Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 1162 5 0 - 7 8 2 - 7 8 2 0 w w w. s p g r a i n . c a i n f o @ s p g r a i n . c a Serving the Peace since 1963 Wheat: AC Stettler CWRS Thorsby CWRS AAC Penhold CPS AAC Redwater CWRS Go Early CWRS - Registered Peas: CDC Meadow Yellow AAC Peace Yellow Oats: AC Mustang AC Morgan CDC Seabiscuit Barley: CDC Maverick CDC Austenson Triticale: Sunray Spring South Peace Grain Cleaning Co-op Full service seed conditioning facility Multiple bagging options available Licensed grader on-site South Peace Grain Cleaning Co-op Certified Seed Products EST. 0703 EST. 0703 103 Advancing Seed in Alberta | fall.2016 “What’s likely to happen is non-GMO technologies will be used to introduce the trait into the crops. Therefore, you wouldn’t run into consumers not wanting to consume GMOs or regulatory pro- cesses that apply to GMOs as well.” High Risk Research Sharbel, who describes his work as “high risk,” says it’s difficult to predict the results of his testing, since apomixis is such a complicated form of reproduction. “It could work right away or it could take another five years or longer,” he notes, adding his team has similar projects underway with crops other than canola, such as corn, chickpeas and lentils, which are in different stages of development. If apomixis can be successfully applied to agriculture, Sharbel says, it would likely be a game changer for the seed industry. That’s because growers who now choose to buy pedigreed seed every year from seed suppliers could conceivably only have to buy seeds with the enhanced traits they’re seeking just once. “Think of apoxmixis as a switch to turn sex on or to turn sex off,” he says. “If we had that switch and we could use that, then the farmer would get his first gener- ation hybrid seed [which produce] these hybrids that propagate clonally from then on. Those first generation hybrids will produce genetic copies of themselves and subsequent generations.” Sharbel believes seed companies would be more than compensated for any lost sales in this scenario by the fact they’d be spending far less money to pro- duce seeds with new and better traits — Tim Sharbel is a world leader in the study of asexual seed production known as apomixes. which would likely still be in high demand in the marketplace. “Right now, it takes as many genera- tions to produce these inbred hybrids and perform the necessary crosses,” he says. “Instead of producing these hybrids every eight to 10 generations, you could now produce hybrids in one generation, so it would save companies huge amounts of time and investment to produce these hybrid lines.” The result, Sharbel says, is that seed companies and breeders could concen- trate their efforts on developing many different types of crop varieties adapted to specific environmental conditions and/or agricultural and economic needs. This diversity, coupled with the ability to rapidly change seed production, would benefit growers and be a boon to food production overall, he adds. “If it works, then we’ll be able to do things like niche breeding, meaning farmers from southern Saskatchewan and northern Saskatchewan would get two different kinds of seeds rather than the one-size-fits-all kind of seed they get presently from companies,” Sharbel says. Mark Halsall