Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada crop breeder Harpinder Randhawa has made impressive gains in soft white spring wheat breeding in recent years, and AAC Raymond is his latest success. “Soft whites are unique in their end-use potential,” said Randhawa, who works at the Lethbridge Research and Development Centre. “Historically, soft white wheats have been grown in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan for milling cookies, cakes and biscuits. Owing to their low protein and high starch content, however, they are also ideal for ethanol and brewing malt.”

Five new wheat varieties developed by LimaGrain Cereals Research Canada (LCRC) have been licensed to distributors this year following recommendation by the Prairie Grain Development Committee. Established in 2015, the private wheat breeder is a partnership between two farmer-owned co-operatives, France’s Limagrain and Canada’s Canterra Seeds. The variety recommendations represent a major success for the organization, which has marketed just four wheat varieties since its formation, including CS Accelerate and CS Daybreak.

Ten years ago, Canada’s Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) Act was updated to align with UPOV ’91, the globally acknowledged framework that protects the innovation of plant breeders and helps them profit from new variety development. The legislation is intended to protect breeders’ rights, increase investment in plant breeding and boost access to foreign genetics. Farm groups strongly resisted its adoption as they feared the cost burden for farmers.

Two recently published reports conclude no single investment delivers greater ROI than varietal development. Both were authored by Richard Gray, University of Saskatchewan professor and Canadian Grain Policy Research chair. The barley report was published in July 2021, the wheat report in March of this year.

The improvement of Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance in durum wheat varieties is no easy task, but progress has been made in recent years. Varieties with improved resistance are in the breeding pipeline.

Held in late July of 2019, the Made in Canada Crop Tour was conducted with the co-operation of four industry groups to help create just such barley buy in.

As the recent debut of a new American pale ale called South Side smash revealed, getting to the launch stage with new malt varieties involves critical choices. This beer by Edmonton’s Town Square Brewing Co. is brewed using malt produced by Red Shed Malting and is
the first commercially available beer to feature SeCan’s CDC Bow malting barley.

Barley was once a dominant crop on the Canadian Prairies, with farmers planting nearly 14 million acres of the golden grain in 1971. By 2017, however, the number fell to just under six million acres. Farmers, faced with depressed prices and slowly declining yields, have been switching to more profitable crops.