Alberta Agriculture and Food Field Crop Development Centre

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Alberta Agriculture and FoodField Crop
Development Centre
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Background

• The barley breeding program started in 1973 as
  part of a feed grain breeding program
• The purpose of the program was to develop and
  evaluate barley, triticale, and winter wheat
  cultivars for Alberta.
• The primary interest of this program has been the
  production of high yielding, high quality feed
  barley and triticale.

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History

• In 1978 the program was moved to Lacombe
• Approximately 250 acres of barley land
• In 1993, with the consolidation of federal and
  provincial barley breeding at Lacombe, the
  two-row malting barley program began

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Field Crop Development Centre

• Currently owns approximately 390 acres of land at
  Lacombe
• Leases another 200 acres of land
• Leases 4 off-site locations in Calmar, Olds,
  Trochu and Morrin

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Where are we?
Lacombe
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Downtown Office

• The office building is in the town of Lacombe
• Facilities include
• seed quality laboratory (NIRS), cold seed storage
  facilities, storage facilities and offices

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Research Farm

• Located just south of Lacombe
• Facilities include
• field service center, seed dryers, seed cleaning
  facilities, field laboratory and seed storage,
  equipment storage and growth facilities.

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NEW GROWTH FACILITIES

• J.H. Helm Cereal Research Centre

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Feed Grain Development

• Breeding varieties of Barley and Triticale for
  feed grain and forage (silage and grazing).
• We concentrate on Yield, disease resistance and
  nutritional quality.

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Barley Program

• Breeding/Variety Development Specific Objectives
• Higher yielding cultivars
• Quality
• Disease Resistant Cultivars
• Early maturing cultivars
• Post harvest
• Special purpose barley cultivars
• Maintenance and improvement of a diverse
  germplasm collection for cultivar improvement

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Triticale Program

• Breeding/Variety Development Specific Objectives
• Higher yielding cultivars
• Reduce plant height
• Earlier maturity cultivars
• High protein content and quality
• Higher annual forage yielding cultivars
• Awnless cultivars for green feed production
• Post-harvest sprouting resistant cultivars
• High test weight, winter hardiness (winter
  triticale)
• Maintenance and improvement in disease
  resistance, drought tolerance, lodging resistance
• Maintenance and improvement of germplasm

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Winter Wheat Program

• Breeding/Variety Development Specific Objectives
• Improved winter hardiness
• Higher yielding cultivars
• Semi-dwarf cultivars
• Snow mold resistant cultivars
• Good milling quality (red or white)
• Resistance to leaf diseases
• Earlier maturing cultivars
• Sprouting resistance similar to spring wheat
• Improved drought tolerance
• Maintenance and development of germplasm

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Breeding Methodology
Spreading Scald Infected Straw

• Modified bulk breeding program
• Pressure put on bulks to move them in desired
  direction
• Selections made in F5-F7
• Headrows to yield trials

Head selections in California
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Germplasm

• Introductions
• Assessments-agronomics, quality, disease
  resistance
• Identification of parental material
• Introduction to breeding program

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Bulks and Headrows
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Yield Trials
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Multi-site Yield Agronomic Testing
Olds
Morrin
Trochu
Calmar
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Stress Assessment
Drought
Lodging
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Harvesting
Silaging
Combining
Vogeling
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Seed Cleaning Weighing
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California Winter Nursery
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Traditional Plant Biotechnology

• Selective breeding of plants
• Genetic markers
• Double haploid production
• Mutagenesis and selection

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Quality / NIR System

• Whole Grain Samples
• All samples from breeding program (headrows
  advanced yield trials) analyzed for quality
• 40,000 samples can be analyzed in 4 months

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Alberta Agriculture and Food Groups
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Alberta Barley Commission
Funding Agencies ACIDF WGRF
Field Crop Development Centre Research
Collaboration
Producer Groups C.S.G.A SeCan etc.
Industry Rahr Malting CWB CIGI
Other Governments British Columbia
Saskatchewan
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Varieties Developed At FCDC
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FCDC -Staff
Elaine Lacroix, Centre Administrator Susan
Lajeunesse, Barley Program Laura Leggott,
Germplasm Shan Lohr, Doubled Haploid Lab Don
Morehouse, Growth Facility Joseph Nyachiro,
Barley Breeder Lori Oatway, Quality Lab Mike Oro,
Breeder Seed/Barley Program Don Salmon,
Triticale Breeder Bev Smith, Barley Program Mary
Lou Swift, Feed Quality Research Scientist Carla
Weidner, Barley Program Donna Westling, Barley
Program Mandy Wilson, Pathology Program Kequan
Xi, Pathologist Shiming Xue, Biotechnology
Program Jennifer Zantinge, Molecular Biologist
Susan Albers, Triticale Program Monica Ban Matei,
Biotech Program Colin Bergen, Triticale
Program John Bowness, Barley Program Robyne
Bowness, Pulse Program John Brown, Branch
Head Kan-Fa Chang, Pulse Pathologist Trina
Dubitz, Pulse Program Tim Duggan, Data
Management Donna Hand, Centre Administration Stan
Hand, Research Farm Operations Christine
Hanrahan, Computer Lab Zhanna Hartman,
Biotechnology Program Jim Helm, Head of
Research Mark Howe, Research Farm Operations Pat
Juskiw, Barley Breeder Yadeta Kabeta, Research
Scientist Krishan Kumar, Pathology Program