12 Thank You for Your Trust & Time, Since 1999 Better Farming | December 2024 Research & Farm Science On Canadian wheat fields, a silent threat is shrivelling the golden yields of wheat. Fusarium head blight (FHB), a disease caused by a fungal pathogen, is devastating crops, producing mycotoxins that can rapidly damage plants, wither the kernels in the head of wheat and cost the economy billions of dollars in damaged goods. Climate change is only fanning the fungus. Hotter temperatures and heavier rainfall are the ideal breeding ground for the FHB pathogen, as more spores are released in the warm, moist conditions becoming increasingly common on Ontario’s farms. On the frontlines of this battle is Dr. Helen Booker, leader of the wheat breeding program at the University of Guelph. For the last four years, the plant agriculture professor has been meticulously breeding wheat varieties to withstand FHB and other diseases and testing them at sites in Ontario’s network of crop research centres. As Canada is a global supplier of wheat, and the majority of winter wheat is produced in Ontario, Booker’s hope is to give farmers a fighting chance to ensure that wheat remains a dependable source of food for the entire world. “Our lab was considered essential during the pandemic,” Booker says. “We can’t just stop. And because the end-use market for most winter wheat in Ontario is for the production of flour for pastries, pizza dough and bread, we can’t have contaminated grain. That’s not an option.” From breeding to bread: How to give the world healthy grains Booker’s wheat breeding program is a feat of industry and government collaboration to supply the world with healthy grains. Together with private and public partners and a team of professional staff, graduate and undergraduate students, she breeds varieties for disease resistance but also for traits economically critical to farmers: high yield, optimal maturity time, height and structural strength. Since Booker took over leadership in 2020, the program has already brought five new varieties of wheat to market. One standout is OAC Constellation, named in honour of the Ontario Agricultural College. It is the first Canadian eastern soft red winter wheat release that’s now considered the standard by which other similar varieties are tested. Others, like OAC Virgo and OAC Moon, are the keys to our cakes, pastries, cereals, crackers and biscuits. “It’s a constant battle for improvement and staying ahead of the pathogen,” Booker says, as one new seed represents years of careful genetic selection, disease-resistance testing and field trials. “We need collaboration to get all the information we need.” To craft the perfect wheat, Booker essentially crosses elite parent lines to create multiple generations of crops containing ideal traits. Wheat rusts are introduced to these test crops to identify survivors with natural resistance that will advance through the proBREEDING THE PERFECT WHEAT Researchers look for strains resilient to devastating diseases. Based on a recent release from the Unversity of Guelph. U of G researcher Connor Belot analyzes FHB nursery data. University of Guelph photo
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