Farmer-Led Feed Wheat Breeding Receives $400K From Government

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The Manitoba and federal governments have announced $400,000 for a four-year feed wheat breeding project to be conducted by the farmer-run Western Feed Grain Development Co-op.

According to a government news release, the focus of the project will be to “develop new feed wheat varieties that have characteristics such as high yield, flood tolerance, fusarium resistance and tolerance for Manitoba soils with high salinity. “

WFGD and its farmer-members are also contributing $1.8 million.

“The WFGD Co-op is unique because farmers can invest and participate in the development of varieties they can use on their own farm and we’re pleased to receive funding from Growing Forward 2,” says David Rourke, WFGD Co-op director and Minto, Manitoba-area farmer. “We are looking forward to applying these funds to our breeding program and addressing major areas of concern for Prairie producers, including post-seeding excess moisture, salinity, and aster yellows. WFGD Co-op is developing wheat varieties that will help to minimize the economic losses that result from these crop production challenges.”

Founded in 2005, the co-op registered its first Canada Western General Purpose wheat — WFT603 — earlier this year. The organization is led by a board of six producers representing Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

The $400,000 in funding from the federal and Manitoba governments comes from the $3.2 million Growing Innovation – Agri-Food Research and Development Initiative under Growing Forward 2.

More on wheat breeding on RealAg.

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