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 11652 www.seed.ab.ca | Advancing Seed in Alberta 1.877.420.2099 www.2020seedlabs.ca with trusted seed testing results for your farm. “It’s a bit less than in previous years, but more diverse,” says committee chair Glen Hawkins. The beans lines were made up of two cranberry, two yellow, one pinto and one flor de junio. All pea lines were yellow, while lentil lines consisted of one French green, one large green, and two small red. The sole canarygrass line was a glabrous type. “We cover all these crops because they have different growing niches in Western Canada, and that’s only increasing,” Hawk- ins says. “We live in a global market now, so our ability to get products pretty much anywhere we want to get them in the world becomes easier every day, and that provides opportunity to develop niche products that can fit those markets. Lentil is a good example — there are so many types and classes of lentils bred for specific markets.” The marketing potential of pulses was made clear to attend- ees of the PGDC annual meeting — 271 people showed up this year, according to PGDC chair Tom Fetch — when AGT Foods president and CEO Murad Al-Katib spoke during the plenary ses- sion. Based in Regina, AGT Foods is one of the largest suppliers of pulses, staple foods and food ingredients in the world. “Canada is not the only game in town in cereal production anymore, but if I ask the farmers out there where they’ve made money over the last decade, many have made money on their pulse rotations. They’ve made money on their canola. This sus- tainable cereal-oilseed-pulse rotation is one that has shown great economic benefit to Saskatchewan and to western Canadian agriculture,” he says. “In 2003 when we started up our red lentil splitting plant in Regina, the whole world said, ‘You will never succeed, because Canada is a tertiary player in red lentils in the world.’ Today we produce and export 65 per cent of the world’s lentils, so Canada is the centre of the world when it comes to that particular com- modity today.” Al-Katib says new varieties are the lifeblood of his business, referring in particular to the King Red lentil developed by Bert Vandenberg of the University of Saskatchewan. It’s the biggest red lentil in the world, and sold by AGT in Sri Lanka. “It’s a niche variety, but we took two kilos of seed and have Prairie Grain Development Committee chair Tom Fetch says 271 people showed up for this year’s annual meeting.