Call for Tender: Group 2 Herbicide-Resistant Confection Sunflower Hybrid

Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) is pleased to invite tenders for exclusive rights, in Canada, to production, marketing and distribution of the Group 2 herbicide-resistant confection sunflower (MCA 359239 and MCA 359306*) produced from the only farmer-funded hybrid confection sunflower breeding program in Canada.

The tender application form, which must be submitted separately for each hybrid of interest, can be downloaded here: 

MCA 359239 and MCA 359306 have been registered with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

*NOTE: MCA 359239 was previously called EX 359239 and MCA 359306 was previously called EX 200306/EX 20306.

 

 

MCA reserves the right to reject any or all tenders and to negotiate the terms of agreement with any proponent.

For more information, or requests for samples of the above lines, please contact Katherine Stanley, Research Program Manager – Special Crops with MCA, at 204-898-4122 or katherine@mbcropalliance.ca.

Please forward tender submissions to katherine@mbcropalliance.ca by 4:30 p.m. CST on Nov. 15, 2024.

Manitoba Crop Alliance announces results of 2024 crop committee delegate nominations

Oct. 8, 2024 (Carman, MB) – Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) is pleased to announce the results of the nomination process for delegate positions on its four crop committees. The nomination period ran from July 1 to Oct. 1, 2024.

In total, 16 farmer members were nominated for the 17 available delegate positions across the four crop committees and are thereby elected by acclamation. Among those 16 delegates, eight are new to their respective committees and eight are incumbents.

“I would like to thank all the farmers who let their names stand for nomination during this cycle,” says MCA CEO Pam de Rocquigny. “Each MCA crop committee delegate has made the choice to represent their peers and help guide the direction of our industry, and we are grateful for their service and dedication.”

Corn: Carl Bangert (Beausejour), Riley Anderson (Morris), Craig Riese (St. Andrews) and Patrick Gamache (Laurier) were nominated for the four available crop committee delegate positions. They will join Doug Martin (East Selkirk), Jonothan Hodson (Lenore), Warren McCutcheon (Carman) and Richard Dureault (Fannystelle) to form MCA’s corn committee.

Flax: Dean Buchanan (Crystal City), Lorne Johnson (Arborg), Myles Kubinec (Holland) and Amanda Ellis (Wawanesa) were nominated for the four available crop committee delegate positions. They will join Darcy Unger (Stonewall), Eric Fridfinnson (Arborg), Leigh Smith (Oak Lake) and Nick Matheson (Stonewall) to form MCA’s flax committee.

Sunflower: Korey Peters (Randolph), Sally Parsonage (Baldur) and Andrew Saramaga (Hazelridge) were nominated for the four available crop committee delegate positions. They will join Darcy Watson (Rossendale), Nathan Tollenaar (Balmoral), Gregg Fotheringham (Reston) and Mark McDonald (Virden) to form MCA’s sunflower committee. One delegate position on this crop committee remains vacant.

Wheat and Barley: Boris Michaleski (Ashville), Sheila Elder (Wawanesa), Carly Owen (Killarney), Marcus Loeppky (Niverville) and Ty Ballard (Bield) were nominated for the five available crop committee delegate positions. They will join Brad Myskiw (Warren), Robert Misko (Roblin), Ryan Hueging (Woodlands), Scott Mowbray (Cartwright) and Wilfred Harder (Lowe Farm) to form MCA’s wheat and barley committee.

The new delegates will join their respective committees in January 2025. MCA is seeking candidates to fill the vacant delegate position on the sunflower crop committee.

MCA would like to thank outgoing delegates Fred Greig (wheat and barley), Josee Saquet (wheat and barley), Hubert Preun (corn), Emile Morin (corn), Edgar Scheurer (sunflower), Lance Biernes (flax) and Jack Hodgson (flax) for their valuable contributions to the organization.

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For more information, please contact:

Pam de Rocquigny
Chief Executive Officer
Manitoba Crop Alliance       
204-745-6661
pam@mbcropalliance.ca

About Manitoba Crop Alliance:
Manitoba Crop Alliance is a non-profit organization established Aug. 1, 2020, representing more than 7,700 farmer members. Manitoba Crop Alliance puts their farmer members first and strives to continuously improve the competitiveness and profitability of all crops represented by the organization by focusing on four main areas: research, agronomy, market access and development, and communications. It is through investment in these key areas that Manitoba Crop Alliance can ensure wheat, barley, corn, sunflower and flax are sustainable production choices for Manitoba farmers. For more information, visit mbcropalliance.ca.

Delegate position available on MCA sunflower committee – apply today!

Sunflower growers:

  • Want to help build a strong future for the Manitoba sunflower industry?
  • Want to contribute your experience and passion for the agriculture industry to a worthy cause?
  • Want to meet likeminded people and have new experiences?

We need you!

Manitoba Crop Alliance is looking to fill one delegate position on its sunflower committee, starting immediately.

Roles & responsibilities of committee delegates

Who is eligible?

To be eligible to apply, candidates must:

  • Be 18 years or age or older
  • Have grown and marketed sunflower in Manitoba
  • Have paid check-off fees to the organization in the previous fiscal year (i.e., have not received a refund)

Apply now

Please note, the deadline for applications is 4:30 p.m. CST on Nov. 8, 2024.

Completed forms can be submitted electronically or by mail/fax.

Email:
pam@mbcropalliance.ca

Mail:
Manitoba Crop Alliance
Box 188
Carman, MB R0G 0J0

Fax:
204-745-6122

For questions, please contact:

Pam de Rocquigny
pam@mbcropalliance.ca
204-750-0217

Sign up now for our 2024 Corn Yield Competition

Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) is looking for participants for the 2024 Corn Yield Competition!

All entrants must be farmer members of MCA.

Prizes will be awarded as follows at the CropConnect Conference banquet, which will be held on Feb. 12, 2025:

  • 1st Prize – $1,000 and a wall plaque (sponsored by the company with the winning hybrid)
  • 2nd Prize – $500 and a wall plaque
  • 3rd Prize – $300 and a wall plaque
  • 4th and 5th Prize – Receive a wall plaque

Instructions for entering the yield competition

Please review the instructions and keep them in mind as you are scouting for the very best spot in your field. Even if you don’t have your spot(s) picked out, you can still enter early!

For more information or to enter, please contact:

Morgan Cott
Agronomy Extension Specialist – Special Crops
Manitoba Crop Alliance
204-750-2489
morgan@mbcropalliance.ca

Colin Hiebert, research scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

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Colin Hiebert is a research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) Morden Research and Development Centre (RDC). He completed his undergraduate degree in biology at the University of Winnipeg, before continuing his graduate studies in plant genetics, focusing on wheat during his PhD. He now lives in Winkler, MB, with his wife and their two sons.

Where did you work before joining AAFC?

Before starting graduate school, I worked in both the public and private sectors of agriculture. After finishing my PhD, I was a postdoctoral researcher at AAFC’s Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg (now closed) for a year before I was hired as a research scientist there. Subsequently, my program was moved to Morden.

What got you interested in this area of work?

I have always enjoyed the field of genetics, and wheat is scientifically fascinating. It is also a Prairie icon, so working on wheat connects me to western Canadian culture and the economy. Wheat is also a global crop, allowing me to interact with and impact research and agriculture internationally. The convergence of all these different factors drew me to working on wheat.

Tell us a bit about what you are working on at AAFC.

I lead a wheat genetics program, covering everything from fundamental genetics (classical genetics) to modern genomics tools. We cover quite the continuum of research, which was reflected in the previous cluster (2018-23) and in the current cluster (2023-28).

In the “Pre-breeding and development of breeding tools to diversify disease resistance in bread wheat” 20218-23 project, we focused on introducing combinations of disease resistance genes into elite genetic backgrounds that breeders can use in their programs. One challenge is when we have new or underutilized disease resistance genes, they are often in backgrounds that are not suitable for production in Western Canada. The pre-breeding work addressed this challenge.

Another challenge is that it is difficult to select resistance genes by a visual assessment, so we use DNA markers, or marker-assisted selection, to make the process more efficient and accurate. We discovered new DNA markers that made gene selection more efficient both for our projects and for breeder selection.

A positive outcome from this project was discovering a new stem rust resistance gene, Sr67, which is effective against strains of stem rust fungus including the Ug99 races discovered in Africa. There was previously a lot of research activities that went into mitigating the risk of those races. This work is still ongoing to mitigate the threats that exotic strains pose to Canadian producers.

At Morden, we have a biocontainment facility where we can evaluate plants in our genetic studies or in breeding programs against these exotic races to mitigate the risk of them coming to Canada. Sr67 is effective against present strains and can provide resistance against races that could pose a threat. The discovery was recently published here.

We have included the Sr67 gene in the current cluster project to ensure early adoption of this new gene. This is an exciting extension from the previous round of funding.

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

All my collaborators here and at the other AAFC research centres and I are very grateful to farmers for their funding. In these types of projects, we are trying to directly address their more immediate needs. This funding allows us to translate some of our more upstream work into something that can find its way into a farmer’s field. We want our research to make a difference to producers.

How does that funding and support directly benefit farmers?

My research program focuses largely on disease resistance genes. By working closely with pathologists and breeders, we hope to create more sustainable disease resistance, which could lower input costs for farmers and protect yield potential. There are still issues that require chemical inputs, for example, but if we can get resistance to a point where the efficacy of the chemicals is better because the degree of disease protection required is not as high, that will help farmers.

I hope farmers feel welcomed and comfortable reaching out to scientists. Their insights and concerns help shape the direction of our research.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I coach my kids’ hockey teams, and we enjoy a lot of outdoor activities like hiking, backpacking and hunting.

What is the best part of your job?

There are many aspects I enjoy. I get to tackle interesting scientific questions that impact an important sector in the Canadian economy and for Western Canada. I also get to interact with the international research community and meet people from around the world working on similar challenging research questions. I also have opportunities to interact with farmers, as I live and work in a rural community at a rural research centre. These conversations offer insights into how our research impacts their operations and livelihoods.

How do you celebrate agriculture?

My wife has done a restart on her family’s farm, and I have been able to participate in that. This was the second year of the farm’s restart, and it has been both enjoyable and a great way for us to celebrate agriculture.

We’re Hiring: Summer Research and Extension Assistant 

We are seeking a summer-term, full-time Research and Extension Assistant to join our dynamic team and serve our farmer members who grow wheat, barley, corn, sunflower and flax in the province of Manitoba.

The Research and Extension Assistant is responsible for supporting MCA staff and operations through field, administrative, data-management and event work for all MCA activities, under the supervision of the Research Program Manager – Special Crops.

This role requires a highly motivated individual with a passion for agriculture, strong communication skills and a positive, team-oriented attitude.

Click here to view the full job posting – including duties and responsibilities, desired qualifications and experience, and working conditions of the position.

To apply, please forward a resume and letter of interest by e-mail to katherine@mbcropalliance.ca. Application deadline for this position is 4:30 p.m. CST on Nov. 8, 2024.

Manitoba Crop Alliance commits over $2.6 million to Global Agriculture Technology Exchange

Sept. 17, 2024 (Carman, MB) – Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) has conditionally approved $2,655,587 in funding for Cereals Canada’s Global Agriculture Technology Exchange (Gate) initiative.

With this contribution, MCA joins Alberta Grains ($4,319,798) and the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission ($6,243,074) among grower organizations that have committed funding towards construction of the new facility, which is expected to cost approximately $100 million.

“Market development and access is a top priority for MCA and one of the core principles that guide our work,” says MCA chair Robert Misko. “This support for Gate will help Cereals Canada continue their valuable work in this area, which benefits Manitoba farmers and the entire cereals value chain.”

MCA’s investment is based on the business plan provided by Cereals Canada, which highlights the need for a new facility to help the cereals industry grow and thrive. This funding is conditional upon Cereals Canada securing the required financial support from government entities and other funding partners to cover the remaining projected costs.

MCA is a proud member of Cereals Canada and sees significant value in the market development and access initiatives the organization spearheads on behalf of its membership.

“As a Cereals Canada member, we are part of a united effort to drive the growth, maintenance and development of the Canadian cereals market, both domestically and internationally,” Misko says.

“Because Cereals Canada is based in Winnipeg, we frequently collaborate on programming that facilitates direct engagement between Cereals Canada and our directors, delegates, staff and members, including technical exchanges and other farm tours.”

Over the last 50 years, Cereals Canada (and its predecessor, the Canadian International Grains Institute) has worked to advance the cereals value chain and built a reputation for training, testing and innovation within the industry. Cereals Canada needs a new facility to maintain this momentum and continue meeting global demand for high-quality Canadian grains.

MCA looks forward to working with Cereals Canada and other industry partners to ensure that Cereals Canada can continue its crucial work on behalf of Canadian farmers.

Read our FAQ here. For more information about Gate, visit gate-canada.ca

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For more information, please contact:

Cole Christensen
Communications Manager
Manitoba Crop Alliance         
403-589-3529
cole@mbcropalliance.ca

About Manitoba Crop Alliance:
Manitoba Crop Alliance is a non-profit organization established Aug. 1, 2020, representing more than 7,700 farmer members. Manitoba Crop Alliance puts their farmer members first and strives to continuously improve the competitiveness and profitability of all crops represented by the organization by focusing on four main areas: research, agronomy, market access and development, and communications. It is through investment in these key areas that Manitoba Crop Alliance can ensure wheat, barley, corn, sunflower and flax are sustainable production choices for Manitoba farmers. For more information, visit mbcropalliance.ca.

JOB POSTING: University of Manitoba Agronomist in Residence – Special Crops

JOB POSTING: University of Manitoba Agronomist in Residence – Special Crops

The University of Manitoba is seeking candidates for a new, full-time Agronomist in Residence – Special Crops position. This position will lead the development of an applied research and knowledge translation program focused on advancing corn, flax and sunflower production in Manitoba.

The agronomist in residence will collaborate with members of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Manitoba Government oilseed and cereals specialists, Manitoba Crop Diversification Centres and MCA. They will participate in undergraduate and/or graduate student training, in MCA crop committee meetings, and assist in the development of research priorities for corn, sunflower and flax farmers in Manitoba.

We are extremely excited about this position and the benefits it will create for special crop producers across the province!

Learn more and apply

Winter Wheat Variety Yield and Market Share Data – 2024

Manitoba Crop Variety Evaluation Trial Data

Winter wheat yield data from the Manitoba Crop Variety Evaluation Trials (MCVET) is in for the 2024 growing season. This data provides farmers with unbiased information regarding regional variety performance, allowing for variety comparison. Data was derived from small plot replicated trails from locations across Manitoba. Fungicides were not applied to these plots; thus, true genetic potential can be evaluated. Although considerable amounts of data are collected from MCVET, the disease ratings are from variety registration data.

Table 1. 2024 MCVET winter wheat variety descriptions

Note: Table 1 sourced from MCVET team.

Table 2 below summarizes the yield results from the 2024 MCVET data by trial location. The yield results represent 2024 data only, therefore long-term trends should be considered when making variety selection decisions. Previous yield data can be found in past editions of Seed Manitoba. As well, apart from yield, there are other variety characteristics to consider when making variety selection decisions, such as disease, insect and lodging resistance. Check out this Manitoba Crop Alliance article for more information on considerations when selecting a new cereal variety.

Table 2 also indicates if there were yield differences between varieties at each trial site. If there was a significant yield difference the least significant difference (LSD) is also included. The LSD signifies the smallest difference necessary in bushels per acre for two varieties to be considered significantly different from each other.

Table 2. 2024 MCVET winter wheat yield comparison data

Note: Table 2 sourced from MCVET team.

MASC Variety Market Share Data

The Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC) has also released its 2024 Variety Market Share Report. This report breaks down the number of acres seeded to each crop type in Manitoba, as well as the relative percentage of acres each variety was seeded on within each crop type. This information is useful to understand overall production patterns in Manitoba. A link to the 2024 report can be found here.

It is important to note that farmer members’ dollars directly contributed to the plant breeding research activities that were instrumental in the development of the top winter wheat varieties.  

Select takeaways

A small number of winter wheat acres were seeded again in 2024, with approximately 35,000 acres seeded.

Figure 1. Summary of the amount of winter wheat acres seeded in Manitoba over the last five growing seasons. Data obtained from MASC Variety Market Share Reports from 2020-2024.

Eight varieties by percentage acres seeded are listed in Table 1, these are the only varieties listed in this year’s MASC Variety Market Share Report. All eight seeded varieties are Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW) wheat.

Table 1. The top eight 2024 winter wheat varieties by percentage of seeded acres in Manitoba.

Variety

Wheat Class

Yield (bu/ac)**

Relative Maturity**

Lodging**

Relative Winter Hardiness**

FHB Resistance**

Relative Acreage (%)*

AAC Wildfire

CWRW

89

Late

Good

Very Good

Moderately Resistant

 

52.8

Emerson

CWRW

83

Medium

Very Good

 

Good

Resistant

14.7

AAC Vortex

 

CWRW

87

Medium

Very Good

Very Good

Moderately Resistant

8.9

AAC Goldrush

 

CWRW

82

Medium

Good

Very Good

Intermediate

7.9

No Var

 

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

7.7

AAC Gateway

 

CWRW

82

Medium

Very Good

Fair

Intermediate

5.2

CDC Buteo

 

CWRW

80

Medium

Fair

Very Good

Moderately Resistant

2.7

AAC Overdrive

CWRW

82

Early

Very Good

Very Good

Moderately Resistant

0.2

Note: * Data obtained from MASC 2024 Variety Market Share Report. ** Data obtained from the 2023 MCVET Winter Wheat and Fall Rye report. Fusarium Head Blight; FHB.

AAC Wildfire was the top seeded winter wheat variety, occupying 52.8 per cent of seeded winter wheat acres. This is an increase of just over nine per cent from 2023. AAC Wildfire was registered in 2015 and is a late maturing CWRW variety. AAC Vortex, which was registered in 2021, was seeded on just under nine per cent of acres in 2024, up close to five per cent from 2023. AAC Goldrush, which was registered in 2016, decreased in percentage of acres seeded, dipping by just under five per cent from 2023. AAC Overdrive, which was registered in 2022, increased in acres seeded by 0.2 per cent in 2024.

Emerson, which has a Fusarium head blight rating of “resistant,” has been the most seeded variety in Manitoba for several years. However, its acreage has dropped just over 20 per cent since 2022. A similar trend was seen in AAC Gateway, which dropped from 16.1 per cent in 2022, to just over five per cent in 2024. AAC Elevate, which had steady acreage of just over five per cent in 2022 and 2023, dropped out of the top eight in 2024.

Seed Manitoba Variety Selection and Growers Source Guide should be consulted when making variety selections.

Joanne Thiessen Martens, assistant professor, University of Manitoba

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Now an assistant professor of soil chemistry and fertility in the department of soil science at the University of Manitoba (U of M), Joanne Thiessen Martens previously completed her undergraduate studies at the U of M in agriculture and food sciences. She completed her bachelor of science in agroecology before she began working, and later returned to complete her PhD in soil science. She lives in Winnipeg with her husband and their two young-adult children.

Where did you work before U of M?

Before my current position, I worked in the U of M’s department of plant science in the Natural Systems Agriculture Lab under Dr. Martin Entz. I worked there as a technician and research associate for quite a few years.

What is the best part about your job?

There are a lot of great things about my job, but it comes down to working with ideas – whether those ideas are from students in class, farmers we are working with, colleagues in the department or across the country, discussions at conferences or reading literature. I love thinking about all the ideas people produce and the ways they test those hypotheses. It is the creativity that is interesting.

Tell us a bit about what you are working on at U of M.

Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) is co-funding a cover crop study my master’s student Jessica Frey and I are working on. Jessica is a technician at the Parkland Crop Diversification Foundation and was interested in seeing how we could create a cover crop system that would be easy for farmers to implement and still provide benefits in our short season growing area.

At sites at Roblin and Carberry, we are trialing seeding an overwintering legume cover crop like alfalfa, red clover or white clover with wheat or another cereal in the first year, and then allowing that to continue to grow as a living mulch in the crop in the second year, with the second crop being canola.

This project is now into the second year. The idea is that the cover crop is seeded at the same time as the wheat in one pass while considering the herbicide packages that will hopefully suppress the weeds without killing the cover crop. We hope to see some nitrogen benefits from it, as well as all the other benefits you get from cover crops, such as soil cover in the fall and early spring and living roots in the soil supporting soil health.

Another project partially funded by MCA is focused on organic farmers and addressing phosphorus deficiencies, as well as a high-level interest in recycling different materials in a circular bioeconomy. We would like to create a phosphorus-enriched compost with a much higher concentration of phosphorus than a normal compost. We would do that by composting some sort of organic waste (yard waste, food waste or manure) together with a mineral phosphorus input – either struvite, which is recovered from municipal wastewater, or rock phosphate. Hopefully, we can create this phosphorus-enriched compost using recycled products.

We are beginning the composting process with our partner Enviroclean Landfill Solutions Ltd. in Morden, which does in-vessel (very rapid) composting. Next, we will be evaluating those compost products for their nutrient profile, as well as their degradation of any contaminants that would be in any of those feedstocks before we go into field testing in 2025.

What can you say about the value of farmers providing funding and support to your organization?

It is incredibly important. Funding from farmers keeps us, as researchers, grounded. Research has a couple important roles to play. One is addressing the challenges farmers are currently facing. That is where support from farmers through MCA is crucial. But also, funding from farmers through MCA shows their willingness to support a broad range of research, understanding that we are tackling problems they see right now, as well as new issues that may be coming down the pipe.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

We aim to keep our research practical so it can benefit farmers in the challenges that they see every day and in the future. Researchers can take on some of the risk in thinking about the questions that may become important in our future and investigate them before they impact farmers. Thank you, farmers, for your support and to the commodity groups for your collaborative support of research.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

My hobbies are remarkably like my work. I like reading, gardening and being outdoors. When I have time, I like to fit in a bit of music. I play piano and I have started learning to play bass guitar.

How do you celebrate agriculture?

There is a part of me that celebrates agriculture every time I eat something. I have spent most of my life here in Canada, but I lived in Brazil for a few years and saw mangoes and coconuts on trees, and I visited Malawi in Africa and saw products quite different to home like peanut plants. Now when I eat my granola bar with peanuts, I think about those peanut fields and the people growing them. That connection of food to agriculture every day is a little celebration.

What are you excited about for the future of your sector/agriculture?

What I am most excited about is seeing how our understanding of ecological processes and technology come together, and how we can harness both those types of knowledge to enhance each other. I also see exciting opportunities for the agricultural systems that come out of bringing together different types of knowledge.

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