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 53 INDUSTRY NEWS Designed for seed professionals, Industry News delivers the people, industry, business and product news you need to know. Submissions are welcome. Email us at news@issuesink.com. INDUSTRY NEWS Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Lawrence MacAulay reports that the Government of Canada has invested $35.3 million for infrastructure improvements at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) Swift Current Research and Development Centre. The centre is being renovated and new laboratories are being built, which are used extensively to support AAFC’s wheat breeding program and other research on forages and cereals. Barley grower organizations from the three prairie provinces and the Western Grains Research Foundation are investing $2.4 million during the next five years in the barley variety development program at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre. The $2.4 million will be allocated toward breeding varieties in three market categories: two-row malting, two-row general purpose and two-row hulless (food/malt). In a recent study, a University of British Columbia researcher Michael Deyholos identified the genes responsible for the bane of many Canadian flax farmers’ existence: the fibres in the plant’s stem. With further research, scientists might one day be able to help farmers make money off a waste material that wreaks havoc on farm equipment and costs hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to deal with. The Governments of Canada and Manitoba are investing $270,000 in a pilot project to increase the use of pulse flours in the commercial bread-making industry, creating new opportunities to expand markets and value-added processing. The Agricultural Institute of Canada released its 2016 Conference Report, which spotlights the need to better disseminate research results to farmers, industry, academia, consumers and among the research community. One key finding is that research dissemination has often been neglected in past policy or is left until the end of the project cycle, which needs to change to increase stakeholder engagement and allow for greater impact. Another is that the sector needs to find new ways to incent and support knowledge transfer. A new University of Toronto study has identified “superstar” rice varieties that can reduce fertilizer loss and cut down on environmental pollution. The study, authored by University of Toronto Scarborough professor Herbert Kronzucker in collaboration with a team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, looked at 19 rice varieties to see which ones were more efficient at using nitrogen. Researchers found that key microbial reactions that lead to inefficient nitrogen capture can be reduced in certain varieties through the action of those specific chemicals released from root cells. A breakthrough on the DNA sequencing of the peanut promises the development of varieties with enhanced traits such as increased pod and oil yield, drought and heat tolerance and greater disease resistance. A team of 51 scientists from nine institutes in China, India, the United States and Australia, including the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), have decoded the complete DNA sequencing of the ancestor of the peanut, the diploid A-genome. Other significant traits this could help develop include aflatoxin- free, nutrition-rich and allergen-free varieties. The Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists coordinated the annual honeybee wintering loss report for 2015/16 in Canada. Harmonized questions based on national beekeeping industry profiles were used in the survey. In this year’s survey, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador was included for the first time. The provincial apiculturists collected survey data from beekeepers across Canada. The responded beekeepers operated 441,640 honey colonies. This represents 61.15 per cent of all colonies operated and wintered in Canada in 2015. The national percentage of colony winter loss was 16.8 per cent with individual provincial percentage ranging from 7.7 per cent to 24.4 per cent. The overall national colony loss reported in 2016 is one of the lowest losses since 2006/07. Despite reported wintering losses in recent years across Canada, beekeepers have been able to replace their dead colonies and increase the number of colonies from 2007 to 2015 by 22.4 per cent. Researchers at the University of Delaware have found that incorporating rice husk to soil can decrease toxic inorganic arsenic levels in rice grain by 25 to 50 per cent without negatively affecting yield. This research could have important implications for developing countries whose populations rely on rice as a staple of their diets and are in need of cheap, readily available material to improve soil quality and decrease arsenic levels. BUSINESS NEWS 20/20 Seed Labs has been formally approved to provide zygosity testing for licensed Monsanto events in canola and soybean. Qualified events include RT73 and MON88302 in canola; 40-3-2, A19788 and A92205 in soybean. These new services support breeder work to develop new seed varieties and can be performed on single seed or single leaf samples. The Canadian Seed Trade Association relocated its office as of Aug. 18. The new address is 130 Albert Street, Suite 500, Ottawa, ON K1P 5G4. CSTA’s new office location brings the association to downtown Ottawa, just a few blocks from Parliament Hill and much closer to the offices of other important industry associations. The move positions CSTA for growth and success as it advances the strategic priorities of members. A Saskatchewan-based company plans to open a chain of independent crop input retail sites in Saskatchewan and