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 116New Cultivars 50 www.seed.ab.ca | Advancing Seed in Alberta NEW varieties are the fuel that keeps the seed and agriculture industries going, and the Prairie Grain Development Committee (PGDC) helped provide that fuel at its annual meeting Feb. 22-25 in Saskatoon, Sask. More than 50 new cultivars in four different crop categories were recommended for registration, delivering even more options for stakeholders throughout the agriculture sector and beyond. Twenty-seven cultivars were considered for recommendation by the wheat, rye and triticale committee (PRCWRT), with 25 of them being recommended for registration, according to commit- tee chair Curtis Pozniak. This is the third year that the PRCWRT has instituted a new voting procedure, where candidate cultivars endorsed by three expert evaluation teams (agronomy, disease and quality) are automatically endorsed and supported for culti- var registration. Twenty-two of the candidate cultivars considered were auto- matically endorsed, with the remaining being considered by the cultivar voting panel voting. This panel consists of 22 members representing the wheat value chain, and it is their responsibility to weight the positive attributes of a cultivar against potential deficiencies that have been flagged by one or more of the three evaluation teams, Pozniak says. Of the five that were referred to the CVP, two were tabled until next year, and two were supported for interim registration for a three-year period. Two candidate cultivars approved by PRCWRT were in response to the modernization of the Canadian wheat class system. Under the modernization plan, two new wheat classes will come into effect on Aug. 1: Canada Northern Hard Red (CNHR) and Canada Western Special Purpose (CWSP). Three wheat classes will be eliminated: Canada Western Interim Wheat (CWIW), Canada Western General Purpose (CWGP), and Canada Western Feed (CWF). “For this year, the PRCWRT considered two cultivars that were evaluated for the CWRS class, but their end-use functionality was better-suited to other wheat classes. Our committee is commit- ted to flexibility, so we decided that it would be best to set aside our normal voting procedures to consider these lines for either the CNHR or CPS classes,” he says. “If we had not set aside our rules, these two cultivars would likely have not been considered, and an opportunity for pro- ducers may have been lost. This confirms our commitment to transparency and flexibility in our current operating procedures, and supports our efforts to ensure opportunities for western Canadian wheat producers.” One of these cultivars was BW968, which failed to receive a positive recommendation in 2015 for CWRS, was supported as a CPS cultivar. BW968 is a spring wheat bred by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Richard Cuthbert. Beans, Peas, Lentils and Canarygrass Fifteen lines were recommended for registration by the pulse and special crops committee (PRCPSC). They included six bean lines, four pea lines, four lentil lines and one canary grass line. PGDC Helps Fuel an Industry With 52 lines supported for registration at its 2016 annual meeting, the Prairie Grain Development Committee is ensuring the marketplace is provided with the newest and most promising cultivars. Glen Hawkins, chair of the PGDC pulse and special crops committee, speaks to an attendee of the PGDC annual meeting held in Saskatoon Feb. 22-25.