Prairie collaboration on research plays a key role in new and improved crop varieties

While farmers are out in the field harvesting this year's wheat crop, research scientists and breeders involved in the Canadian National Wheat Cluster are working on improving the crops' long-term sustainability in the cropping rotation.

Funding for the work being done by the Wheat Cluster comes through the Canadian Wheat Research Coalition (CWRC).

The CWRC is a collaboration of the three producer wheat commissions across Western Canada, the Alberta Wheat Commission, Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission and Manitoba Crop Alliance.

Chair of the CWRC Jake Lequee farms in Filmore, Saskatchewan and says variety development is critical for Western Canadian farmers.

"We need good varieties to be competitive on the world stage and have good products that our customers can use."

He says as varieties continue to improve, the wheat crop is better able to handle stressors.

"I would say that the varieties that we get in Southeast Saskatchewan have to be able to withstand quite a few different things. We have to be able to withstand drought and heat, but we also have to be able to withstand flooding. We've seen both, so we are in a bit of an area of extremes. And what I've found over the years is that varieties have continued to improve as we've been able to get a lot better at withstanding those various stresses. We've had good access to good varieties to do that, and while there's more work to be done, we've made a lot of progress."

Thorhild, Alberta farmer Janine Paly, a former director for the CWRC, sees investing in wheat research as a key priority.

"So what's important for us on our farm is selecting a variety that is early maturing. So if I have numerous varieties to select from, that gives me access to also select a variety based on its other characteristics. But like I said, it's really important for shorter maturing varieties just because we have a shorter timeframe window here."

Fred Greig farms at Reston, Manitoba and was the first board chair for the Canadian Wheat Research Coalition.