JOCELYN VELESTUK KNOWS  farmers are natural systems think­
ers. They have to be. Every season requires them to understand 
enough about agronomy, weather, machinery, markets and 
finance to make decisions that eventually meet in the same 
places: the bin and the balance sheet.
“We have to know enough about everything in order to 
make those decisions,” says Velestuk, a Saskatchewan farmer 
and chair of the Canadian Wheat Research Coalition (CWRC) 
and chair of Sask Wheat Development Commission (Sask 
Wheat).
Now, farmers are being asked to apply that thinking to 
something much larger: the future of Canada’s wheat breeding 
system.
It represents a significant shift in responsibility. Producers 
have long helped finance wheat research through their check­
offs. They have identified priorities, served on research commit­
tees and grown the resulting varieties. As changes to the federal 
research capacity creates questions about how the breeding 
system will function in the future, Velestuk is providing the 
important producer perspective to help farmers move from 
funding individual breeding programs to shaping how the 
entire system functions.
The question is no longer simply which research projects 
farmers should support. It is whether the people, plots, testing 
systems and seed multiplication capacity needed to carry an 
idea from the laboratory to a commercial field will still be con­
nected 10 or 15 years from now.
For Velestuk, farmers cannot remain observers in that 
discussion.
“We need to keep that pipeline full,” she says. “We need to 
keep those varieties coming. We need to keep plant breeders 
working with a long-term vision, and we need to keep them 
connected to the latest technologies.”
Jocelyn Velestuk helps bring farmers’ voices 
into decisions about wheat breeding funding — 
and the system that will deliver Canada’s next 
generation of varieties.
By Marc Zienkiewicz
WHO WILL 
BUILD THE NEXT 
BRANDON?
Jocelyn Velestuk says farmers cannot remain observers in 
the wheat breeding discussion.
28   SEEDWORLD.COM/CANADA   NOVEMBER 2026

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