20131003

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2013

VOL. 91 | NO. 40 | $4.25

Tough sell? Larger than expected volumes of grain cause price slump | P. 6

GROWING WITH FARMERS FOR 90 YEARS

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WWW.PRODUCER.COM

CLASS FIELD TRIP

FIELDS OF DREAMS: Our annual harvest photo feature begins on page 24

RESEARCH | CROP BREEDING

‘Game changing’ breeding nears Crop breeding’s holy grail | Pollination would no longer be required in seed production BY SEAN PRATT SASKATOON NEWSROOM

Scientists are making strides on the “holy grail” of crop breeding and canola is the crop where the new technology is the most advanced. “This would be the single biggest revolutionary change created by biotechnology for crops,” said Paul Arni-

son, president of Botanical Alternatives Inc., an agricultural biotechnology consulting firm. The technology centres on a process known as apomixis, where the female reproductive system of certain plants occasionally produces seed without pollination. Scientists have known about the process since the dawn of crop breed-

ing but they haven’t been able to get a handle on it until recently, said Wilf Keller, president of Ag-West Bio Inc. “It has been too hard to manage and understand but now with whole genomic sequencing we can maybe get at those complex genes that trigger the process,” he said. “It could revolutionize the way we develop hybrid vigour.”

That’s because pollination would no longer be required in the seed production process. Arnison said Tim Sharbel, a Canadian researcher working for a German plant genetics company, has made huge strides in understanding how the apomixtic process works in canola. SEE ‘GAME CHANGING’, PAGE 2

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u|xhHEEJBy00001pzYv%:! OCTOBER 3, 2013 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Box 2500, Saskatoon, SK. S7K 2C4 The Western Producer is published in Saskatoon by Western Producer Publications, which is owned by GVIC Communications Corp. Publisher: Shaun Jessome Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240

Grades 4 and 5 students from Delisle Elementary School walk out of a 200 acre wheat field being harvested for Delisle Crops for Community, Sept. 10. Students observed a part of the crop, which had no fertilizer applied, to see the effects and how the yield compares. The project is a fundraiser for recreation facility upgrades in Delisle. The town owns the land and agreed to let a group of volunteers farm it for the next four years with all proceeds being turned back to the community. Agrium and Cervus Equipment in Saskatoon are major sponsors. | WILLIAM DEKAY PHOTO


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