Category: Wheat School - West

Is wheat falling behind when it comes to research advancements and attracting investment? That depends, answers Bryan Gerard, president of Gerard Seed Solutions based in Indiana, if you’re comparing the dollars and cents to totals spent on corn and soy, or comparing the historic value invested in the crop. RealAgriculture’s Bern Tobin caught up with… Read More

There are still lingering questions as to how farmers access, pay for and use seed varieties under UPOV ’91, which Canada adopted with the passing of Bill C-18 back in March of this year. For those that claim that under the act farmers lose their right to save seed, Patty Townsend, executive director of the… Read More

With changes to the way wheat is marketed and the arrival of higher-yielding varieties, there’s growing interest in boosting wheat protein content with in-season nitrogen applications in Western Canada. The basic recipe is 10 gallons per acre of 28-0-0 with 10 gallons of water applied with a flat fan nozzle shortly after anthesis or flowering, explains Brunel… Read More

Stripe rust was reported in early spring in Alberta, likely having over-wintered in the southern part of the province, and now there are reports in Manitoba of the fungus arriving on winds from the U.S. In this Wheat School episode, Holly Derksen, plant pathologist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, describes how stripe rust inoculum moves north from the… Read More

Responding to demands from both the Canadian wheat industry and international customers, the Canadian Grain Commission has proposed creating a new class of milling wheat for Western Canada. As part of this Wheat School West episode, Daryl Beswitherick, program manager for quality assurance with the CGC, explains they believe the creation of a new milling class with lower… Read More

While the Canada Grain Act provides farmers with the right to order their own railcars, in reality there have been major challenges for many farmers and their administrators in securing access to producer cars for shipping grain over the last few years. One of the factors contributing to the producer car problem has been an unintended consequence of the federal government’s… Read More

A wheat variety might produce huge yields or have stellar disease resistance, but if there’s no market for it, there’s probably no point in registering the variety for production in Canada. Instead, it might even have a negative impact, damaging Canada’s reputation for consistency and quality. As Lisa Nemeth of the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi)… Read More

There’s no shortage of less than stellar wheat out there — the weather near the end of summer and early fall was not kind to harvest or the resulting grain (remember all that snow in September, Alberta?). While some quality parameters aren’t deal breakers and might be managed through bumping seeding rates, others can’t be… Read More

The wheat market is due for some additional volatility in the weeks leading up to seeding season in North America, says the general manager of FarmLink Marketing Solutions. Sharing the wheat market outlook at Grainworld ’15 in Winnipeg last week, Lawrence Yakielashek (formerly with Toepfer Canada) said he believes the bearish sentiment in the wheat… Read More

While wheat breeders have traditionally focused on improving agronomic and milling characteristics of the crop, there’s value to be gained by the wheat industry in focusing on nutrition as well, says a cereal research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The nutritional characteristics of wheat have generally remained unchanged while yield potential, disease resistance and bread-making attributes have improved… Read More