Grainswest - Winter 2023

Winter 2023 Grains West 24 FEATURE “The most expensive trait in the breeding program is time.” — Flavio Capettini well-known for its fertile soil. The Plains are composed of large, relatively flat land blocks in the shadow of the Southern Alps, making the area somewhat reminiscent of Alberta and the Rockies. “We’re very lucky here in New Zealand. We’ve got very good soils for crop indicator clients,” said Hay. “Our yield potentials here are very high. We’ve got a limited amount of land but high yield potential. The Canterbury Plains is a very good growing area for cereals.” Hay is quick to point out the long- standing relationship many breeders have with New Zealand and said this is simply a testament to the strength of the programs established Down Under. “I think it’s the integrity of the whole system is that it’s a safe way to advance genetics in working with companies that know the importance of the crop and IP ownership and that they can send it down here,” he said. “They know we’re going to do a good job and give good quality seed back.” For Hay and his team, the last few years have also been a challenge on the New Zealand side. As a fee-for-service provider, client expectations for the job are always high. This can be a challenge as many factors are completely out of their hands. “I think I’ve gone greyer and lost more hair,” said Hay with a laugh as he recalled the last few growing years. “You treat it like your own material and you don’t want to let down your clients. We try and produce the best seed you possibly can, and you’re up against the weather and other things as well, but we’ve done this for a number of years now and so we’ve got a very good team here and they all know the importance of this material.” The areas where the seed is grown typically receive about 60 millimetres of rain each month and there are irrigated systems to serve as a top up for moisture in the event of a drier growing season. STATESIDE BARLEY In another critical agreement that has lasted decades, Alberta barley is sent down to El Centro in California’s Imperial Valley and grown in winter nurseries to speed up its breeding efforts. Field Crop Development Centre barley breeder Flavio Capettini has overseen provincial malt barley breeding for almost 10 years and calls the agreement critical to the success of the Alberta government’s efforts, now managed by Olds College since January 2021. For barley, breeders used to send both F3 and F5 generations down to California. Today, they only send F3 and that saves at least one year in the breeding process, or about 15 per cent of the total time it takes a variety to come to market. The nursery is also used for strategic seed increases. By cutting down on the 10- to 12-year process of producing a viable commercial crop variety, the agreement is good news for farmers because it saves time. “The most expensive trait in the breeding program is time,” said Capettini. He added that when a variety has increased yield potential, but can’t come to market in a timely manner, that is bad for everyone. “Every year that variety is delayed getting into farmers’ fields, you multiply that … times all the area that barley has, and all the potential in the price of value, you can easily calculate how much money the system is losing.” The College’s Field Crop Development Centre in Lacombe follows two systems to advance breeding generations during the off- season. Barley is domestically cultivated in growth rooms during the fall and winter, in addition to the field sites in summer. This can help speed up the breeding process. After an F1 barley is grown in the field or in a growth room, the resulting F2 is grown in the field. Later, F3-F4 breeding populations can be produced in a methodology called single seed descent in growth rooms used to advance generations. Alternatively, populations are shipped down to California for continued generational growth. Capettini continues to be grateful for the national and international alliances. “You can’t ever do science in isolation,” he said. “You need a very important collaboration network. That has been historically one of the reasons why the barley varieties have been progressing during the years. That’s the purpose of the collaboration. We help each other share germplasm and information.”