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??????????? A Lethbridge breeder is developing perennial wheat and perennial cereal rye for Western Canada. BREEDING PERENNIAL CEREALS Larsen’s current work to develop perennial wheat lines includes crossing wheat with intermediate wheatgrass lines from the USDA gene bank (right) and with Kernza , a domesticated intermediate wheatgrass. 8 www.seed.ab.ca | Advancing Seed in Alberta UNDERSTANDING the appeal of perennial cereals is easy. Compared to growing annuals, perennial cereal production would reduce seeding costs and seeding workloads. Other potential advantages include access to nutrients deeper in the soil profile because of greater rooting depths, use of soil moisture over a longer period of the year and to a greater depth, better soil conservation, and increased ability to outcompete weeds, reducing herbicide needs. However, breeding perennial cereals is not easy. It’s a long, dif- ficult road. But it’s a road strewn with interesting challenges and intriguing possibilities. Dr. Jamie Larsen, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), is one of the few Canadian crop breeders working on perennial cereals. He came to AAFC’s Lethbridge Research and Development Centre a little over five years ago and started working on perennial cereal rye. Perennial Cereal Rye “Surya Acharya, a forage breeder here, had bred the perennial cereal rye variety ACE-1. I came here based on some of the interesting aspects of it and the promise of it,” says Larsen. ACE-1 is the first perennial cereal rye variety to be released in Canada. It was developed through crosses between annual rye and perennial wild cereal rye, and was bred for silage and greenfeed. “When I initially looked at it here in Lethbridge, ACE-1 looked really promising; it absolutely was perennial and vigorous,” he says. “And the grain yield is not bad. [When ACE-1 is grown with high fertility levels,] the yields we’ve seen here are around or just below the fall rye average for Canada.” Photos courtesy of Jamie Larsen, AAFC Cereal Research