Investing in research that makes sense for farmers
Click the icons below or type a keyword in the search bar to view AWC-funded research related to your on-farm challenge.
Research is Alberta Wheat Commission's largest investment for a reason. Development of new, improved wheat genetics and best management practices will be key to helping producers adapt to changing environments, government policies and both domestic and international market demands, all while maximizing their profit.
Click the icons below or type a keyword in the search bar to view AWC-funded research related to your on-farm challenge.
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This 3 year project aims to quantifying the effects of long term Nitrogen and Sulfur fertilizers on crop nutrient use efficiency and N2O emissions on sulfur-deficient, grey soils. Sulfur-deficient prairie soils may be in…
Although winter wheat has been grown for many years, for most western Canadian producers it is still perceived as a new and alternative crop. Producers, ag-industry and society recognize that there is a need to develop a…
Stomata are small openings found on plant surfaces that mediate gas exchange with the surrounding atmosphere. This structure is important for photosynthesis and water use efficiency as they control the amount of CO2 inta…
Nitrogen (N) is an essential plant nutrient and, along with water, is the factor that most frequently limits crop production. In recent years, however, soil N tests have come under considerable scrutiny and criticism, le…
Moisture deficits recognized as agricultural drought and those of dispersed nature that get less “press”, if any, bring down wheat yield. Grain filling period is particularly sensitive. Statistics Canada noted after …
This project will use systems thinking to identify synergies between advanced agronomic practices to maximize the profitability of Alberta growers. Using a systems approach, approximately 50 different management systems …
As spring wheat growers strive for higher yields through intensified practices and new genetics, the knowledge gap around nitrogen (N) remains far from closed. One question that arises is the role of enhanced efficiency …
Hail damage crop losses vary depending on intensity, timing and spatial extent in terms of growth stages of the affected crops. This 3 year research project proposes to identify wheat’s response to simulated hail damag…
This research is examining the dependence of key physical and biochemical factors underlying CWRS wheat processing quality for breadmaking as a function of genotype (G), the crop growing environment (E) and G x E interac…
This 3 year project proposes to further develop the use of the plant growth regulator class, auxins, as a tool to increase wheat grain yield grown under non-stress and abiotic stress conditions. By determining the traits…
Wheat is one of the most ubiquitously grown and consumed food in the world. Wheat is a staple food for nearly a third of the world population, and is expected that demand will grow tremendously to feed approximately doub…
High-nitrogen (N) fertilizer increases yield. It also increases production costs to wheat growers, and excess N fertilizer causes environmental and health risks. The proposed study furthers our previous work to examine t…
To increase the genetic diversity of the Canadian wheat pool, this research proposes to utilize a proven strategy, nested association mapping (NAM), a multiple-parental breeding population approach to explore synthetic h…
Wheat is a major crop in western Canada, grown in rotation with pulses and canola, and is fundamental to sustainable production systems that minimize soil erosion risk and break disease cycles. Wheat production in wester…
Wheat production in western Canada is affected by a variety of diseases with ever-evolving dynamic populations, which causes significant economic losses every year. Due to population shifts and/or mutations, and the appe…
Winter durum wheat has the potential to be a high value, high yielding cereal crop for Alberta farmers. The research objective of this project is to evaluate existing winter durum lines and develop new winter durum popul…
This project supports continued research and development activities of the Canadian Western Hard Red Spring (CWRS) wheat breeding program at the University of Alberta. We have released 11 CWRS cultivars and educated many…
Plant diseases are responsible for at least 10% of yield losses in global food production. Incidence and severity of two important cereal crop diseases, Fusarium head blight (FHB) and tan spot, are increasing with the im…
This 4 year project will analyze 60 Canadian wheat genomes, combined with comparative analysis of available stem and stripe rust information, to select for important virulence factors against wheat. These genomic informa…
Early maturity in wheat is important for timely harvest to avoid frost damage and other harvest and post-harvest problems. A better understanding of maturity will help ensure higher and better quality wheat yields for co…
Over the last 15 years, significant progress has been made at the Crop Development Centre (CDC) at the University of Saskatchewan in the development of high yielding, shorter, stronger-strawed cultivars that meet the nee…
Severe epidemics of stripe rust may cause up to 50% yield losses. Stripe rust has been observed every year in western Canada, with serious epidemics reported in 5 of last 10 years. Recent epidemics result from the pathog…
This two years proposal is a proof of concept for the introduction of the N2 biological fixation pathway into mitochondria of crops. The nitrogen fixation (Nif) cluster will be introduced into triticale mitochondria usin…
There are many diseases of wheat that cause yield losses and reduce grain quality. One way to control diseases is to breed wheat varieties that carry disease resistance genes. Genetic resistance has the benefit of reduci…
Our aim is to develop a simple and reliable method of gene editing in wheat and to improve on the current method used by breeders to produce doubled haploids (DH). By having maize deliver gene editing machinery during th…
Although the strains of rust are a real threat to Canada’s food supply, the rust strains that need to be used for selection in breeding resistance are not found in Canada at this time. The use of DNA markers allows bre…
This 4 year proposal aims to translate the latest innovative genomic technologies to the wheat breeding programs. The research will focus on the deployment of new innovative technologies including a DNA marker breeder ch…
The major component of this project is to continue the development of improved, field-ready winter wheat cultivars of the CWRW wheat class for western Canada by simultaneously targeting higher grain yield and improved lo…
This investigation will determine if early plantings of cold-tolerant cultivars coupled with optimum agronomics will extend the growing season and achieve or exceed attainable spring wheat yield with improved system stab…
As a major durum wheat breeding program in Canada, the varieties released by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada -Swift Current Research Development Centre occupy over 84% of the durum acreage on average in western Canada. …
This research project evaluates intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium) for disease resistance genes that can be transferred to wheat. A combination of phenotypic evaluation, molecular analysis and intergeneric …
Understanding the basis of early maturity in wheat may lessen the use of herbicides through improved competition with weeds, and may also improve the quality of harvested wheat. This research will use techniques of both …
Over the last decade an increasing portion of the Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat cultivars released have carried height-reducing genes (Rht) while the majority of Canada Prairie Spring (CPS) cultivars have been s…
Genetic resistance has long been proven to the best and most sustainable way to mitigate the damage caused to the wheat crop by diseases such as fusarium head blight (FHB), leaf rust (LR), stipe rust (YR) or powdery mild…
Our aim is to develop a more efficient doubled haploid (DH) production process through utilization of isolated microspore culture. Comparative genomics will be applied to screen for important factors critical to the prod…
The University of Manitoba winter wheat breeding program is well established. The primary objectives of the wheat breeding program are to develop Canada Western Special Purpose (CWSP) Winter (30% of material) and C…
The proposed research identifies new genes that provide a unique opportunity to facilitate wheat breeding for mitigating the problem of pre-harvest sprouting.
Proposed research project aimed to generate and deploy novel genomic tools for breeding of future generation of Canadian wheat and barley cultivars that are tolerant to PHS. This will enhance grain quality and quantity, …
This project will help better understand the genetics of FHB resistance and generate resistant germplasm in Canadian wheat background to facilitate development of FHB resistant cultivars.
This project will determine nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) capabilities for a range of historic and modern spring wheat cultivar and identify agronomic traits that contribute to enhancing NUE of spring wheat.
This project will Determine and revise estimates of the nutrient uptake and removal of crops commonly grown in western Canada and develop a user friendly online and mobile app for determining nutrient uptake and removal …
Increasing demand for greater cereal crop yield often motivates increasing the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers, leading to growing conditions with lower input use-efficiencies. Commercial agricultural products availabl…
Ecological principles can be applied to agricultural practices to replace agrochemicals and increase productivity by implementing either species diversity e.g. mixed cropping or genetic diversity within species e.g. vari…
Among the research priorities listed by the Alberta Wheat Commission for March 2020 was “Integrated Maturity Management – Genetic selection for early maturing varieties in combination with management practices which …
Cereal crops are high-value staple crops for humans (cereal grain crops, including wheat) and feed for livestock (grain and forage crops, including triticale and wheat). Cereal crop growth is limited by nitrogen (N) avai…
In western Canada, particularly Alberta, stripe rust is an emerging threat to wheat production and breeders have started to breed for resistance relatively recently.
Many farmers look to the popular yet ambiguous area of "soil health" to help buffer perturbations to their farming operations and provide long-term productivity. However, there is little information on how farmers …
PSR breeding should be accelerated to keep pace with growing global demand and to maintain yield advantage. Genomic Selection (GS) is a molecular breeding tool that facilitates the selection of lines with genotypic infor…
This research will assess whether there may be an opportunity to extend the crop harvest beyond the grain to include some portion of the crop residues, without appreciably impairing soil health.
The proposed research aims to translate the research findings of a recently concluded upstream research project where novel genetic sources of resistance against pathogens including stripe rust (330 different putative R …
Through this proposal, in collaboration with AAFC’s Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) breeders, we propose to assess the adaptability of wheat germplasm for arid environments for the long-term sustainability of agricult…
The project is expected to generate useful tools to track rust changes in Canada and identify resistance in already genotyped elite lines.
The objectives for this program are to assist breeding programs in the development of Fusarium head blight-resistant wheat and barley for producers in western Canada.
An integrated approach with targeted and environmentally friendly tools is needed to most sustainably manage wireworm. We aim to address the wireworm problem in wheat by developing RNAi as a tool for wireworm suppr…