A review of wheat cultivars grown in the Canadian prairies

Wheat is Canada's largest crop with most of the production in the western Canadian prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Since wheat production started in western Canada, over 100 yr ago, market classes of hexaploid spring bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were the dominant type of wheat, although production of durum wheat [Triticum turgidum L. ssp. durum (Desf.) Husn.)] has grown significantly over this period, and hexaploid winter wheat was grown on a relatively small portion of the wheat area. Within hexaploid wheat there has been diversification into a number of market classes based on different end-use quality criteria. The predominant spring bread wheat class has been the Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) class. A few cultivars were grown extensively over a long period of time, such as the CWRS wheat Thatcher, which was the dominant cultivar from 1939 to 1968, and Kyle, which was the leading Canada Western Amber Durum (CWAD) cultivar from 1988 to 2004. Other cultivars dominated particular wheat classes for many years such as Glenlea, Canada Western Extra Strong (CWES) spring wheat and Norstar, Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW) wheat. The reasons for newer cultivars replacing older cultivars include improvements in grain yield, resistance to stem rust (Puccinia graminis Pers.:Pers. f. sp. tritici Eriks. & E. Henn.), leaf rust (Puccinia triticina Eriks.), and other diseases, resistance to wheat stem sawfly (Cephus cinctus Nort.), enhanced end-use quality, and other agronomic characteristics such as lodging resistance. Cultivars with improved pest resistance were often rapidly adopted, such as Thatcher and Selkirk, in response to the stem rust epidemics in the 1930s and 1950s, and Rescue and Lillian in response to wheat stem sawfly epidemics in the 1940s and 2000s. Improved grain yield led to the rapid increase of many cultivars including Marquis in the 1910s and 1920s, Neepawa, Wascana and Wakooma in the 1970s, AC Barrie in the 1990s, and Superb in the 2000s. Increased breeding efforts recently have led to many more highly adapted cultivars and subsequently more diverse wheat production. Wheat classes and cultivars in the prairies continue to improve and diversify to meet the challenges of the marketplace and the production concerns of wheat growers. Key words: Rust, fusarium head blight, cereal quality, protein