Wheat stripe rust, seen here, and oat crown rust, are the subjects of a joint U.S.-Australia study.

Winning the race against rust

The latest technology has scientists poised for a breakthrough 
on this tough crop disease

With its ever-evolving virulence, rust is a disease of major global concern for farmers. Now a group of scientists says cutting-edge genome sequencing technology could provide a better path forward than the traditional approaches using fungicides. The scientists, from U.S. and Australian government agencies and universities, recently released the results in mBio, a journal from

A virulent new strain of stem rust has been found in Europe and could threaten crops there and in northern Africa in the coming growing season.

New rust strain threatens wheat crops in Europe and North Africa

In 2016 thousands of hectares of wheat crops were damaged in Sicily

A new, highly destructive strain of stem rust that battered wheat crops in Sicily last year could spread across the Mediterranean in 2017, threatening harvests and the livelihood of small farmers, experts warned Feb. 3. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) urged countries in Europe and North Africa to be vigilant to prevent possible


Rod Merryweather, CEO of FP Genetics, asking the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale Feb. 26 to vote in favour of giving Elgin ND, a high-yielding American Dark Northern Spring wheat, a three-year interim registration for market development purposes.

Nine new CWRS wheats recommended for registration

Sixteen of the 36 cultivars reviewed were automatically endorsed

A record 36 cultivars sought the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale’s support for registration at the committee’s annual meeting here Feb. 23 to 26. The committee of experts representing the grain industry from breeders and farmers to seed companies, marketers and end-users, assesses new cultivars to see if they meet the agronomic,

Field crop research plot.

Feed grain co-op’s new variety WFT 603 crosses registration hurdle

WFGDC marks a milestone in its goal of offering a lower-risk feed grain alternative to corn

There’s a new wheat in town, and it wasn’t developed by any of the usual suspects. WFT 603, a general purpose wheat variety from the Western Feed Grain Development Co-op Ltd. (WFGD Co-op), recently crossed the regulatory hurdles for registration and will be distributed to members by next spring. “Our seed will be competitive with

Parrish & Heimbecker has a Faller wheat contract for 2013

Parrish & Heimbecker will contract around 10,000 acres of Faller, an unregistered American wheat, under an identity-preserved program with farmers in Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan this spring, says John Devos, the company’s manager of seed and chemical. P & H is the second grain company to offer such a program and there could be more,


New wheats in the Prairie pipeline

The recent Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale (PRCWRT) meeting marked the first time a feed wheat developed by the Western Feed Grain Development Co-op was recommended for registration. The variety, WFT603, is a Canada Western General Purpose wheat. “The unique thing about this is any farmer in Western Canada can be a

Scientists are watching Ug99 closely

Wheat experts are stepping up monitoring of a crop disease first found in Africa in 1999 to minimize the spread of a deadly fungus that is also a threat in Asia, experts said Aug. 31. A “Rust-Tracker,” using data supplied by farmers and scientists, could now monitor the fungus in 27 developing nations across 42

Cereal Research Centre axed

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Cereal Research Centre will be shuttered within two years, but a senior department official says much of its work will continue. Industry leaders are less confident in the wake of last week’s announcement to close the facility that earned Western Canada its breadbasket reputation as part of a five to 10


What’s the message here?

According to Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, ending the wheat board monopoly will mean “the sky will be the limit” for wheat, prompting farmers to plant more acres. That presumably means a need for more and better varieties, so you might expect that the government would back up its claim by continuing support for public research,

Two Ug99-Resistant Wheat Varieties Developed In Kenya

STAFF / Two wheat varieties resistant to the deadly Ug99 strain of stem rust are set for release in Kenya, says a report from UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (IRIN). The two varieties, dubbed Eagle10 and Robin, were developed by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). Ug99 is named after its discovery