b"dry beans. For his masters he worked under Slinkard and Bert Vandenberg to study canning qualities of dry bean varieties, and then for his PhD he researched low temperature stress on dry beans.After completing his studies, Balasubramanian headed east to work. He was hired as a dry bean breeder at AAFC in Morden, Man. He spent four years there breeding dry bean varieties for the Red River Valley before he had the opportunity to move to Alberta to run the AAFC Lethbridge breeding program in 2007.There were two previous breeders to Parthiba at the Lethbridge program, and so they've built the foundation that Parthiba has been able to grow the program on, Roth explains.Alberta Born and BredThe AAFC Lethbridge dry bean breeding program is funded by AAFC, the Alberta Pulse Growers, Alberta Innovates and Viterra. It focuses on breeding dry bean varieties for southern Albertas irrigated acres. The majority of acres planted in Alberta are from certified seed produced in the United States, that's to keep the seed borne diseases as low as possible. So, from a disease profile standpoint, in Alberta, we are primarily concerned with common bacterial blight and white mould, Balasubramanian explains.Common bacterial blight on a light red kidney bean.Prior to the Lethbridge breeding program, most dry bean varieties grown in Alberta were bred for other parts of Canada such as Manitoba or Ontario. Since Balasubramanian has takenVery Accurate And Fast Loadingover the Lethbridge program, Roth says Alberta bred beanTreating Facilities varieties have gone from being around 10 to 15 per cent ofRetail And Wholesale planted acreage to 100 per cent in the province.Dry beans in particular are very regionally adapted. WhenTruck scale you try to move varieties between geographies they don'tOverhead bin scale usually perform very well, Roth explains.Balasubramanian has focused on breeding dry bean varieties which are resistant to common bacterial blight and white mould. Dry beans in Alberta are grown on irrigation and therefore are more susceptible to white mould. He also has focused on trying to develop high yielding early maturing cultivars for the short SEED VARIETIES Alberta growing season.HR WHEAT GP WHEAT DURUM He works with Syama Chatterton, a pulse crop pathologist at AAC Viewfield Pasteur AAC Stronghold AAFC Lethbridge, to select varieties with resistance to common AAC Wheatland VB KWS Alderon AAC Goldnet bacterial blight and white mould.SOFT WHEAT BARLEY YELLOW PEA There are currently three Great Northern varieties from the AAC Chiffon VB Esma AAC Chrome Lethbridge program which are commercially grown in Alberta AAC Sadash VB CDC Austenson AAC CarverResolute, AAC Whitehorse, AAC Whitestar. For pinto beans WINTER WHEAT AB Brewnet LENTILS from the program there is Island. Most of these varieties were AAC Wildfire AB Hague CDC Proclaim codeveloped with Balasubramanians predecessor Henning AAC NetworkHYBRID FALL RYE OATS Muendel.YELLOW FLAX KWS Daniello CDC Arborg Balasubramanian has released three cultivars developed by CDC Dorado KWS ProPower himself though while working at LethbridgeAAC Expedition, KWS Serafino AAC Y012 and AAC Y073. AAC Expedition is a high-yielding Dale Witdouck, 403-635-0099, [email protected] pinto dry bean cultivar with a semi-upright, indeterminate Iron Springs, Lethbridge County bush growth habit, large seed size, low percentage of hard www.witdouckfarms.com seed, and bright seed coat colour. AAC Y012 and AAC Y073 36seed.ab.ca"