By Rachel Fioret, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Woolwich Observer
Developing new wheat varieties resistant to diseases growing more prevalent with climate change is the focus of work by Dr. Helen Booker, leader of the wheat breeding program at the University of Guelph.
She’s spent the last four years coming up with varieties that withstand fusarium head blight (FHB), a disease caused by a fungal pathogen, and other diseases. The new breeds are being tested at the province’s network of crop research centres, including the Elora Research Station.
“Since 2020, five new wheat varieties have been registered for production in Ontario,” said Booker of the efforts thus far.
There’s some urgency, as FHB is devastating crops – the pathogen produces mycotoxins that can rapidly damage plants and wither the kernels in the head of wheat – and causing damage that estimated to cost the economy billions of dollars.
Hotter temperatures and heavier rainfall are the ideal breeding ground for the FHB pathogen, as more spores are released in the warm, moist conditions becoming increasingly common on Ontario’s farms.
The project initially began in 2014 as a partnership between UofG, Grain Farmers of Ontario and seed supplier SeCan, and is now in collaboration with industry and government partners and academic researchers.
“We want to make winter wheat more attractive and profitable for farmers to grow in Ontario,” said Booker of efforts to develop hardier varieties.
“Winter wheat is a cereal crop that needs a cold period to initiate flowering, and it’s well suited to production areas in Ontario,” shared Booker. “It’s ready to take off in early spring, and you can get a considerable yield advantage.”
Winter wheat is a prime part of rotations with the likes of soybeans and corn.
“Long-term rotation studies… showed that including a small-grain cereal like winter wheat really benefits the whole production system and makes it all together more profitable and more sustainable,” Booker noted.
Rotation helps prevent erosions, improves organic matter in the soil, and can act as a buffer in the whole system, specifically during stressful years, which is why they are working to make winter wheat attractive to farmers.
The OAC Constellation – named in honour of the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) – was the first variety registered by the program in 2020. Two more varieties were registered in 2022.
More recently, OAC Virgo was registered, and OAC Vega is currently in the process of receiving registration.
“OAC Constellation, OAC Moon and OAC Virgo have been taken up or licensed to a seed grower group that represents seed growers across Canada,” said Booker.
“OAC Constellation is now the yield and quality standard, or agronomic and quality standard for registration trials, winter wheat or similar market class.”
The project has key breeding objectives: high yield, optimal maturity time, height, and structural strength.
Booker said that they screen for foliar diseases such as FHB, usually in fairly early generations. “We only need a few genes in our material and we can do that.
“We can select for genetic resistance,” she said.
Booker works with many students looking to shape the future of wheat farming in Ontario.
“Some of the research that the graduate students do is centred on improving our selection efficiency, particularly fusarium head blight disease.”
The use of AI has increased the efficiency of the research project. A Master’s student in the program is developing a workflow where he can take images of a test that has been inoculated with the fungal pathogen that causes FHB, using those images to calculate the percentage of infection in the head.
“Normally, you would have to go through there and count the infected spikes in the head of the weak wheat, but he can do that using just an image of the wheat head and what he would like to do or what he is doing is scaling that up to the field level,” Booker explained.
“It’s a constant battle for improvement and staying ahead of the pathogen,” said Booker of the development of new varieties.
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