GrainsWest Spring 2020

Spring 2020 grainswest.com 47 BY SARAH HOFFMANN • PHOTOS COURTESY OF DEAN SPANER Wheat breeder Dean Spaner (left) assesses new variety plots with SeCan research and development manager JimDowney. variety with excellent yield potential. Having grown it in 2018 and 2019, he also found it to be easier threshing than other awn- less varieties he’s produced. Penner believes the variety could be a good fit across Alberta and into southern Saskatchewan. “I’d like to see it east of the Red Deer River in Alberta,” he said. “It’s a little taller but it has great yield potential.” INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATION The exploratory nature of the university setting brings a unique quality to Spaner’s breeding program. While federal breeding programs generally focus on crossing established Canadian varieties, he grows and assesses global germplasm for potential parents to cross with Canadian germplasm. “Being a university, we can play around so we can make up- wards of 200 crosses per year and have all sorts of weird genetic variability on the go,” said Spaner. The global germplasm brings genetic diversity and often strong resistance to rust diseases, but they usually do not meet the quality parameters for the CWRS class. Occasionally, the results are surprising, as in the case of Zealand, a cross of Canadian and world germplasm that met the standards of the CWRS class. With its height and large leaves, the variety thrives on organic land. “Zealand has hyper-competitive ability,” said Spaner. “It can out-compete weeds.” Graduate student projects have a symbiotic relationship with plant breeding. One year, a student examined the genes of all western Canadian wheat varieties, scoring them for rust re- sistance, height and maturity. This data helped Spaner choose suitable parents to cross in his breeding program. Spaner believes training such young scientists is crucial. “We try to do a service to the farming community, both in terms of developing varieties that could be useful and developing scien- tists who could be even more useful,” he said. This focus on the future is central to Alberta Wheat Commis- sion (AWC) support of the breeding program. “Dr. Spaner has a notable strength in training graduate students who will be our future breeders and agronomists,” said Lauren Comin, AWC research director. “We take this value into consideration when making funding decisions and rate it as equally important, if not more so, than the varieties developed.” Financial support for the program has been supplied by AWC, the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission, the now-defunct Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund, the Alberta government and National Sciences and Research Coun- cil of Canada. Since 2014, AWC has contributed $2.5 million to the program, with more farmer-derived funds to be committed in 2021. According to those in the seed industry, this is money well spent. “I’m interested to see Dean succeed and have more resources and recognition,” said SeCan’s Downey. “There’s po- tential to really improve his resources and efficiencies to produce good varieties.” “We try to do a service to the farming community, both in terms of developing varieties that could be useful, and developing scientists who could be even more useful.” —Dean Spaner