The Canadian Wheat Research Coalition (CWRC) has hired Synthesis Agri-Food Network to conduct the review to help identify potential risks and opportunities in the system.

Find more Western Canadian Crop Prodution Show coverage here.

“We must ensure Canada has a system that is stable and continues to generate new elite varieties for farmers, while supporting choice and competition,” Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission (SaskWheat) chair Jake Leguee told delegates attending the annual general meeting.

The CWRC is funded by SaskWheat, Alberta Grains and the Manitoba Crop Alliance.

It in turn funds core breeding programs for Agriculture Canada, the University of Saskatchewan, the University of Manitoba and the University of Alberta.

CWRC has invested $75.2 million in those institutions, with $38 million of that coming from SaskWheat.

WHY IT MATTERS: Wheat heavily relies on public breeding programs.

Western Canadian farmers are investing more than $9.5 million a year in core wheat breeding activities through the CWRC.

That contribution accounts for about half of the total public wheat varietal research and development costs.

“Farmers are holding the key to the future of wheat breeding,” said Leguee.

That is why it is important for Synthesis to review the system to make sure they are getting it right.

The company has reviewed all related reports and analyses, interviewed 29 stakeholders (including breeders, scientists, Agriculture Canada managers and private seed companies) and has conducted two workshops with farmer representatives from all three Prairie provinces.

A report on its findings is due in March.

Leguee said breeding is a long-term game, noting that the main varieties grown today are from crosses made 10 or 15 years ago.

“It is critical to have predictable and sustained funding for breeding programs to keep the pipeline full of new innovations and prevent technology gaps from occurring,” he said.

That is why the recently announced budget cuts of up to 15 per cent over three years at Agriculture Canada are “incredibly concerning.”

“We don’t know where those cuts are going to be targeted,” said Leguee.

SaskWheat is also a key funder of the Canadian National Wheat Cluster, a five-year program that started on April 1, 2023.

The cluster funds 15 research activities and three non-science activities through a funding commitment of $20.5 million that comes from government as well as producer and private organizations.

Year four of the program begins April 1, 2026. SaskWheat has committed slightly more than $3 million to the project.

SaskWheat has committed nearly $71 million to 373 research projects since 2014, including $2.2 million to 26 projects in 2024-25.

“We believe, and history shows, breeding activities that develop trait technology and innovation engrained in the seed will help to meet sustainability goals,” said Leguee.

The money is being spent on crops that improve nitrogen use efficiency, use fewer herbicides and better withstand stress.

Researchers are also identifying best management practices that result in improved environmental performance, more effective input use and more efficient carbon capture.

“Directed farmer funding is a critical component of research and breeding because nobody knows what is happening in the fields better than farmers themselves,” he said.

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There has been a long-standing scientific belief a half-century old that sperm was in a dormant state during capacitation, using existing proteins.

However, Nehal Thakor, a molecular biologist in the U of L’s biological sciences department, Jacob Thundathil, a reproductive physiologist and veterinarian in U of C’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and U of C PhD student Saurabh Tiwari discovered in a transdisciplinary study that mRNA translation is activated, and new proteins are made, using bovine sperm samples in their labs.

WHY IT MATTERS: Unlocking greater knowledge of male infertility across species will aid productivity, including giving women a greater chance to conceive.

Veterinarians do breeding soundness evaluations of bulls with physical examinations, measurement of scrotal circumstances and semen analysis for motility, density and morphology.

“When stem cells are producing new proteins, and their ability to produce new proteins, all those things are absolutely critical. Maybe at one point that knowledge we found could be translated to make diagnostic approaches for complementing what veterinarians are already doing. We can select better quality tools and improve fertility and thereby improving animal productivity,” said Thundathil.

“There are so many climate changes and environmental changes, all these things are happening, and at this point we don’t know how these factors are actually contributing to the ability of sperm to produce new proteins. These are the future directions that we want to go.”

Thakor gave an example of a bull producing a million motile sperm, yet during capacitation, most of them turn out to be infertile.

However, a bull that produces half as much sperm can yield many more fertile sperm in a more successful translation process.

Examining the protein-making process and identifying its markers with more successful bulls has the possibility to increase production yields.

“We should look more into molecular biomarkers of sperm to validate this further, so that we can achieve a better outcome for reproducibility of bulls,” said Thakor.

“A bull is producing so many sperm, and they may be all motile, but what if they are not able to get capacitated in the female reproductive system due to maybe a defect in translation or the protein synthesis step. If we study that further, then maybe even low-sperm producing bulls can be more fertile in comparison to a bull that produces lot of sperm based on the markers.”

Male factors contribute to approximately half of infertility cases in humans, with unexplained infertility affecting one out of three couples.

The researchers’ paper, Systematic mRNA interactome analysis reconceptualizes translational quiescence in bovine sperm, has been published in the Nature Portfolio journal and Communications Biology, a journal that only accepts novel findings.

“Semen from a bull is used to inseminate thousands of cows,” said Tiwari.

“We will have the fertility data of that particular bull, so there are many indexes which categorize bulls into high fertile and low fertile. What differences exist in protein synthesis between the high and low fertile bull? Can we trace it down to anything that we use, segregating these bulls on a molecular level?

“We are trying to understand if there is a difference between the expression of the protein synthesis, between the high and low fertile bulls, and can we make something out of it so that any person can use it with a simple application.”

While protein synthesis remains low in fresh samples for up to four hours, many new proteins are synthesized within one hour after thawing frozen semen.

Some proteins detected after thawing frozen semen are not present in fresh semen, indicating that the process of freezing and thawing alters the protein synthesis activity of the sperm.

“What we think of is that new or different proteins are being synthesized once the semen is cryopreserved and thawed. We have to understand what are the function of these new proteins, or the proteins that are not in fresh semen, and whether some of the proteins are contributing to the fertility,” said Tiwari.

“The differential protein synthesis that I am seeing between the fresh and frozen semen, it might explain why the semen from some bulls can be cryopreserved very efficiently. That means there is something going on at the molecular level, and we are looking further into this direction.”

What comes next

An increased understanding about how different genes are activated means they could be used as biomarkers and translated to biomedical sciencesin humans as well for enhancing fertility.

“The next step is using really high-end techniques, such as ribosome profiling,” said Thakor.

“That has never been done on sperm before to see what mRNAs are being activated during the capacitation process and underlying biological mechanisms.”

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Without predictable, commodity-style markets, industry leaders believe the crop can expand only as processors add capacity. That bottleneck, they said, has worked to keep Canada’s hemp acres flat and is limiting long-term growth.

WHY IT MATTERS: A contract-bound crop leaves growers with limited room to respond to new market opportunities.

At the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance (CHTA) annual conference in Winnipeg in late November, it reported about 50,000 acres of hemp grown in 2024.

That number might be low, said CHTA senior operations director Clarence Shwaluk in his state-of-the-industry address. He expects acres are under-reported through Health Canada’s licensing system. He urged the association’s 213 producer members to ensure they submit accurate data.

“Even if you had zero acres and you’re still holding a valid licence, Health Canada wants to know that there were no acres planted,” he said.

Where’s Canada’s hemp?

Most hemp today is grown on the Prairies, and it’s still mostly driven by demand for grain. CHTA estimated, farm-gate hemp sales sit around $60 million a year, with the broader economic footprint, including value-added food and fibre processing, reaching roughly $160 million.

It remains well short of the organization’s long-term aspiration of building a billion-dollar sector. That goal was set several years ago, more as a directional target than a forecast.

Ted Haney, CHTA president and chief executive officer, said moving meaningfully toward that scale will require structural change.

“We’re a ‘build it and they will come’ industry, based on contractual relationships with unique specifications,” he said, adding that broader uptake won’t occur until hemp moves closer to a commoditized model with predictable purchasing channels.

“We’ll get there, but we’re not there yet.”

On the food side, hemp hearts, protein and oil continue to make up the bulk of revenue. Haney said the largest growth potential lies in processed ingredients like baking inputs, frying oils, protein blends and nutrition-boosting additives, areas where Canada is still in the early stages of development.

Cost competitiveness remains a major barrier. Hemp protein is still priced above pea and soy, limiting adoption by large processors. Yield improvements through hybridization are viewed as a key step toward lowering ingredient costs. Higher yields could also get more farmers interested in the crop, added Shwaluk.

“Every food crop requires a feed market. Without that, it’s a barrier to entry,” said Haney, noting that canola crushers rely heavily on moving meal into feed channels.

Fibre remains a bright spot, with new processing capacity under construction in Western Canada and growing interest in hemp-based building materials. For that to grow the hemp market though, they would need to be considered in building codes. The CHTA is tackling that along with the National Research Council and industry partners.

Hemp growth expected to be steady

Hemp’s outlook is stable, both Haney and Shawluk said. As for growth, a new national levy is expected to play a role. The Canadian Industrial Hemp Promotion-Research Agency — operating publicly as Hemp Canada Chanvre — was formally established last year.

The agency will collect a 0.5 per cent levy on hemp sales to fund research, standards development and market promotion — a more stable source of funding than the voluntary contributions the sector has relied on to date.

In addition, Haney and Shwaluk noted that demand for food and fibre ingredients continues to grow and new revenue streams, such as livestock feed and bio-based industrial products, are expected to diversify markets over the next several years.

“We can scale up, that’s not the problem,” Shwaluk said. “Doing it competitively, and with the right regulatory structure, is what will determine how fast we grow.”

The post Canadian hemp stable, but stuck on growth appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The pending commercialization of one of their hybrids is a milestone for the Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA), the commodity group that represents the province’s sunflower growers. The organization has invested in its own sunflower breeding program. In October of last year, the MCA said they had put licences for two Manitoba-developed hybrids out to tender. U.S. farmer-owned co-operative CHS has opted in for one of those hybrids, the MCA has confirmed.

WHY IT MATTERS: Locally developed genetics could make confection sunflowers more attractive to growers.

A limited amount of seed is expected to hit the market for growers to access for the 2026 growing season.

It’s a major milestone for the group’s breeding program. It marks the first time a homegrown confection hybrid will be broadly accessible to Prairie growers.

“It’s a win for farmers and for the MCA,” said Katherine Stanley, the group’s research program manager for special crops.

Road to seed market

The MCA has registered two hybrids so far, after more than a decade of research and farmer investment: MCA 359239 and MCA 359306. CHS has chosen to produce MCA 359239, marketing it under the simplified name MCA 359.

The second hybrid is still available if other seed producers show interest but, for now, Stanley is just thrilled to have reached this milestone.

“We’re super excited to see one of our hybrids that performs really well under Manitoba conditions making it out into the field,” she said.

CHS’s sunflower division, based in North Dakota, will handle seed production and marketing. While seed volumes will still be scaling up next year, Stanley said interest from Manitoba producers has already been strong.

Made in Manitoba, for Manitoba

Confection sunflowers are one crop that has long struggled with outdated genetics. The most widely grown confection hybrid in recent years has been Nuseed’s 6946 DMR. It was registered more than a decade ago and developed primarily for U.S. conditions. It also lacks herbicide resistance traits.

Manitoba is Canada’s biggest producer of confection sunflower seeds, but in recent years, through a combination of marketing and agronomic challenges, the edible varieties have taken a backseat to sunflower varieties produced for oil.

The new MCA-developed hybrid is designed to change that. MCA 359 carries Group 2 herbicide resistance and early maturity. The breeding program also focused on disease tolerance and wind resistance—traits that matter in Prairie fields vulnerable to lodging and disease pressure.

“Manitoba farmers who are interested in growing confections, now have a crop that can perform for them,” Stanley said. “That’s our No. 1 outcome.”

According to MCA performance trials published in the Seed Manitoba 2025 guide, MCA 359 yielded 109 per cent compared to the check variety, Nuseed’s 6949 DMR. It also matured about two days earlier and stood roughly two inches taller than the check, offering growers a small but practical edge.

Unlike oil-bound sunflowers, confection crops are also sold with minimal processing. Appearance and flavour are critical.

“There’s a lot more things that need to be considered,” Stanley said. “Even things like the seed colour and the number of stripes, whether it is black or gray-black, never mind all the flavour profiles and the per cent nut meat.”

Because Manitoba’s confection sunflowers are typically shipped to North Dakota for processing and often blended with U.S. product, Canadian hybrids must visually match their American counterparts. That adds another layer of complexity to breeding work. Stanley said MCA’s goal was to give farmers a variety that could compete agronomically, while meeting the strict aesthetic standards of the confection trade.

With MCA 359 poised for commercial release, Stanley said the alliance will keep refining its breeding efforts as long as farmers see value in the crop.

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