A Climate-Smart Canadian Wheat Cluster for a Productive and Profitable Canadian Wheat Sector. Activity 11 – A cooperative approach to improving Canadian Eastern soft red winter wheat (CESRW) to strengthen agriculture sector resilience

Objectives:

• Develop soft red winter wheat cultivars with high yield (and yield stability) with better winter hardiness via new winter wheat hybridizations followed by selection in segregating populations and agronomic testing of pure lines of soft red winter wheat breeding material for adaption to Eastern Canada.
• Develop soft red winter wheat germplasm with improved resilience through superior disease resistance to Fusarium head blight, powdery mildew, and wheat rusts (leaf, stem, and stripe).

Impacts:

• Release one or more SRW cultivars with significantly 5% or greater yield advantage over the yield standard OAC Constellation coupled with DON value in the grain (equal to or lower than MR check UGRC Ring).

• Publication of the respective cultivar descriptions in the Canadian Journal of Plant Science.

Scientific Summary:

Canada is a major global producer of wheat, and the winter-grown crop is an integral part of the cropping systems in Eastern Canada (defined herein as Ontario, Québec, and the Maritimes), providing diversity, improving crop rotation by providing soil cover during the winter, and improving the overall nutrient use efficiency of the cropping system. There are more than 40,000 grain farmers in Ontario, Québec, and the Maritimes. However, unlike in Western Canada, wheat ranks a distant third after soybean and corn, but many more farmers would adopt it if the economics/cropping system warranted. The University of Guelph (U of G) long-term rotation studies demonstrate increased profitability of corn and soybean when winter wheat is part of the crop rotation. However, several biotic and abiotic factors threaten the high productivity and quality of the wheat crop. Among the biotic yield-limiting factors, Fusarium head blight (FHB; caused mainly by Fusarium graminearum) has over the years been the most damaging disease in Eastern Canada (and nearly a yearly occurrence in southwestern Ontario, a major wheat production zone). FHB is of great concern to wheat producers as it causes food and feed safety threats associated with harmful mycotoxin contamination in the infected grain. This causes farmers and millers to suffer higher costs related to mycotoxin testing, additional cleaning and blending to reduce mycotoxin content, and additional shipping to access better quality grain. Grain farmers, millers, and consumers benefit directly from improvements in FHB resistance in new wheat cultivars. The estimated damage due to FHB in the 1990s in the USA was USD $2 billion and in Canada it was CAD $520 million. Moreover, powdery mildew [caused by Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (syn. Erysiphe graminis)] and the leaf spotting and rust diseases (stem, leaf, and stripe rust) have been among the important diseases of eastern wheat. The recent spread of new and more aggressive races of Puccinia striiformis that can tolerate higher temperatures means stripe rust has been observed in parts of Ontario with high severities not previously seen. Sub-zero temperatures during the winter and frost heaving, caused by freeze and thaw cycles early in the spring are likely the most important abiotic yield-limiting factors contributing to a one-third loss of planted winter wheat crop acreage in 2019 in Ontario, negatively impacting farmers and end users relying on the supply of winter wheat. Recently, preharvest sprouting has been a problem in Eastern Canada’s wheat production areas, resulting in significant grade reductions. Genetic resistance is the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner to protect the crops against abiotic and biotic stresses, combined with other protection measures in integrated disease and pest management strategies.

Ontario contributes roughly 7.9% of Canada’s total wheat production, and more than 76.5% of winter wheat is produced within the province. Canadian Eastern Soft Red Winter (CESRW) wheat offers a well-developed value chain that meets the direct consumption needs of Canadian and export markets and is the dominant small grain cereal in Eastern Canada (this wheat class is particularly dominant in Ontario with producers annually planting on average 0.85M acres or 344,000 ha), competing with corn and soybean for acres. High yields relative to spring cereals translate to better land use efficiency with winter wheat. CESRW supplies domestic and export markets (both milling and feed), and after milling is used for cakes, pastry, crackers, biscuits, and filling. Winter wheat is of value in the rotation and there is a need to keep the crop competitive with corn and soybean to help with soil health, weed management, and cropping system resiliency. Winter wheat is a cover crop itself and allows for easier inclusion of a cover crop post harvest (because it is harvested earlier than corn or soybean), resulting in a possible two years of over-winter cover in a rotation to improve soil health and keep soil on the farm.

Wheat improvement programs at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the University of Guelph (UG) will capitalize on existing germplasm pipelines and human capacity established during the most recent Canadian National Wheat Cluster (CNWC) under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (2018-2023) to provide improved CESRW cultivars to meet producer, end-user, and consumer needs. Uniquely, collaborating breeding programs in this project will coordinate breeding activities, select parents with key traits, plan new wheat hybridizations, and share the novel germplasm. Importantly, our collaborative approach will extend to shared trial sites in Eastern Canada to ensure the number of sites used for the evaluation of trait expression is sufficient to draw sound conclusions.

In summary, we will address the Government of Canada’s priorities around climate change and the environment, economic growth, and sector resiliency by developing CESRW cultivars that deliver high yield, short strong straw, and resilience to abiotic (specifically winter hardiness) and biotic (better disease resistance to FHB, rusts, and powdery mildew) stresses, resulting in a wheat crop with better quality (with low grain mycotoxin levels), more popularly grown CESRW cultivars, and a cropping system with better nutrient use efficiency and improved soil health, thereby reducing the impact of agriculture on the environment.

External Funding Partners:

This activity was funded in part by the Government of Canada under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s AgriScience Program, with industry support from the Canadian Field Crop Research Alliance (CFCRA). Grain Farmers of Ontario is a founding member of the CFCRA.