Category: Wheat

It’s not often a farmer gets to show off — and explain — what’s happening in his wheat field on national television during primetime hours. Humphrey Banack of Round Hill, Alberta had the opportunity this fall when he hosted comedian Rick Mercer and his CBC camera crew for a day of combining wheat (if you… Read More

Potentially containing a mycotoxin known as DON (deoxynivalenol), fusarium-affected wheat can be a challenge to market, and a safety hazard to handle. But, new work suggests sorting tactics could help improve sample quality. Rex Newkirk is the vice president of research and innovation at Canadian International Grains Institute (CIGI) and has been heavily involved in looking at how optical… Read More

Welcome to the first episode of an exciting new four-part series on Real Agriculture — Beyond the Bushel. In this series, we’ll take you on an in-depth exploration of the wheat and barley value chain in Western Canada. While wheat is a very familiar crop, and one that grows well over much of the world,… Read More

CANTERRA SEEDS has announced it has entered into an agreement with British baking company Warburtons on the production and commercialization of AAC W1876, a hard red spring wheat variety bred by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. AAC W1876 was developed and tested by Dr. Richard Cuthbert and Dr. Ron DePauw of AAFC SPARC, and was supported… Read More

Successful winter wheat crops depend on the process of vernalization in order to spur the wheat to shift  from vegetative to reproductive growth. The process is initiated by the presence of cold temperatures and, surprising to many, is not dependent on seedling growth. “Wheat’s a pretty interesting crop,” says Peter Johnson, cereal specialist for the… Read More

Following the end of the Canadian Wheat Board’s single desk, there was strong interest in growing wheat varieties from classes other than the traditional Canada Western Red Spring wheat that Canada is known for. There was plenty of talk about producing more high-yielding CPS (Canada Prairie Spring) wheat, but two years later, that buzz seems… Read More

From a milling perspective, there’s good news about the quality profile of the 2014 wheat crop in Western Canada. Mildew is to blame for much of this year’s Canada Western Red Spring wheat falling outside of the top two grades, but wheat grading as #3 CWRS due to mildew is still exhibiting quality characteristics that millers want — attributes… Read More

Shipping your own railcar can have numerous benefits, not the least of which is selling grain at a higher price than local elevators are willing to offer. At the same time there’s also a fair amount of risk in counting on producer cars to market grain — just ask one of the farmers who are… Read More

The Canadian Grain Commission has released a report that provides an overall perspective on cereal crop acres grown in Western Canada this year, breaking down acres by province, class and variety. Carberry, Harvest and Stettler were the most popular Canada Western Red Spring wheat varieties grown on the prairies this year (see chart below), while Flourish… Read More

Plant breeding takes time. Significant amounts of it, in fact. While genetic resistance to things like diseases or pests or even built-in agronomic traits like standability are the ideal, a new wheat variety may take a decade to produce, and even then, still not meet all the needs of every farmer who grows it. In… Read More