Volume 39, Number 15 | OCTOBER 7, 2013 $4.25 PRACTICAL PRODUCTION TIPS FOR THE PRAIRIE FARMER www.grainews.ca The next wave of canola research Western Canadian researchers hope to give new canola cultivars a shot in the peduncle by introducing genes from other plants LISA GUENTHER ntroducing genes from other plants into canola cultivars will do everything from bump up yields to fend off flea bee- Itles to impart disease resistance. Dr. Habibur Rahman, a canola researcher with the University of Alberta, is working on several projects to improve future canola cultivars. In one project, he and his research team are introducing genes from related crops such as cauliflower, cabbage, Chinese cab- bage, rutabagas, and Chinese kale to improve agronomics. “The main (goal) is to increase yield and to increase resistance to diseases like clubroot,” says Rahman. He also aims to improve other agronomic traits by diversi- fying canola’s germplasm. Right now Rahman is devel- oping germplasm in greenhouses and conducting field trials. In two or three years they will be testing some of the hybrids. If a par- ticularly promising hybrid comes along, it might move into com- mercial development, but right now the goal is to simply broaden the genetic basis of the canola germplasm. Viterra is contributing $1.6 mil- lion to the research in cash and in kind. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council is throwing in another $1.5 million. PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA The University of Alberta and Dr. Habibur Rahman is a canola researcher at the University of Alberta working to improve canola’s agronomic traits by diversifying the germplasm. Viterra will share ownership of new cultivars emerging from this Rahman hopes to transfer this like plants with hair. Instead of and stems of the plants after the governments. She says they now program. resistance into canola. But first he feeding, the pests jumped off the cotyledon stage. Although the have plants and seed ready for any Rahman is also working on needs to pinpoint exactly where plants, leaving them undamaged. cotyledons are hairless, they also companies that want to pick up another project to produce earlier in the chromosomes the resistance Dr. Margaret Gruber and her repel flea beetles. the germplasm. But so far none flowering canola. Once again, he genes are found. colleagues isolated genes respon- “We’re trying to understand have come forward to carry the is pulling in genes from cabbage Rahman also has additional sible for hair growth from canola why, when they’re smooth, they’re research to the commercial arena. and cauliflower type plant species. projects involving clubroot resist- and a plant called Arabidopsis, resistant,” says Gruber. “They may not pick it up because The genes cause canola to flower ance and molecular mapping of which is related to canola. By Gruber’s not yet sure whether a it’s transgenic and it would require three or four days earlier in the the resistance genes. inserting these genes into canola, refuge system would be needed in quite a lot of funds to take it field. “Now we are mapping the they created a hairy canola plant commercial varieties. “But we’re through the Canadian regulatory gene to find out where the genes FIGHTING FLEA BEETLES WITH that seems to repel flea beetles. starting to do those experiments system,” says Gruber. are located (in the genome) and HAIRY CANOLA Gruber says there is no yield and trying to get a sense if there Gruber and her colleagues are then trying to identify if the genes penalty with the hairy canola was a large field of hairy canola, now looking at how all genes have any negative effect on yield,” Researchers with Agriculture and plants they’ve developed. Seed what would happen.” involved in hair development says Rahman. Agri-Food Canada in Saskatoon quality and oil profile are well Gruber’s research has been express themselves in canola and Brassica carinata has excellent were studying flea beetle behav- within the limits prescribed for supported by Western Canada’s a broader range of species related resistance to all known virulent iour on different plants when they canola as well. canola producers associations, blackleg strains in North America. noticed that flea beetles didn’t The hair appears on the leaves plus the Alberta and Saskatchewan » CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 Publications Mail Agreement Number 40069240 In This Issue Wheat & Chaff .................. 2 Features ............................ 5 Crop Advisor’s Casebook 25 Columns ........................... 28 Machinery & Shop ............ 36 Cattleman’s Corner .......... 43 John Deere introduces A 5,600-km fence FarmLife ............................ 52 new equipment to control wild dogs SCOTT GARVEY PAGE 36 LEE HART PAGE 43 2 / grainews.ca OCTOBER 7, 2013 Wheat & Chaff STAMPEDE BY JERRY PALEN LEEANN MINOGUE f you let this issue of Grainews sit in a pile on your cof- fee table for a few weeks before you opened it up, Iwe’re probably still working on harvest here at our farm in south- east Saskatchewan. Things have just been slow this season. We seeded late, and now we’re harvesting late. This is even true for the half of our crop that didn’t see hail damage. And you know how it is — once things get late, the days get shorter, and the whole harvest project seems to go on forever. It seems very wrong to have to climb out of the swather early so I can take our little boy to skating practice! I just hope I don’t PHOTO: BRAD BARLOW wind up taking Christmas dinner The new combine is performing well in the field. out to the combine. It’s a bit disappointing, hearing reports of 100-bushel wheat crops He spent some time working on IN THIS ISSUE when so many of our fields were farms in Australia, and has writ- taken out by a July hailstorm. First, here’s what’s not in this ten a great article explaining how But on the bright side, the wheat issue: A subscriber phoned in to you can do this too (or at least that wasn’t hail damaged and that let us know that in the September send one of your kids to do it). “That was fun! I invited them all back we’ve managed to get into the issue, we ran the weather map Find this on Page 18. tomorrow for leftovers” bin has been some of the best for July/August. Oops. We’re very One of my cousins worked on crops my husband has seen on his sorry. There’s a more current map a harvesting crew in Australia one farm. Unfortunately we barely got this time. winter (summer in Australia). He CONTACT US things started when a bunch of Now, for this issue. I considered came home with an outrageously dark clouds settled in for a three- calling this “The Sirski Edition.” disgusting story about putting a day rain. Not only do we have Andy Sirski’s small kangaroo through a combine. Write, Email or Fax Earlier this year I wrote about regular Off-Farm Income column I don’t know if this could actually SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES: our trip to the factory in Nebraska in the Columns section (Page happen or not (Steven didn’t men- to watch our new Case IH com- 34), but Andy has also written a tion if this happened to him). I do Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (CST) 1-800-665-0502 bine roll off the assembly line. short piece on an old-time thresh- know that most of my relatives U.S. subscribers call 1-204-944-5568 Now it’s out in the field. With a ing fundraiser for the Canada never like to let the truth get in the or email: [email protected] few minor kinks out of the way, all Foodgrains Bank (Page 24). And, way of a good story, so I’ll probably systems are go. The high-yielding I’m very pleased to tell you that never know for sure. wheat crop was a great way to this issue also includes an arti- Enjoy this issue. If you have story ideas, call us. You can write the article and we’d break it in. cle by Andy Sirski’s son, Steven. Leeann pay you, or we can write it. Phone Leeann Minogue at 306-861-2678 Fax to 204-944-5416 Moonlighting Grainews staff Email [email protected] rainews field editor have been a terrible pioneer — I Write to Grainews, 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, Man. R3H 0H1 Lisa Guenther has complain when the WiFi in our been using her free house goes down for half an HEARTS time to write a book. hour. But the men and women GIt’s a mystery novel, set in small- who first worked this soil lived town Saskatchewan. She’s fin- through hardships I can bare- Ask for hearts ished a draft, printed it out, and ly imagine. And most of them When you renew your subscription to now she’s been awarded sec- didn’t even have smart phones. Grainews, be sure to ask for six Please ond place in the Saskatchewan The main character of Dollybird, Be Careful, We Love You hearts. Then Writers Guild’s annual John V. Moira, came to Saskatchewan in stick them onto equipment that you, Hicks contest. 1906. All alone. Then she became your loved ones and your employees If you’re not a Saskatchewan a “dollybird.” operate. That important message could writer, you won’t know what In those days, dollybird was a save an arm, a leg or a life.