1 The University of Saskatchewan Crop Development Centre Presentation to Sask Flax Development Commission Dorothy Murrell Managing Director, CDC January

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The University of Saskatchewan

Crop Development Centre

Presentation to Sask Flax Development Commission

Dorothy Murrell

Managing Director, CDC

January 12, 2009


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The Crop Development Centre

is a field crop research organization

which seeks to improve economic returns for farmers

and the agriculture industry of western Canada

by improving existing crops,

creating new uses for traditional crops,

and developing new crops.


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Or: all great ideas boil down to hard work.

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History of CDC

• Began in 1971 at the U of S with funding from National Research Council and Saskatchewan Agriculture

• Core group in 70s included Ron Bhatty, Larry Gusta, Al Slinkard, Gordon Rowland, Brian Fowler, John Burdall, Brian Rossnagel

• Formed to provide long term and continuous genetic improvement to the farmers of Saskatchewan

• Focused on existing and new crop development, with a strong agronomic and extension component

• Has continued to the present day on SMA base funding, funding from private and public sources, & infrastructure support from U of S


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CDC Scientists

• Sabine Banniza– Pulse pathologist

• Pierre Hucl– Bread wheat & canaryseed

breeder• Curt McCartney

– Cereal pathologist• Curtis Pozniak

– Durum & high yielding wheat breeder

• Gordon Rowland– Flax breeder

• Brian Rossnagel– Barley and oat breeder

• Tom Warkentin– Pea breeder

• Bunyamin Tar’an (SPG) – Chickpea breeder

• Bert Vandenberg (AFIF Chair)– Lentil and bean breeder


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Related Scientists

• Kirstin Bett (U of S)– Bean breeder

• Bob Bors (U of S)– Small fruit breeder

• Ravi Chibbar (Canada Research Chair) – Genomics, Carbohydrates

• Bruce Coulman (U of S)– Forage breeder

• Brian Fowler (U of S)– Winter wheat breeder

• Bryan Harvey (Prof. Emeritus) – Six-row barley breeder

• Rick Holm (U of S)– Weed Scientist

• Mike Nickerson (SMA Research Chair)– Protein Quality & Utilization

• Xiao Qiu– Lipids

• Martin Reaney (SMA Research Chair)– Lipids

• Graham Scoles (U of S)– Molecular Geneticist

• Steve Shirtliffe (U of S)– Agronomist

• Bob Tyler (U of S)– Grain Scientist


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CDCGeneral Breeding Goals

• High yield• Disease resistance• Appropriate maturity• Lodging resistance• End-use quality to meet industry standards• Specialty traits


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CDC Outputs

• Varieties• Germplasm• Technology • Basic research and pre-breeding • Training – undergraduate and graduate

programs, technical• Technology transfer


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“Partnership:

• the relationship between two or more people or organizations that are involved in the same activity

• cooperation between people or groups working together

• an organization formed by two or more people or groups who work together for some purpose

• a company set up by two or more people who put money into the business and share the financial risks and profits”


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CDC Partnerships• Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture base funding of 21.5%

• Other funding from:

– ADF, NSERC, Genome Prairie, CFI, U of S

– Sask Pulse Growers, WGRF, SFDC, SCDC, SODC; Ducks Unlimited, Alberta Pulse Growers

– BASF, Brandt Industries, CanOat, Canterra Seeds, Cargill, FP Genetics, Grain Millers, Morris Industries, Paterson Grain, Parrish & Heimbecker, Prairie Malt, Quaker, Sapporo, SeCan, Viterra

– 40:40:20 ratio


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Flax

• Flax• A strong western Canadian success story• 40% of world production• $300 million to farm gate annually

• CDC Program• 70% of acres• CDC Vimy, CDC Bethune, CDC Sorrel• CDC Bethune $472 million 2003-07• Long term partnerships with growers, seed companies,

provincial government


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Flax

• New developments• Increased focus on basic science: molecular mapping

and marker development for seed quality, straw fibre and agronomic traits

• A search for yield • Specialty oil breeding – high oleic, high and low

linolenic acids• Herbicide tolerance discussion• All based on research and funding partnerships across

institutional and political boundaries


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Flax Partnerships

• Research and breeding projects are all based on partnerships across institutional, sector and political boundaries

• Sask Flax Development Commission

• SeCan

• NAFGEN (ABIP)

• NAPGEN (PBI)

• TUFGEN (Genome Canada)


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• Maintain and increase the economic value of western Canada’s flax industry– Oil

– Fibre

– Nutraceutical / functional

– Food and Feed


Flax Opportunities

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• Agronomics – yield, weed control• Local and global competition• Adhoc Project Funding

– Slow decision making

– Administrative burden and cost


Flax Challenges

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CDCGrains Innovation Lab


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Creating superior genetics

for western Canadian farmers


Documents

1 The University of Saskatchewan Crop Development Centre Presentation to Sask Flax Development Commission Dorothy Murrell Managing Director, CDC January