, so the team introduced ultra-semi-dwarf genetics to discourage lodging and promote yield over the growth of the plant body.

“We incorporated these three major traits, so farmers get a consistent yield advantage, disease protection and the quality profile they expect from CWRS,” said Kumar.

Written by: Ian Doig

Santosh Kumar develops CWRS wheat varieties for the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Brandon Research and Development Centre. The Canadian National Wheat Cluster is a key funder of the breeding work he and his team conduct. Paired with internal AAFC funding that advances breeding technologies, the creation of new varieties can be done quickly, efficiently and cost effectively, said Kumar.

 “Five-year cluster funding helps us make new breeding populations while taking the advanced breeding populations from previous clusters and finishing them as field-ready cultivars,” he added. “We continue to work from one cluster to another.”

 The development of cultivars for the eastern Prairies is one of two CWRS projects Kumar leads. Its central objectives are to improve CWRS quality traits, increase potential for high yield and boost priority-one disease resistance. In this geographic area that stretches east from Saskatoon to Ontario’s extreme west, good soil and long growing degree days are ideal for high-yielding varieties. However, the area experiences a very high incidence of Fusarium, rusts and bunt diseases due to high moisture and warm weather conditions.

 In this region, CWRS competes with soybean and corn for acreage. Kumar noted with increased global wheat demand over the last couple of years, CWRS acres have increased here.

 To minimize the amount of straw CWRS varieties produce under warm, moist conditions, the team develops semi-dwarf varieties. These tend to channel nutrients into grain yield rather than plant material. Their high stem strength prevents lodging, a valuable physical asset against Prairie winds that can result in serious harvest difficulties and quality downgrades.

 While these varieties deliver very high yield that ensures profitability, protein content must also align with the CWRS quality profile wheat buyers expect. “Its quality profile makes CWRS the king of wheat globally,” said Kumar. This includes high milling yield and gluten strength as well as adequate falling number, which Kumar described as paramount to good wheat grading results. The baking qualities of the dough must also be excellent.

 The creation of a broad disease package adds challenge. “Because we are public breeders funded by farmers, we go beyond the five priority-one diseases,” said Kumar. Disease resistance additionally includes loose smut and leaf spot diseases.

 The eastern Prairies region also has a high prevalence of orange blossom wheat midge, which can cause up to 15 per cent yield loss and grade loss due to kernels that are shrivelled and scratched. “We focus on that quite a bit in the eastern Prairies because it’s a problem in this area,” said Kumar. One of nine varieties developed since 2014, the breeding program’s latest is the midge tolerant AAC Hodge.

 The list also includes AAC Cameron, AAC Jatharia, AAC LeRoy, AAC Magnet, AAC Prevail and AAC Warman. These nine varieties hold solid track records, having performed very well while climatic conditions have varied greatly. “That tells us the varieties are consistently making good quality wheat through drought years or high rainfall years,” said Kumar. “Farmers can expect the best package that we can build for them.”

Written by: Ellen Cottee

Lead Researcher: Dr. Kelly Turkington (AAFC – Lacombe)

Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) has long been an enemy of wheat producers across Canada. Emerging heavily in Manitoba in the early 1990s and spreading through the prairies in the late 2000s, the fungal disease causes kernel damage and wheat grade detrimental to producers’ bottom lines. In the worst-case scenario, FHB causes deoxynivalenol (DON), a mycotoxin dangerous to animals and humans if ingested.

Previous research on FHB focused on better understanding the pathogen and breeding new wheat varieties for resistance. While important in the ongoing fight against the disease, this approach neglects on-farm management options producers are able to implement themselves.

“It really has been a complex issue,” Dr. Kelly Turkington, researcher with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada – Lacombe said. “It’s a challenging disease for farmers to manage and in terms of research.”

Long interested in the prevention of FHB in wheat crops, Turkington launched two new projects under the 2018 – 2023 Canadian National Wheat Cluster to examine the impacts of crop management choices on the presence of FHB.

The first of Turkington’s projects focuses on how seeding rates could improve fungicide efficacy with fewer applications. Lower seeding rates lead to a wide window of head emergence, complicating the current fungicide recommendation of application at 75 per cent head emergence.

“That means you still have 25 per cent of the heads still in the boot, not directly protected by fungicide,” Turkington explained. “Once those heads emerge, they have no protection from the pathogen.”

Increased seeding rates can provide more uniform crop development and therefore more uniform targets in fungicide application. Trials combined different seeding rates with various fungicide practices, allowing Turkington and his team to see the larger picture. In the future, Turkington said research will likely integrate external factors, such as weather and pathogen forecasts, to build out recommendations for seeding rate and fungicide best practices.

Turkington’s second project examines the direct impact of crop management practices on FHB presence. One trial in the project focused on residue management – removing and treating all crop residue, including the chaff of the wheat, in order to reduce the amount of inoculum returned to the field following harvest.

Extended crop rotation periods, described as more than one year of a non-host crop before planting wheat, also showed success in trials. More time between the planting of susceptible varieties and crops allows for the inactivation of pathogen residue left on the field. While good news, Turkington clarified that the drought conditions of 2021 may have impacted the team’s assessments and they will need to collect further data this spring.  

With the final public report slated for release after the cluster closes March 2023, Turkington said he hopes his projects, along with future research, will give producers more FHB-fighting power.

“There are tools available, and I think we can tweak those tools,” he said.

“With the work we’re doing under the current cluster program … we have strategies – and perhaps some refinements – that will greatly help producers achieve better management of FHB on an annual basis.”