Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60SEPTEMBER 2016 23 1976 1978 Navigating 40 Years of Milestones First variety distributed by SeCan — Bruce barley from University of Guelph SeCan formed as public/ private partnership; 238 members; $150 annual membership; 540,000 acres of Certified seed inspected across Canada 1980 Columbus wheat registered — SeCan’s first big CWRS wheat 1982 Westar canola registered — helped establish canola as a major crop in Canada 1984 Kyle durum registered — becomes leading variety 1988-2004 1985 Harrington barley launched — becomes #1 two-row malt 1985-2001 Harus soft white winter wheat registered, becomes No.1 wheat variety in eastern Canada 1996 SeCan initiates collaborative research funding with public breeding programs; AC Metcalfe launched — becomes No. 1 malt barley from 2001-2015 2003 AC Lillian first sawfly resistant wheat registered – becomes leading CWRS 2008- 2004 AC® Strongfield durum wheat registered — becomes leading variety from 2008- present; SeCan offers first Roundup Ready® soybeans to members SeCan leads implementation of Midge Tolerant Wheat Stewardship program Absolute RR registered — becomes SeCan’s flagship Roundup Ready® soybean 2016 SeCan celebrates 40th anniversary — 17 staff, 700 members, $97 million returned to plant breeding partners since inception 2014 SeCan “reboots” Canada’s flax industry with release of re-constituted seed Synergy in the works, and has been successful in keeping itself relevant and effective to suit changing times. “I credit that success to the type of relationship we have between the board and management of SeCan,” Reid says. No doubt those needs are changing, as they’ve been for 40 years. According to Fell, growers at the time of SeCan’s inception were looking for a good middle ground between the two types of seed distribution systems that were preva- lent at the time — seed was either doled out by private companies that bought the rights to it, or by government. Both systems had major drawbacks. SeCan was a public-private partnership that essentially merged the two ways of doing things, bringing all stake- holders to the table. It distributed its first variety in 1978, Bruce barley from the University of Guelph. Columbus wheat was registered in 1980; it was SeCan’s first big CWRS wheat. In 2015, plant breeders rights legislation in the form of UPOV 91 finally became law in Canada, and SeCan has the top varieties in CWRS, CPS, durum, flax, malt barley, oats and soybeans. But with initiatives such as Seed Synergy in the hopper, growers could be looking at a much different seed land- scape. SeCan is poised to deal with those changes well, Reid says. “At SeCan, independent seedsmen are really the backbone of our business,” Reid says. “I think the seed industry has been viewed as a leader in being forward-thinking and collaborative. From the perspective of government, they’re paying a lot of attention right now to seed and to how it can be a model for how other industries can work effec- tively together.” In an effort to reach out and support variety developers in Canada, SeCan has pitched in to assist a number of other