Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
November 4, 2002

Wheat researchers at the University of Alberta are using a simple "pop-up" test to improve straw strength in wheat grown under the high precipitation of the Parkland region.

"The latest wheat varieties for Western Canada feature substantial yield improvements, but this has not always been accompanied by increased straw strength," says wheat breeder Dr. Dean Spaner. "This can lead to greater incidence of lodging under the normally wetter, high-growth conditions of the Parkland."

The pop-up test is a simple but effective way to identify wheat lines with good straw strength, he says. It involves dragging a plywood sheet over wheat rows to simulate the effect of heavy rainfall. The lines that pop up are those with the best potential to resist lodging.

"The lines that show good straw strength can be used as breeding material for the development of new varieties," says Spaner. "Since lodging causes everything from lower yields to higher disease incidence and quality reductions, these stronger strawed varieties would represent substantial benefits for producers."

Straw strength is a major new priority that adds to the university's traditional research on early maturity, he says. The wheat development program focuses on traits for the Parkland region, which is known for high precipitation, cool temperatures and a short growing season.

The program currently concentrates on germplasm development - the early stages of wheat breeding that involve selecting and improving traits that can be eventually bred into new varieties. Researchers test material from across Western Canada and beyond, and work directly with wheat breeders to feed promising lines into variety-development efforts.

Spaner recently completed his first year as leader of the university wheat program and has helped set the stage for a new phase of long-term progress. "The emphasis has been on tweaking our targets and collaborating with other programs to strengthen our foundation," he says.

"The straw strength effort is a good indication of the broad collaboration and sharing of wheat material that drives the program. For example, we are working directly with Dr. Ron DePauw of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Swift Current, to develop strong-strawed Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) germplasm. The project uses sources of improved straw strength accessioned from previous work at the University of Alberta, from AAFC Swift Current, from CIMMYT in Mexico and from the U.S., Japan and New Zealand. We also collaborate heavily with Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development."

Overall, early maturity remains the program's main focus, and work in this area is more advanced, he says. The search for sources of germplasm with early maturity took former breeder Dr. Keith Briggs to Mexico where he found numerous prospects at the CIMMYT nurseries, including ones that originated as far away as northeast China and Mongolia.

Over 450 new sources of early maturity were brought to Edmonton for use in the program. Following field testing in the Parkland, those sources were narrowed down to an elite group of around 30 that are used as parent material.

Over the past five years, the program has released several early maturing cultivars, including Cutler, the earliest maturing spring wheat in Canada, and the new varieties Alikat, a bread wheat similar to Katepwa , and Laser a Canada Western Extra Strong variety.

The Wheat Check-off Fund, administered by Western Grains Research Foundationn, contributes approximately $3 million annually to breeding programs in Western Canada.