b"He also pointed to the improvements in durum, where the first varieties with Intermediate resistance are now being registered.Weve moved from a time when a majority of wheat varieties were Moderately Susceptible to Susceptible; now, the majority that are grown carry an MR [moderate resistance] rating. I have no doubt that trend will continue.Graf continues to be optimistic about the battle against Fusarium. He believes that in 10 to 15 years, therell be continued improvement in varieties, perhaps to the point that R ratings will stop being dubbed as rarities.We know a lot more than we did even five years ago, he says of the collective effort against Fusarium. With genomic analysis, important regions and more genes that influence resistance have been identified, and this will help to take us to that next level.A wheat breeder and director of the Crop Development Centre in Saskatoon, Sask., Curtis Pozniak says significant progress has been made with varietal development in the fight against Fusarium. From his vantage point, he sees no reason to think that wont continue what he calls the most challenging disease farmers fight in the field. Breeding against Fusarium is extremely difficult, but Pozniak is a fan of genetic stacking, whereby crossing parents with small yet effective Fusarium resistance can result in a strong Rob Graf, recently retired Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) wheatcommercially viable variety with an MR or even R rating.breeder. PHOTO: AAFCIt wasn't that many years ago when most wheat varieties were in the Susceptible to Moderately Susceptible category. So, there has been significant progress made, but it has been a Ask about a free trial of our weekly slow slog. It is a real challenge to pull together all the genes that control resistance, given that each one of them can have a very newsletter,Grainwise small effect. You really have to pile them together, so they're complementary to one another to build the resistance in sort of 1-800-440-8390 a stepwise fashion.Two big challenges for finding a strong variety are the complex genetics of resistance, and the impact of environmental growing conditions on resistance. The environment can make things challenging, because a variety may look great in a certain environment in one year, but lousy the next, or vice-versa. To layer on more complexity, there are several types of Fusarium www.grainwatchdog.com resistance. For example, Type 1 resistance is simply if theTarget contractsSpot pricing plant itself prevents infection whereas Type 2 is that the plant is infected, but to what extent. Type 5 resistance is when theForward pricingMarket updates plant limits the ability of the Fusarium fungus from producing We market (feed, gradable, harmful mycotoxins. organic and off-spec) What makes it so challenging is that there are different genesBarleyRyeSoybeansWheat controlling each of those components of resistance, he says. So, you put all of that togetherthe lack of immunity, largeFlaxFaba beansCanolaLentils number of genes, strong environmental influence, the fact thatOatsPeasMustardTriticale resistance is made up of these individual componentsthat starts to give you a sense as to the challenge that we as plant Alberta Based Grain Brokers breeders face with improving Fusarium tolerance.Putting Farmers First Since 1995 Another issue breeders such as Pozniak face is that many Photo Credit: Sally Jackson farmers want shorter varieties to deal with less straw going MarketMasterLtd @Grainwatchdog through their combine. Perhaps an unintended consequence is the fact that the plant is simply that much closer to the ground. As 52seed.ab.ca"