Meristem: Special Reports: 2007 PRRCG Report

New crops to boost Canada's success remain the focus for new Prairie Grain Development Committee.

Biofuels, midge resistance, global competitiveness and a new crop class - all were part of the mix along with the recommendations of more than 30 new and improved crop lines for Prairie farmers, as the curtain rose on a new generation of crop development progress at the inaugural Prairie Grain Development Committee (PGDC) annual meeting, Feb. 20-22 in Saskatoon.

"This year's meeting marks the launch of a new era for the recommendation of new crop lines for variety registration on the Canadian prairie," says PGDC Chair Kelly Turkington. "It was the first annual meeting under our new structure as PGDC, whereby our crop-specific committees have greater autonomy, control and flexibility to make decisions in the best interests of their crop category."

This next chapter begins at a time when many new developments are reshaping the crop industry and have major implications for both variety development and Canada's competitiveness in agriculture, says Turkington. "A leading example is the rise in biofuels, which was the focus of our plenary session. Keeping updated on the challenges and opportunities in each of these areas will be critical for the crop development community to support the success of Canadian farmers and their industry."

The PGDC, formerly known as the Prairie Registration Recommending Committee for Grain (PRRCG), is a forum for four crop-specific committees, each of which has a mandate to recommend new crop lines for registration as varieties. Recommendations are provided to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), which has final authority to grant registration. The PGDC annual meeting also provides a forum for discussion and communication of research priorities for the improvement of the prairie grain sector.

New crop lines recommended

Specifically, the four independent recommending committees that are part of PGDC are responsible for the testing, evaluation, and recommending of grain crop candidate cultivars for registration in the Canadian Wheat Board area of Western Canada. These independent recommending committees include:

Crop lines that fall under the mandates of the recommending committees must go through the cooperative testing system before they can advance for consideration by the CFIA. A decision on most lines is made within a year of recommendations from the recommending committees, and the large majority of these are accepted, barring unforeseen plant safety or market concerns.

At the 2007 meeting, these committees recommended a total of 35 innovative new crop lines for registration, all geared to supporting the bottom line of crop producers and keeping Canada competitive. (Click on the following links to view listings and descriptions of the lines recommended: wheat, rye and triticale; oat and barley; pulse and special crops; oilseeds.)

Focus on biofuels

In addition to the business of recommending new crop lines, the PGDC annual meeting also included a plenary session featuring four leading speakers on the topic of biofuels.

Kicking off this session, Dr. Badal Saha of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Peoria, Illinois, delivered a presentation on the current status and future prospects for fuel ethanol production from crop residues. In 2006, about five billion gallons of ethanol was produced from corn starch in U.S.

"Dr. Saha pointed out that various agricultural residues such as corn stover, wheat straw, rice straw and barley straw can serve as low-cost feedstocks for conversion to fuel ethanol," says Turkington. "He reviewed the current state of technology development for conversion of these agricultural residues to fuel ethanol, and discussed the prospects for commercial production of ethanol from these different plant sources."

Dr. Martin Reaney, University of Saskatchewan, provided insight into designing crops for biodiesel and industrial products. He observed that with continued progress and new concepts related to bioprocesses, agriculture products are increasingly viewed as integrated packages of technology.

"Dr. Reaney reinforced that there are significant advantages to be realized by designing crops with value added processing in mind," says Turkington. "That is likely to become a greater focus for the crop development community."

Providing a case study commercial perspective was Keith Rueve, ethanol plant manager, Pound-Maker Investments Ltd., which operates an ethanol plant at Lanigan, Saskatchewan. The plant produces about 12 million litres of ethanol per year.

"Keith's discussion was the most specific on relating the ethanol opportunity to the variety development process," says Turkington. "He went into specifics on what crop traits Poundmaker is interested in how the needs of the ethanol producer are likely to evolve."

The plenary session was rounded out by a discussion on the economics of biofuels, by economist Cecil Nagy of the Centre for Studies in Agriculture, Law and the Environment, University of Saskatchewan. "Mr. Nagy looked at a number of factors that come into play to determine the 'sweet spot' where biofuels production makes sense economically. It was a good perspective on how the continued rise in demand in this area may play out."

"Our vision for the plenary session under the new PGDC structure is to highlight different emerging areas each year that have implications for a variety of crop types," says Turkington.

New wheat class

The spotlight on biofuels tied in nicely with another major development at the PGDC meeting - the approval of protocols and standards to prepare for the introduction of a new wheat class.

"Canada Western General Purpose" is the tentative name of the proposed new class, designed in large part to allow for wheat varieties best suited to supplying demand for ethanol production. While western Canadian wheat classes have typically included stringent quality demands, the proposed new general purpose wheat would have no major quality requirements other than Kernel Visual Distinguishability (KVD) to ensure it is not confused with hard red spring wheat.

"The aim is essentially to open the door for low protein, high yielding wheat varieties," says Turkington, who is also a pathologist and member of the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale, Disease Evaluation Team. "The main concern at this PGDC meeting was for the wheat, rye and triticale committee to develop some guidelines for this new class, and a number were tentatively accepted."

Midge resistant wheat

Another key development related to pest management was the recommendation of several new wheat lines featuring resistance to wheat midge. Wheat midge remains the most damaging pest threat to wheat production in Western Canada and all major wheat classes have been susceptible.

"The Disease Evaluation Team of the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale set aside their normal disease guidelines to consider these varieties," says Turkington. "There was a feeling that these lines are unique and they represent some exciting pest management developments for producers in Western Canada."

Overall, the wheat, rye and triticale committee recommended six new wheat lines and one new triticale line.

New barley checks

Another notable development was in the Prairie Recommending Committee for Oat and Barley session, which saw the removal of longtime popular barley variety Harrington as a check cultivar in the testing system for new two-row barley varieties. The checks approved for 2007 registration tests include the two-row malting barley varieties AC Metcalfe, CDC Copeland and Xena.

Harrington was arguably the most well-known and successful cereal crop variety developed in Western Canada, noted Dr. Michael Edney, Chair of the Prairie Recommending Committee for Oat and Barley. The approved 2007 checks are part of a new generation of two-row malting barley varieties that have emerged to offer new advantages and build on Harrington's remarkable legacy.

Other updated check varieties selected for 2007 tests included: for oat CDC Dancer, AC Morgan and Leggett; for 6-row barley Excel, Legacy, Vivar and AC Rosser; for hulless barley AC Metcalfe, CDC McGwire, Tyto, CDC Rattan and Millhouse (Millhouse temporary only); for forage barley Dillon, Vivar, Virden and AC Ranger.

In total, the barley and oat committee recommended three new oat lines and two new barley lines.

Pulse and special crops, oilseeds

The most prolific area in terms of recommending crop lines was at the session for the Prairie Recommending Committee for Pulse and Special Crops, which saw the recommendation of 21 new lines.

The Prairie Recommending Committee for Oilseeds recommended two promising new lines - one a linseed flax and the other a brown condiment mustard. More information on the PGDC is available at www.pgdc.ca.

View listings of the PGDC recommended lines

More information.

PGDC. More information on the Prairie Grain Development Committee is available at www.pgdc.ca.

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Crop gatekeeper launches new era