JANUARY 2019 GERMINATION.CA 5 efficiency. For all the resources that we add — be it fertilizer, be it a unit of land, be it water — a more productive cultivar, a better-quality cultivar, means it uses the available resources better then inferior cultivars,” he says. “Genetic improvement in the long run has played a key role in producing enough food and feed for mankind on this planet. If you look at all the other resources that we put in, most of them are from non-renewa- ble resources. Nitrogen fertilizer, basically, is energy. And it gets more expensive and it’s damaging to the environment to some extent, while an improved cultivar is virtu- ally neutral to the environment. In the long run, I think breeding and improvement through genetics will increase in impor- tance relative to other input factors that we use in agriculture.” But in Canada, that genetic improve- ment may not happen as expeditiously as needed if more investment, both public and private, can’t be attracted in the cere- als sphere. The joint conference had that covered with a session on value creation, which is being discussed right now and, if implemented, will raise additional funds for cereals research through either an end- point royalty model or a trailing royalty applied to grain that farmers divert back to their farming operation for seed use (often referred to as farm-saved seed). TRANSFORMINGPOTENTIAL: RESEARCHHIGHLIGHTSFROMTHEJOINTCONFERENCE 9th Canadian Workshop on Fusarium Head Blight and 4th Canadian Wheat Symposium Unlocking the Polyploid Potential of Wheat: Several developments over the past 18 months have radically changed how researchers work with polyploid wheat. Both hexaploidy and tetraploid wheat now have whole genome sequences and reliable gene models. Using speed breeding, researchers can now routinely grow wheat in 10-week seed-to-seed cycles compared to the previous 16-20 weeks. For many purposes, wheat can now be almost as a model crop species. Re-evaluating the Winter Wheat Seeding Window: A study was conducted between 2013 and 2017 at 13 sites across the Prairies to re-evaluate the seeding window of winter wheat in light of the recent release of more cold-tolerant varieties as well as the introduction of fungicide seed treatments. What was learned? Winter wheat could be planted in October and even into early November at most sites in most years. Planting before Sept. 1 reduced winter wheat yield at most sites. Yield reductions for planting in October were not as large as expected. Winter wheat yields averaged across all sites were higher when planted with the seed treatment in two out of three years of the study. Creating a Shared Vision for Research Funding: Historically, producers have been very significant funders of wheat research and varietal development. Creating a shared vision for future research activities will be key to the success of future research funding initiatives. ABRIEFHISTORYOFFUSARIUMHEADBLIGHTONTHEPRAIRIES 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 Fusarium graminearum is first reported on corn stubble in Manitoba. 1923 Fusarium graminearum heavily infected a sample of Coulter amber durum and Sinton red spring wheat from the Red River Valley of southern Manitoba. 1984 1994 Fusarium head blight was still located primarily in the Red River Valley, but was less severe than in 1993. Trace levels of Fusarium head blight were found in Saskatchewan. 1997 Fusarium graminearum continued to be a rare species in Alberta and western Saskatchewan. However, it was detected in a few more locations near Edmonton, and for the first time in the Peace River area of Alberta. It was once again detected at very low levels in seed from the irrigated areas of southern Alberta. In southern Alberta, over 10% of the bread wheat and durum wheat was affected by fusarium head blight. 2009 Cristobal Uauy, John Innes Centre Yvonne Lawley, University of Manitoba Harvey Brooks, Sask Wheat