In the field and abroad: sharing the Canadian wheat story with global customers 

Coles Ag on January 29, 2024

In November 2023, Cereals Canada released the 2023 New Wheat Crop Report and shortly after led four trade and technical missions to 17 countries to showcase the quality of Canadian wheat to customers and buyers.

The annual trade and technical missions visit key global markets for Canadian wheat to share reports on the quality and functionality of the year’s wheat crop and include information on market supply and demand. Experts from the value chain – such as commissioners from the Canadian Grain Commission, exporters and farmers – participate in these missions.

As part of the seminars during these missions, farmer participants were asked to present on key farming practices and highlight the practices they follow to grow wheat while minimizing environmental impacts.

“Each market wants to understand more about Canadian farming practices,” says Dean Dias, CEO at Cereals Canada. “Having farmer representatives speak on behalf of Canadian growers about their farming practices is critical to informing customers about sustainability.”

Grain farmer and MCA crop committee delegate Korey Peters was a farmer representative on the Asia trade and technical mission, visiting customers in Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and China from Nov. 24 to Dec. 9.

“The experience was awesome and very eye opening,” says Peters. In each seminar, Peters used photos and videos to talk about the crop types he grows on his family farm and shared information about how the 2023 growing season went.

Photo Gallery

In the field and abroad: sharing the Canadian wheat story with global customers 
Korey Peters and the rest of the Canadian delegation at Japan Flour Millers Association meeting in Tokyo, Japan.
In the field and abroad: sharing the Canadian wheat story with global customers 
After Korey’s presentations he was often asked questions related to soil fertility, managing wheat diseases and how he looks after the environment.
In the field and abroad: sharing the Canadian wheat story with global customers 
(Left to right) Dean Dias, Norbert Cabral, Matt Bingham, Korey Peters and Lindsay Bourre at the Great Wall of China.
In the field and abroad: sharing the Canadian wheat story with global customers 
In the field and abroad: sharing the Canadian wheat story with global customers 
In the field and abroad: sharing the Canadian wheat story with global customers 

After his presentations, he was often asked questions related to soil fertility, managing wheat diseases and how he looks after the environment.

“Customers were very curious to hear firsthand what we do, how we grow things, and what works and what doesn’t,” he says. “I talked a lot about crop rotation and science-based solutions, and how we work with professionals like certified agronomists, for example, to help us.”

At all the seminars, Peters says customers were engaged and seemed eager to speak directly with a farmer. “They wanted to know about everything I did, but they also wanted to know about the grain and quality,” he says. “They were asking about breadcrumb structure, air pockets and how the bread was going to look.”

He adds the level of scientific detail blew his mind. “I just grow wheat, but it was interesting to hear these types of questions and discussions. It also reinforced to me the importance of having members from the whole value chain at these missions to answer all their questions and to build trust.”

Something that stood out to Peters was the relationships. “These companies want to put a face to the names of the people in the value chain. Some were on a first-name basis, or even exchanging hugs because they’ve met many times before. This showed me how important it is to our customers to have that personal connection.”

For Cereals Canada, the trade and technical missions are a way to build and maintain strong relationships, which is vital to growing the international demand for Canadian wheat. For Peters, it was a great experience, and he says he would go again in a heartbeat.

“It became very clear to me that Canada’s wheat is second to none. Every place we visited agreed that Canadian wheat is phenomenal, which makes me very proud of what we grow.”

For more information about the New Wheat Crop Report or the trade and technical missions, visit cerealscanada.ca.

Lorne Grieger, director of technical sales, Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute

Coles Ag on January 24, 2024

Follow @PAMI_Machinery on X (formerly Twitter).
Follow @PAMI_Machinery on X (formerly Twitter).

Say hello to Lorne Grieger, director of technical sales at the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI).

Grieger studied bioresource engineering (formerly, agricultural engineering) at the University of Manitoba and has worked with PAMI in both project management and ag research related positions. He grew up on a farm in Swan River where his family still farms, and he and his wife live near Birds Hill, close to his wife’s family. They have two daughters.

Where did you work before PAMI?

I’ve worked for PAMI on two separate occasions. I previously worked for a pharmaceutical company. When I look at what we’re doing for the livestock sector, biosecurity principles are very similar in terms of managing disease or daily livestock operations. I’ve used a lot of background from my time there and applied it to the work we do with the livestock sector at PAMI.

I also worked in a consulting firm for a few years. From that experience, the machinery design side is very applicable to some of the work we do now for industry clients. As an organization, we work in two areas: the industry side, where we help companies do innovation testing, design and engineering work prototyping, and the other side is public research.

What got you interested in this area of work?

I’ve always liked equipment – it’s intriguing. I love working with tractors and big iron, but also the technology piece that goes with it. You have these large pieces of steel with control and guidance, the technology is remarkable. When you think it hasn’t changed or can’t get any better, somebody comes out with a new concept or idea. It’s ever changing, ever evolving and ever improving.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at PAMI.

In my current role, I oversee proposals. I collaborate with grower groups to understand their needs and see how we can address those needs through PAMI’s expertise and experience. We look at implementation of technologies or understanding technology features, and how to use it on farm.

Some of our work that Manitoba Crop Alliance recently funded was looking at seed damage from large air seeders, for example. If you understand what that seed moisture is and the germination impact, you can adjust your seeding rate accordingly to get the stand you’re looking for. After all, when you’re investing millions of dollars in equipment, you want to understand the best fit or how to use it effectively for your current operation, because equipment is not one size fits all.

On the grain drying side, a lot of the work we’ve done is looking at current practices and measuring or understanding what farmers’ baselines are in order to make decisions, or find ways to increase efficiency and reduce costs. This could refer to new technology as well, understanding grain drying aspects both in the bin as well as dedicated drying systems. By using different pieces of equipment or looking at different practices as a whole, we are looking at the best ways to manage risk or ways to increase profitability.

If we can understand some of those details, we can provide both simple and more complex ways of working with equipment or modifying current processes to allow farmers to be more efficient and more profitable down the road.

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

Producer funding is critical for the work we do. We don’t want to just do research – we want to do work that’s applicable to people that are feeding their families and looking to pass down a farm to the next generation. If you put money behind a project, that means it’s important to you, and as a result, it’s important to us. We want to work in those areas.

Having open dialogue with grower groups helps us understand what is important to members, so that, as we look at the future of our organization, we can invest in the right resources, people and expertise to be able to answer the questions that grower groups are asking.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?  

We aren’t telling people how to do their craft or run their business. We want to provide information that can be used to make good decisions. That could be in terms of operational or equipment investments, to modifications or investments on a capital side as well. It is a little bit of de-risking when you look at adopting a new practice, what exactly does this mean? If we can answer that on an individual basis so everybody can learn and understand it, it lowers the risk for all involved.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

Camping, and being outside as much as possible. The Duck Mountains are where my heart is. I just love being up there, as well as Whiteshell and further on into northwest Ontario. It’s a gorgeous country that we live in.

What is the best part about your job?

The best part of my job is constant variety and working with new ideas and new concepts. If we do a certain practice, what does that mean for farmers? Does that make a difference in terms of their operations, revenue and sustainability on a farm level? That’s what I really enjoy, working out the applicability down to the farm gate difference, including how economics, different practices and equipment choices can be affected as a result of the work we do.

What are you excited about for the future of agriculture?

The future of agriculture is ever changing. We always find ways as an industry to innovate, problem solve and rise above challenges. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, something else comes along, and we find ways to adapt and to be successful as a result. Moving forward, seeing the next generation come online along with new technologies and advancements is remarkable.

Follow @PAMI_Machinery on X (formerly Twitter).

Research on the Farm – Wheat Seeding Rate Trial Summary

Coles Ag on January 22, 2024

The Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) Research on the Farm (ROTF) program conducts scientific research with farmer members, using replicated strip trials on commercial fields. Farmer co-operators use their own equipment and management practices to conduct this research. Research projects are developed to investigate current and pressing agronomic questions and provide site-specific answers. More information about the ROTF program and all trial results can be found here.

As wheat genetics have improved, testing current seeding rate practices for new spring wheat varieties was necessary to understand if targeted plant stands are being optimized for yield and grain quality. The purpose of the spring wheat seeding rate trial was to quantify the agronomic and economic impacts of reducing and increasing farmers’ target plant stands compared to their normal target plant stand. This was done by increasing and decreasing seeding rates. Seeding rates ranged from 20 – 45 lbs/ac higher and lower than the farmers’ normal seeding rate (Table 1). This trial has been conducted for four growing seasons (2020 – 2023) and has 26 site-years of data. Trial sites covered numerous soil types, management practices and climatic conditions, as sites were located across agro-Manitoba.

Figure 1. Summary of spring wheat yield by seeding rate for all trial sites from 2020 – 2023. Note: Letters indicate significant differences between treatments.

Over the past four growing seasons, significant differences in plant-stand density were observed at 50 per cent of trial sites. In all cases, where a significant difference in plant-stand density was observed, the highest seeding rate had the highest plant-stand density. Although significant differences in plant-stand density were observed between treatments at 50 per cent of sites, there were only three sites where significant yield differences were observed. In each instance where a significant yield difference was observed, the low seeding rate treatment always out yielded the high seeding rate treatment (Figure 1).

Results from this trial indicate that producers have a good idea of the optimal seeding rate for their farm. Our results also suggest that during dry conditions, increasing your seeding rate does not necessarily lead to increased yield. Although, it should be noted that this data does not directly measure other variables that are impacted by seeding rates, such as crop uniformity and days to maturity. No statistical analyses were conducted on grain quality parameters.

Table 1. Economic analysis of all trial sites from 2020-2023.

Note: Seed costs are based on Manitoba Agriculture 2023 Cost of Production Guidelines ($34/ac or $17/bu). Wheat prices based on a No. 1 grade, hard red spring wheat price of $9.52/bu. Net profit calculated based on seeding costs only.

In terms of profitability, in this ROTF trial, it typically did not pencil out economically to use the high seeding rate, as there were no significant yield increases when the high seeding rate was used.

Tone Ag Consulting carries out MCA’s ROTF trials in all six of our crop-types. They assist the farmer with plot planting and harvesting, then capture key information throughout the growing season. This includes soil sampling in the spring, followed by growth stage notes and precipitation data during the growing season.

Seeding Flax to Provide the Best Start

Morgan Cott on January 12, 2024

Typically, flax is seeded from May 1st to June 20th. It may be seeded the last out of all the crops as the bolls and seeds can stand and ripen in the fall without shelling while other crops like canola are being harvested. Prolonged exposure to fall weather, though, will reduce the quality of the harvested seed and make it ineligible for a food grade market. MASC data has shown that flax has good yield potential in the last week of May (Table 1), but yields decline in some areas as the calendar turns to June. MASC seeding deadline is June 20th for all of Manitoba.

Table 2: Relative Stubble Yield Response (2011 – 2020). Source: Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation.

Yield response data from MASC, recorded from 2011 – 2020 (10 year results), shows that flax responds best when seeded following a pea crop, with the next best response after corn (Table 2). It generally has the poorest yield response when seeded following any oilseed crop, for obvious reasons. Research has shown that flax performs poorly specifically after canola and/or mustard, and not only because of disease issues. The poorer performance of flax on canola stubble is attributed to mycorrhizae fungi which do not associate strongly with canola and decrease in presence during the canola crop’s growing season. When flax is grown on canola stubble, the mycorrhizae populations are lower, which leads to poorer early  season nutrient update, especially phosphorus, a relatively immobile nutrient in the soil that is crucial to early flax development.

Flax does well after cereals or corn. It also performs well after legume crops and alfalfa, but Rhizoctonia disease may be a problem. Flax does not do well after potatoes due to the loose seedbed and potentially Rhizoctonia in this rotation as well. According to MASC, the most common crop stubble that flax is seeded into is spring wheat in Manitoba and very few acres are seeded into pea stubble, so that flax-on-pea yield data in Table 2 could be seen as skewed. Crop rotation is extremely important when making all cropping decisions, but flax is a particularly sensitive plant to many outside factors and rotation should be paid considerably close attention to. It is recommended to have at least three years between flax crops on a field to control various soil-borne or stubble-borne diseases of flax, such as pasmo.

Table 2: Relative Stubble Yield Response (2011 – 2020). Source: Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation.

For a successful flax crop, the greatest strategy is to enable the crop to emerge in a uniform and dense plant stand. This helps the crop with weed control throughout the season and allows for consistent physiological maturity down the road.

Tips for a productive flax plant stand:

  • Target ½ to ¾ inch seeding depth to allow crop to emerge quickly
  • Do not overfertilize. Flax does not respond positively to increased rates of fertilizer. Excess nitrogen will cause prolonged maturity and potential lodging issues.
  • Target a higher seeding rate. Flax depends very heavily on adequate stand establishment and plant populations of 40 – 56 plants/ft2. Typical emergence for flax is 50% – 60% of seeding rate. Seeding rates on the high end of the recommended range should be used for ground prone to crusting when seeding late or under heavy weed pressure.
  • Do not seed flax on poorly drained soils or sandy soils because of poor water retention. Medium to heavy-textured soils are preferable. These soils may also crust in the spring, which can inhibit flax emergence.

For more information on growing flax on the Prairies, see Flax Production Resources on our website.

James Tucker, research scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Coles Ag on January 8, 2024

James-Tucker_crop

James Tucker is a research scientist in barley genomics at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) Brandon Research and Development Centre (RDC). He completed a bachelor of science in chemistry and biology at the University of Winnipeg before spending a year in entomology at the University of Manitoba (U of M). He then moved to Montreal to do a master’s degree in quantitative genetics at Concordia University. He worked for a while before returning to studies later in his career to complete his PhD in plant science at the U of M. Tucker lives outside of CFB Shilo with his wife. He is the father of two children.

Where did you work before the Brandon RDC?

I started out as a summer student in the ’90s and worked my way up as a research technician in Winnipeg at the Cereal Research Centre before moving to Brandon in 2001. I worked as a biologist and then a barley pathologist, supporting the barley breeding program. In 2018, I was made into a research scientist at the centre. Aside from one summer working for the Canadian Forestry Service, my work experience has all been within AAFC.

What got you interested in this area of work?

Initially, it was employment. I was working in Winnipeg in entomology and molecular genetics as a technician and then took a job as a barley pathologist. I had an interest in genetics for a long time. In genetics there is a lot to work on and there are always new and complicated problems. What really grew on me was the community. Barley is an extremely co-operative research community and it’s been a really positive experience working within that community.

Tell us a bit about your work at the Brandon RDC.

The Developing barley germplasm with improved resistance to Fusarium head blight (FHB) and other biotic stresses for western Canada project is the major driver of my research. This project ran from 2018-23 and was funded under the National Barley Cluster.

I work closely with Ana Badea, a barley breeder here at the Brandon RDC, as well as the other barley breeders in Canada. There are a lot of diseases in barley making it quite complicated. We focus on the diseases that are of major economic concern and cause damage for farmers. This includes Fusarium head blight (FHB), stem rust, spot blotch and other biotic stresses that affect barley production.

In the spring, we work on experiments to get seed from Dr. Badea’s program to collaborators, for example – and receive seed from other institutions around the country and internationally – and set up studies and seeds for our disease nurseries (stem rust, leaf disease and FHB) here at the centre. Plots are grown and infected, followed by record-taking of disease ratings for thousands of plots. A big task in the fall is harvesting the FHB nursery. In barley, there is not a good relationship between the visuals and the toxins like wheat, so we need to harvest a lot more, and by hand. The work is labour intensive, where approximately 10,000 rows are harvested each year. Then during the winter, we are cleaning and processing the seeds, sending them for analyses in order to get all of the information back in time for the breeders to use to make their selections.

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

In my view, a lot of the research I do is funded through farmers and their faith in giving me the funds I need to do the research that matters to them. In the research I do, I always focus on the benefits for farmers, which is very important to me. I really appreciate the funding support.

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

In my research program there are short-term and long-term goals. Some things take longer than others. Breeders have a big job. They have to breed for so many traits, while constantly trying to improve yields, so that farmers can benefit. I work with the breeders to help them select the best lines to advance depending on the trait they are targeting (e.g., resistance). This results in farmers getting new and improved varieties with better disease resistance packages, for example. 

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I do a lot of gardening. I’ve been doing martial arts for most of my life, and I really enjoy being in nature going hiking or walking in the forest and riding ATVs.

How do you celebrate agriculture? 

I have a good-sized garden. I love putting my hands in the soil, smelling the soil and growing things. It’s kind of like my Zen time. It’s pretty exciting that we get to put seeds in the ground and the sun provides the requirements to grow and produce food that we get to eat. I normally grow excess food and tell the neighbours it’s a “you pick” garden, so they can come and take what they like.

What is a good piece of advice you’ve received?

 I’ve had a lot of mentors over the years, and some good advice I received is that research is a slow and steady game of increments over the years. There are really good days where you find something or a new discovery, but it’s slow working and it takes time, especially in FHB research. You have to gain an understanding that things don’t happen quickly and it takes time and resources to do research, but over time, you eventually achieve your goal.

Click here for more information about the Brandon RDC.

MCA-funded research at the 2023 Manitoba Agronomists’ Conference

Coles Ag on January 3, 2024

On Dec. 13 and 14, 2023, Manitoba agronomists met to discuss the latest developments in pest, crop and soil management. This year, the conference theme was “Advanced Technologies: tools or replacements for agronomists?” Much of the research shared at the Manitoba Agronomists’ Conference was funded in part by Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA).

The following is a summary of the posters shared that featured MCA-funded research:

Soil Fertility

  • Performance of Soybean-based Rotations in Manitoba: Soil P and K
    Ramona Mohr, Yong Min Kim, Mohammad Khakbazan, Debbie McLaren (ret’d), and Byron Irvine (ret’d), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Crop Management

  • Leveraging On-Farm Research to Evaluate New Malting Barley Varieties for Production and Malting Selection in Manitoba
    Li Yueshu, Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre, Ashley Ammeter, Morgan Cott, Daryl Rex, Andrew Hector, Manitoba Crop Alliance
  • Performance of Soybean-based Rotations in Manitoba: Yield and Quality
    Ramona Mohr, Yong Min Kim, Mohammad Khakbazan, Debbie McLaren (ret’d), Byron Irvine (ret’d), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
  • Establishment of Annual Crop-Living Mulch System
    Jessica Frey, Joanne Thiessen Martens, University of Manitoba

Pest Management

  • Performance of Soybean-based Rotations in Manitoba: Root Diseases
    Yong Min Kim, Debbie McLaren (ret’d), Ramona Mohr, Byron Irvine (ret’d), Mohammad Khakbazan, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
  • Are Intercropped Cover Crops Compatible with Canola Weed Management on the Canadian Prairies?
    Janelle Gawiak, Yvonne Lawley, University of Manitoba, Maryse Bourgault, University of Saskatchewan, Linda Gorim, University of Alberta
  • Manitoba Survey of Herbicide-resistant Weeds in 2022
    Charles Geddes, Mattea Pittman, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Kim Brown-Livingston, Manitoba Agriculture, Julie Leeson, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

During the crop management session, Amy Delaquis also presented her research on Agronomic Management to Maximize Spring Wheat Yield and Protein while Minimizing Lodging Risk. Check out our factsheets that summarize this research:

For a full list of poster presentations and speakers from the 2023 conference, as well as a recording of the 2023 presentations (available February 2024), visit the Manitoba Agronomists’ Conference website.

Thank you to the conference partners – University of Manitoba, Manitoba Agriculture and the Prairie Certified Crop Advisor Board – for hosting an excellent conference!

Research on the Farm: Sunflower Plant Population Trials Summarized (2021 – 2023)

Coles Ag on December 5, 2023

Manitoba Crop Alliance’s Research on the Farm program looks at common agronomic, crop-specific concerns on field-scale, replicated trials in commercial fields. 2023 saw the sunflower plant population trials completed with 21 site-years of data.

The objective of this specific trial was to quantify the agronomic and economic impacts of various plant populations on both oilseed and confectionary sunflower production in Manitoba. Constant genetic improvements in sunflower hybrids raise the question of whether farmers can either increase or decrease their planting populations with improvements in quality and/or yield. Farmers took to the field to make that final decision.

Figure 1: MCA Research on the Farm Sunflower Plant Population Trial locations, 2021 – 2023.

Tone Ag Consulting performs MCA’s Research on the Farm trials in all 6 of our crop-types. In this specific trial type, they are helping the farmer with planting and harvest of the plots, plus taking some key information during the growing season. This includes soil sampling in the spring followed by growth stage notes and precipitation data during the season.

Table 1: Three-year summary of sunflower plant population trial for 21 site years. Six site-years contributed statistically significant yield differences which would provide profit for the farm, based only on seed prices.

When looking at this full data set, it doesn’t necessarily give a farmer the details they are looking for. At the end of the day, they want to know the ROI for each treatment, which includes spring seed costs and sunflower prices off the combine. Simply stated, if the “high” planting rate outyielded the “low” and “check” planting rates, it may have only been marginally, therefore the higher seed cost of planting at a high rate was likely not the economical choice.

Table 2: Three-year economic summary of sunflower plant population trial for 21 site years. Net profit per acre was calculated using estimated seed cost in spring 2023 and contract pricing in fall 2023.

Sunflower farmers tend to be aware of the best management practices for their farm, which is evident in Table 2, above. Planting populations are reasonably simple to set up on-farm and MCA recommends farmers make the effort to periodically do this same testing. 2022 and 2023 were dry years in areas of Manitoba, which may have skewed results, but it is important to continue to collect data in years of varying precipitation to determine planting rates that work better on your farm in all environments.

New-to-flax chemistry now registered for in-crop use

Coles Ag on December 5, 2023

It has long been known that flax farmers need stronger weed control options to successfully grow and maintain good quality and higher-yielding flax crops. BASF has been a strong supporter of flax in recent years, encouraging the growth of acres on the Prairies. In 2022, BASF announced a new registration for Heat ® LQ applied as a pre-harvest treatment aid on flax, which both MCA and SaskFlax partnered in running a field trial program for testing.

As of early November 2023, BASF announced that Armezon® herbicide is now registered for post-emergent applications to flax. This use was registered under the User Requested Minor Use Label Expansion program. Armezon® herbicide is a Group 27, post-emergent herbicide that is quickly absorbed by leaves, roots, and shoots to quickly control target weeds. The herbicide claims control of common ragweed, Eastern black nightshade, kochia (less than 10 cm), redroot pigweed, volunteer canola (prior to 6-leaf stage) and wild mustard, when applied at the recommended rate and with a specific adjuvant partner.

Manitoba flax farmers are very fortunate to have this ongoing support and can look forward to an additional tool in their toolbox to aid in successfully keeping their flax crops cleaner in 2024.

Further details on Armezon® herbicide registration in flax can be found in the accompanying documents.

Andriy Bilichak, research scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Coles Ag on November 30, 2023

Follow @ABilichak on X (formerly Twitter).
Follow @ABilichak on X (formerly Twitter).

Andriy Bilichak is a research scientist and cereal biotechnology program lead at Agriculture Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)’s Morden Research and Development Centre (RDC). Bilichak completed his PhD in plant biotechnology at the University of Lethbridge and his postdoctoral fellowship at the Lethbridge RDC.

He was raised in Ukraine and now lives in Winkler, MB, with his wife Nina, who is currently on maternity leave with their baby girl, their son Mark, and his mother.

Where did you work before the Morden RDC?

After my postdoc at the Lethbridge RDC, I worked on a collaborative project with Dow AgroSciences, now Corteva, developing methods for non-transgenic gene editing in wheat. After that, I worked for a startup biotech company where I looked into different genotypes of high-THC and high-CBD lines of cannabis and how to improve pathogen resistance. Then I eventually began my position at the Morden RDC.

What got you interested in this area of work?

I’ve been working on gene editing from the beginning. My PhD was in plant transformation/biotechnology, so it was a logical next step for me to move into gene editing. I enjoy working with like-minded people and thinking and living in science and working towards new discoveries.

Tell us a bit about what you’re working on at the Morden RDC.

My program at the Morden RDC focuses on gene editing and functional genomics, which is the characterization of novel genes. We are trying to identify genes and their role in pathogen response or abiotic stress, for example. The original program was focused on spring wheat, but we’ve added winter wheat and plan to add barley as well.

Since we work on biotech and transformation, the major part of our program is gene editing. We use CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tools to dissect the contribution of different genes, either in pathogen response like leaf rust or abiotic stress. We also collaborate extensively with other groups that look into other traits like pre-harvest sprouting, for example.

The overall vision for the program is to adopt gene editing for targeted modification in elite Canadian cultivars. We are trying to discover genes that are involved in tissue culture response in wheat, as we want to apply this knowledge to introduce gene editing into elite Canadian cultivars.

The goal would be, for example, if the breeder comes to us and says, “I have this great variety with all these nice agronomic qualities, but it lacks this one. Can you edit or modify this trait for me through genetics/gene editing?” we would be able to quickly do that. The transformation protocol usually takes four months from the time we put the embryo in tissue culture until the time we regenerate the seedling, and it takes another four or so months for the plant to grow. So, let’s say we can regenerate a particular mutation or edit the target gene within a year. This improves line and delivery to the breeder.

In terms of peptides work, the Application of antimicrobial peptides to increase cereal crops resistance to fungal pathogens project was funded by Manitoba Crop Alliance and Western Grains Research Foundation. Through this research, our lab student screened a library of 20 peptides that were selected from literature that had indications of potential antifungal properties that were never tested against leaf rust.

She found some peptides had much stronger antifungal activity compared to others. We then took those peptides and checked the growth curve to try to find out the best concentration for them. Then, when we sprayed those peptides on the leaf surface before infection with leaf rust, we discovered we could suppress the first infection on the susceptible cultivars by just foliar application of those peptides.

We also discovered endogenous wheat-encoded novel peptides that could potentially be used as a fungicide. We are currently working toward engineering these peptides in the wheat genome through gene editing applications. In this way, wheat expressing the anti-fungal peptides in leaves can potentially become more resistant to rust infection. Eventually, these edited non-transgenic lines can be tested in the field for pathogen resistance.

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

We highly appreciate funding from farmers that allows us to do discovery work and adoption of new biotechnology tools for wheat improvement. Most of the work we do is upstream science that eventually can find its application in the farmer’s fields.

Biotechnology tools become very important in adapting wheat genetics to better cope with climate change and unpredictable weather conditions during the growing season. The gene-edited crops become widely accepted worldwide and through funding of biotechnology programs like ours, Canadian farmers can remain competitive on the international markets through growing of the improved cultivars generated using novel breeding tools.   

How does that farmer funding and support directly benefit farmers?

Although we work in upstream science, in every project we apply for we indicate how that work will benefit farmers in the long term and how we can transition it from the lab into the field. We collaborate extensively with other groups (like breeders) on the transition into the field.

In terms of gene editing, we focus on traits that are important to farmers like increased yields or reduced pesticide applications. We are thinking about how to reduce fungicide applications, for example, by looking into alternative means to control pathogens (like peptides). Every research project is centred around the objective of benefitting farmers and agriculture.

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I enjoy sports. I like playing soccer, especially with my son because he is really into soccer. I used to play table tennis and I hope to renew that passion again.

What is the best part about your job?

It’s always interesting for me to go to the lab where we apply biotechnology tools for trait improvement in wheat. Whether we increase the transformation or editing efficiency, whether we have a particular phenotype that we are interested in, and how, in general, gene editing can contribute to the development of new varieties and how it can help in breeding programs. In my opinion, now is a very exciting time to be in plant biotech.

What is your favourite podcast right now?

I enjoy listening to different science podcasts, especially ones that tell odd stories about scientific discoveries and how they came into the world. Two examples are Unsung Science and Disappearing Spoon. They are both very interesting.

Follow @ABilichak on X (formerly Twitter).

Project Update: MCA Development of Long-Type Confection Sunflower Hybrids

Coles Ag on November 3, 2023

Each year, Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) releases the Sunflower Variety Performance Trial (VPT) data for both oil and confection sunflowers. In recent years, several confection experimental lines have been tested under the company, MCA. It is reassuring to the future of the sunflower industry in Manitoba that several seed companies continue to invest in the success of this crop.

In 2011, the National Sunflower Association of Canada (NSAC), now amalgamated under MCA, joined the impressive list of organizations that are investing in variety development to bring improved sunflower hybrids to our farmer members. Manitoba has a strikingly short list of available confection hybrids and those that are available are not new genetics. There is also an absence of herbicide-tolerant hybrids with improved disease packages that would benefit confection sunflower farmers.

This is a very exciting time for MCA. As a project that started many years ago with NSAC and has remained a high priority in MCA’s research program, it is very possible that one of these lines will be registered soon, with strong interest from the sunflower industry. MCA is very proud of our breeder’s hard work and commitment to building these three strong experimental hybrids that have strong yields and promising genetic and agronomic packages for Manitoba’s unique growing conditions.

MCA sunflower breeder, Mike Hagen, standing in the first commercial field to test MCA experimental hybrids.

MCA is looking for confection sunflower farmers to conduct strip trials in their 2024 commercial sunflower fields. Interested farmer members can contact Daryl Rex, research trial specialist at MCA, for more information.

MCA’s Elite Sunflower Hybrid Guide

Background

This project supports Manitoba Crop Alliance’s farmer-led hybrid confection sunflower breeding program. Hybrids with herbicide and disease resistance, suitable for Canadian growing conditions will be developed as part of this project.

Project Objectives

  1. Develop elite parent lines, possessing genes for tolerance to sulfonylurea herbicide, rust and downy mildew.
  2. Produce testing seed, test and isolate confection sunflower hybrids for Canadian production that are high yielding, lodging resistance with improved dark, long-type seed. Resistant to sulfonylurea herbicide, rust and downy mildew.

Top