b'He laughs when hes asked about how hes been so successfulforTHE BUZZ ABOUT ROB GRAFGraf, the odds are always against a plant breeder.As breeders, we throw out wellThe Alberta Regional Variety Advisory Committee over 99% of what we do, he says.has been chaired by Rob for the past decade. The The lines we select are the result ofresult of his keen eye for detail is improved province-a stringent selection process and if theyre good enough, theyre regis- wide consistency of the regional variety trial data. tered as varieties. Some of the linesAll aspects of the crop sector benefit when there is we develop may be deficient in someconfidence in these trial results. ways but they make good parents and become building blocks we canRenee Hoyme, Alberta Seed Growers presidentuse to make the next breakthrough. You take small steps forward until you end up with something signifi-cant years down the line.Graf grew up on a farm in centralI came across a publication where Rob described Saskatchewan. As the oldest child inthe person who inspired the name of the first double the family, there were a lot of respon-sibilities he had to carry out that puthaploid wheat as someone whose career was him on the path towards developingdedicated to the practice of agrology and service to a love of agriculture. Going to thefarmers. For anyone who knows Rob, its apparent he University of Saskatchewan and pur-suing a bachelors degree in ag andhas the same dedication. then a PhD in plant breeding seemedChris Churko, FP Genetics CEOlike logical steps.After a 12-year stint as a spring wheat breeder for the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, he ended up breed- was also the first doubled haploidbreeders and all of the various end-ing winter wheat for Agriculturewheat released in North America andusers, he says. and Agri-Food Canada based out ofis the most popular privately devel- Its one of the conduits where Lethbridge. oped CWRS wheat variety to date. breeders get insights into what is When I started here in 1999,AC Emerson was the first varietyimportant to the industry. Part of the there were virtually no winter wheatof any wheat class in Canada to getsuccess of any breeder is to have an varieties on the market that hadan R rating to FHB.understanding of what the industry disease resistance of any kind. It wasAAC Wildfire, which recentlyneeds and be there when that need pretty clear we needed to do a lot ofreceived registration, represents aarises.work incorporating all types of resist- new yield level for winter wheat onBut, he adds, before a true revolu-ance into the crop, and weve defi- the Prairies. tion in winter wheat can really take nitely managed to do that, he says. But he doesnt just care aboutplace, the industry needs to change Grafs breeding program is at aagronomic performance. Graf takesparadigms among farmers. The point where one of his recent vari- into consideration both the interestsnumber of winter wheat acres in eties, currently known as W569of farmers and the preferences of endWestern Canada still pales in com- which received support for reg- users, the latter of whom are lookingparison to spring wheat.istration at the 2019 meeting of thefor winter wheat that has better flourWe need to get farmers thinking Prairie Grain Development Committeewater absorption. The more waterabout adding winter cereals into theirnow exceeds all disease require- that flour absorbs when dough is pro- rotations and understanding the asso-ments for its class. It has resistance toduced, the less costly it is to produceciated benefits. Many producers still stem rust, leaf and stripe rust, fusar- an end product like bread. say, I dont want to be seeding when ium head blight (FHB) and bunt. This has been a really diffi- I should be harvesting. We need to Hes proud of the fact his firstcult trait to correct but were finallyget them thinking, I should be seed-varietyMcKenziewas amongmaking progress on this, he says. ing rather than harvesting right now. the Top 5 CWRS varieties in WesternWorking with groups like theThats when winter wheat will really Canada for almost a decade. McKenzieCSTA helps bridge the gap betweentake off. 22GERMINATION.CA JANUARY 2020'