A field pea breeding program in Lacombe, AB is paying dividends for the Canadian pulse growers who help fund it.
Field pea is Canada’s most widely grown pulse crop. Canada also leads the world in field pea production and exports.
The research program aims to breed superior field pea varieties with greater yield, disease resistance, environmental resilience, and protein content. So far, researchers have developed or released more than 30 new varieties of field pea since 2003, in a range of market classes that include yellow, maple, and marrowfat peas. The study also investigated the correlation between seed yield and protein concentration in field pea.
One of the most significant outcomes of the researchers’ current five-year project is a new yellow pea variety called AAC Planet, which is high-yielding and offers resistance to powdery mildew. AAC Planet is on its way to market as a result of this research program, said Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researcher and project lead Dr. Dengjin Bing.
Powdery mildew can blemish pods, cause the plant to ripen prematurely, and result in shrunken seed, leading to smaller yields and higher production costs for farmers choosing to attack the mildew with fungicides. That is bad news for field pea growers.
Bing and his research team registered AAC Planet with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in January 2022. It has now been licensed to SeedNet Inc. in Alberta. The certified seed of this variety should be available to interested pea growers in the next few years.
In fact, growers can expect to see a steady flow of new and improved field pea varieties like this in the coming years as a result of this program. “Although we continue to release improved field pea varieties to Canadian pulse growers, the varieties have not yet reached a yield plateau,” Bing said.
That is even more positive news for growers, because it means researchers still see plenty of potential ahead for breeding increasingly productive traits into Canada’s pulse crops before they reach the limits of what is possible.
Not that it has been one win after another for Bing and his team. “It is frustrating that we have not yet developed more varieties with both strong yield and higher protein content,” he said. “Breeding the two features together into one variety has proven enormously difficult.”
While researchers continue to work on solving that problem, Bing noted that it may be necessary, in the end “to strike a balance between the two traits somewhere in the middle.”
Knowledge and understanding like this are as important a research outcome as new, improved varieties. Every inch of progress builds on the efforts of previous research. The breeding materials being developed today will enable tomorrow’s breeding programs to develop still better varieties—and possibly exceed the limits of what was impossible yesterday.
“Canadian pulse farmers deserve enormous credit for this progress,” Bing said. “We are dedicated to doing everything possible to ensure that the research they help fund produces new varieties that make their operations more profitable.”
The Pulse Research Cluster includes Alberta Pulse Growers, Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, Ontario Bean Growers, Saskatchewan Pulse Growers and Pulse Canada and is supported by the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada AgriScience Clusters Program under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

New research is shedding light on how genetic resistance and management strategies might work together to deliver an effective one-two punch in the fight against root rot in pea and lentil.
An Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) project called Breeding, physiology and agronomy to mitigate yield loss caused by root rots of pea set out to evaluate how well pea lines developed in the United States (U.S.) with partial resistance to Aphanomyces or Fusarium root rot performed under Canadian conditions.
“What we found is lines that are resistant to one pathogen were not resistant to the other,” said lead investigator and AAFC plant pathologist Dr. Syama Chatterton.
That makes the task more challenging for breeders trying to develop pea and lentil lines with greater resistance to both pathogens in one plant. More challenging—but not impossible.
The varieties that demonstrated greater resistance have been singled out for in-depth analysis of the traits that might contribute to their disease resistance. While the analysis is still in progress, Chatterton believes it will lead to varieties with stronger genetic resistance in the years ahead.
Genetic resistance cannot do the job alone. Root rot is notoriously difficult to manage because it is caused by multiple pathogens that can survive in the soil for a long time.
“It takes all the tools in the toolbox to fight something that complex,” Chatterton explained. “Partially resistant cultivars of field peas and lentils are a good start, but once we have them, we need solid agronomic practices that maximize their effectiveness in the field and safeguard the levels of resistance we have developed so far.”
A second stage of the project looked exclusively at field peas to assess the impact of intercropping and crop rotation on test crops grown at six sites in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
From these studies, researchers learned that intercropping pea with canola, mustard, or oats did not reduce pea root rot disease severity—but did often result in higher pea yields compared to the pea monocrop. However, this did not occur at all sites or in all years, especially during dry years.
“We would like to test if intercropping will slow down the buildup of pathogens in the soil, but that is more difficult to research,” Chatterton said.
Chatterton and her team also conducted a crop rotation study to find out whether a root rot tolerant pulse crop was a safe option for growers hoping to maintain a pulse within their cropping system. They found that soybean, faba bean, and chickpea were not colonized by Aphanomyces euteiches, but could be infected by some Fusarium species.
Including these pulse crops in a rotation with pea did not increase pea root rot severity, however, and in some cases provided a yield boost to the subsequent pea crop, which surprised Chatterton.
“Whether this is due to a residual nitrogen effect or to a reduction in pathogen inoculum is something we look forward to exploring in future research,” she said.
Another major finding confirms that extended rotations from pea are necessary to reduce root rot effects.
“At most sites, root rot severity and yield did not improve after a six-year break, which is the longest interval we were able to achieve with the study design,” she noted.
Root rot severity and yields were usually the worst in the wet years, highlighting that mid-June rainfalls are the biggest drivers of pea root rot.
Chatterton said she knows the frustrations of pulse growers dealing with pea and lentil root rot, and stressed that more and more experts across a range of fields, from genetics and precision agriculture to soil health, are joining the fight.
“Results from the in-depth analysis of the partially resistant plant material we collected will open up whole new avenues for research as we try to tease apart what makes a plant resistant, and why plants are resistant to one root rot disease and not the other,” Chatterton explained. “I always get excited that the next line of research may lead to a breakthrough in figuring out this pathogen complex. For now, we are figuring it out in small increments.”
The Pulse Research Cluster includes Alberta Pulse Growers, Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, Ontario Bean Growers, Saskatchewan Pulse Growers and Pulse Canada and is supported by the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada AgriScience Clusters Program under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

With more pulse processing capacity open for business in Western Canada, and under development in Alberta, processors want to buy peas with higher protein content.  Meanwhile, growers want high yield and agronomic traits like standability and early maturity.

That puts Dr. D.J. Bing squarely in the middle. Over the past 20-plus years, his breeding program has developed and registered more than 30 pea varieties – with some newer varieties having protein content of 25% to 26%.

“We are still very active in pursuing breeding for high protein content,” said Bing, Lacombe-based Pulse Breeder with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. “Some people are very keen on higher protein content, but in my view, we need to find a balance.”

In the past, Bing has identified pea germplasm with protein as high as 30%. That would certainly delight protein-hungry processors. In trying to introduce this sky-high protein into new cultivars, though, yield has typically declined because there is a strong negative association between yield and protein content.

Bing recommends the industry think in terms of grain yield and protein yield per hectare. These terms measure how much pea and protein can be produced per unit of land. He is trying to find a balance that gives both the highest grain yield and protein yield.

“If you overemphasize protein content, which is measured as the percentage of dry seed weight, you could end up with a variety having high protein content and low yield, and consequently less grain and protein yield per hectare,” Bing explained. “An ideal variety should give the most protein yield for processors and the greatest grain yield for growers.”

Bing is proud of what his team has accomplished over the past two decades. He’ll maintain a steady hand in breeding in a balanced way for yield, protein and agronomic traits. Still, he cautions, the big gains of the past could be difficult to repeat in the coming years.

“The question is: how much can we push the protein without sacrificing yield?” Bing said. “I think in a way, the more progress you make, the more you approach a wall that’s going to hold you back.”

Funded in part by the Government of Canada under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s AgriScience Program, a federal, provincial, territorial initiative.

Livestock and crop producers are joining forces to tap federal funding to develop and test Beneficial Management Practices under real-world Alberta conditions.

When you think about it, every farm is a kind of laboratory for new practices. You try a new crop, you approach seeding or harvest in a different way, you tweak the way you feed and handle livestock. If the experiment works, you might try it on a bigger scale. If it doesn’t, you look at something different to meet your operational goal.

When the issues are complex, the stakes are high and society is watching, the canvas for the experiment needs to be bigger. Enter the Living Laboratories Initiative.

Living Labs is a 10-year, $185 million program announced by the federal government, intended to establish a Canada-wide network that will develop and test Beneficial Management Practices to improve farm resilience in the face of climate change and help mitigate further change.

How will Alberta participate in Living Labs? A team quarterbacked by Karin Schmid and Dr. Sheri Strydhorst has submitted a funding proposal that’s supported by Alberta Pulse Growers.

“Canadian ag producers want to be recognized as good stewards and are looking to make their operations more resilient,” said Schmid, Lead of Beef Production and Extension with Alberta Beef Producers.

Strydhorst, Agronomy Research Specialist with Alberta Wheat and Barley Commission, added: “We’d like to be active province-wide with ‘spokes’ in the Peace region, west of Edmonton and Lethbridge.”

Collaboration and integration are key

As Strydhorst explained, the team has proposed to develop and test Beneficial Management Practices in areas such as crop rotation, cropping systems, livestock feed and nutrient management.

“We will focus on producer needs and test ideas under real-life conditions,” she said. “We want to explore best practices that work for the producer in their operation, and also achieve goals such as carbon sequestration and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.”

To Schmid, it’s important that Alberta’s Living Labs recognizes that any change to management practices can have ripple-effects elsewhere in the farming operation. These need to be examined in an integrated fashion, considering the whole farm not just one area.

“There are possible synergies, for example, between beef production, forages and cropping systems,” she said. “One idea we have is to introduce forages into cropping systems. A second is about conversion of marginal lands into other uses. We also want look at the use of manure for fertilizer. We’re focused on what’s practical, but we’ll be working on some concepts that will be a bit different for growers.”

It’s easy enough for someone to recommend that producers change their production practices. For new ideas to be adopted, it’s important to understand how such decisions are made at the farm level. Living Labs includes a framework for taking these factors into account.

Strydhorst, who earned her PhD studying pulse crops, expects that pulse crops will be front and center as Living Labs gets rolling in Alberta.

“Pulse crops are set to expand, and they can contribute a lot environmentally,” she said. “For the producer who might be on the fence, we can measure the farm’s cost of adaptation to growing pulses versus the cost to not grow pulses. We can compare the opportunity to the risk and show data to help these growers arrive at a decision that’s right for their operation.”

Canada’s dry bean breeding programs have been successful in developing cultivars that suit the needs of the country’s bean-growing regions.

Now, Dr. Valerio Hoyos-Villegas wants more — much more. He recently began a five-year project to look deep into the dry bean genome, locate previously inaccessible genetic material and use it for a big leap forward.

“This project brings innovation to the framework of how dry bean breeding is done,” said Hoyos-Villegas, Assistant Professor in Plant Breeding and Genetics at McGill University in Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec. “We want to access genetic innovation, but the ability to maintain and generate novel genetic variations has limitations. Large regions of the genome remain locked to breeding programs.”

As Hoyos-Villegas explains, with new tools and information, breeders are starting to understand in more detail the mechanisms and patterns at work in the genome. By creating new and unique combinations, the reward for breeders and growers alike would be significant.

“If we can uncover new variations that haven’t been leveraged in the past, it could further the capacity of breeding programs,” Hoyos-Villegas said. “It could also ultimately result in a 12% increase in yield. This a big challenge. We’re trying to bring information that’s developed over many years – and use that to further improve the capacity of breeding programs. We’re reaching for the stars here.”

A decade after its first appearance in Alberta, this causal agent of root rot in peas has slowly given up its secrets. This scientist believes collaboration will be key to future progress.

Back in 2011, many pea growers in Alberta noticed a high degree of yellowing in their crops that had a devastating impact on yield. This disease threat was clearly serious, but what exactly was it?

“When you don’t know what you’re facing, there needs to be a journey of discovery,” said Dr. Syama Chatterton, Lethbridge-based Plant Pathologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. “We started from there.”

Over the next decade, Chatterton led the effort to get to the bottom of this disease threat. Looking back, it offers a playbook for how research can deal with emerging diseases and provides lessons to learn from.

What is it? After an intensive survey where the pathogen was first found, comparison with known pathogens confirmed that this was Aphanomyces root rot. “Aphanomyces can be quite challenging to detect and culture,” Chatterton noted. “We tested a molecular technique and that established that we had it.”

How widespread? The news here was not good. Surveys found that, rather than being a pathogen that could be contained locally, Aphanomyces was present all across the prairies.

How about resistant cultivars and fungicides? Do some pea varieties show at least partial resistance when in the presence of Aphanomyces? Chatterton found none. Over the past 10 years, she’s also examined both registered fungicides and products in the pipeline to see if there was anything promising. So far, this doesn’t look like a viable solution.

How can we help growers? Chatterton wanted to develop a test to allow growers to determine what level of Aphanomyces is in their fields. If it’s high, they need to refrain from growing peas on that land for years. “It worked great in wetter years like 2014 and 2016 but we stalled out in some dry years, which made it challenging to offer a test to growers.”

Despite both wins and setbacks to this point, Chatterton sees exciting developments on the horizon. With funding from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership AgriScience Program, she’s broadened the Aphanomyces research team to include experts in genomics, genetics and chemistry.

“One of the lessons we’ve learned with Aphanomyces is to try to put together a team with diverse experience as early as possible,” Chatterton said. “There’s an Aphanomyces community in Canada, the U.S. and France that’s small but very open to collaboration.”

The COVID-19 pandemic caused about a 20% decrease in Aphanomyces work in 2020, due in part to diminished lab capacity. Chatterton’s program returned to near-normal in 2021. She and her colleagues expect to be at full strength as they continue this critically important work in 2022.

While farmers are understandably frustrated by the impact of Aphanomyces on their production and livelihood, it’s comforting to know that Chatterton and her diverse team are going hard on the case. Professionally speaking, there’s nowhere she’d rather be.

“It’s a pathologist’s dream to work on a project like this,” Chatterton said. “We still don’t have immediate solutions, so that means we’re going to have to think outside the box. It’s been 10 years already but I expect to be working on Aphanomyces for the next 25.”

Funded in part by the Government of Canada under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s AgriScience Program, a federal, provincial, territorial initiative.

Over the past 18-plus years, Dr. Parthiba Balasubramanian’s dry bean breeding program has delivered new variety after new variety to the province’s growers. For the past decade or more, he’s focused on combining high yield and early maturity. More recently, another criterion has entered the picture and influenced the program.

Balasubramanian is in regular contact with bean growers and Viterra, which contracts dry bean production in southern Alberta.

“We can implement changes based on what we hear from the industry,” explained Balasubramanian, whose program is based at AAFC’s Lethbridge Research and Development Centre. “One example is in yellow bean, the third largest bean class grown in Canada. There are cultivars with different levels of yellow colour and brightness. We learned that a brighter or more intense yellow is preferred by the consumer. Because breeding is a long-term endeavour, the sooner we get information like this, the better.”

Balasubramanian’s program developed the yellow bean variety AAC Y073. It has the brightest colour of any yellow bean cultivar registered in Canada. Chalk up another win for breeder-buyer-grower collaboration.

“It’s in everyone’s interest that we work together,” Balasubramanian said. “Viterra doesn’t have to work with this breeding program, they can work with anyone they like. Breeding brighter yellow beans directly translates into consumer preference – and ensures market access for Alberta-grown beans. In some cases, this could earn a premium for the dry bean industry in southern Alberta.”

Funded in part by the Government of Canada under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s AgriScience Program, a federal, provincial, territorial initiative.

After five years studying faba bean agronomy, this researcher still believes strongly in the crop. Now, she wants to understand the potential and reality of lupins.

You can talk about which pulse crop has the most protein. You can debate which is easier or harder to harvest. But when it comes to a pulse crop that has big potential but is frustratingly difficult to figure out? That’s faba bean.

Robyne Davidson has spent the past five years working on faba bean agronomy, and she’s a flat-out fan of the crop.

“It’s a fantastic crop that has great potential in a crop rotation, even better than field pea,” said Davidson, Lacombe-based applied research scientist with Lakeland College. “They stand better than peas, there’s less disease concern and it’s not a hard crop to work with. Faba beans are horrible in dry years, where peas have problems in wet years.”

From 2016 to 2020, Davidson researched faba bean from several angles, including disease protection and crop nutrition. Her goal was to answer key agronomic questions for a crop that has been little-studied compared to other pulses. In several instances, faba bean defied expectations for what ought to work.

Anecdotally, some will tell you that macro-nutrients (K & S) and micro-nutrients (such as boron) can give faba beans a healthy boost. With peas known to benefit from a fungicide treatment, Davidson tested the application of multiple pea fungicides on faba bean. Neither nutrition nor fungicide moved the needle as much as expected.

“For the most part, faba beans aren’t as sensitive to macro- and micro-nutrients as we would have thought,” she said. “We also didn’t find that the fungicide was that beneficial.”

Focus turns to lupins

Many pulse farmers, knowing that Davidson is working on lupins, have emailed her asking for some seed. Her answer is a polite not yet.

“Lupins have high protein and they stand well, but there’s just so much we don’t know about this crop,” Davidson said. “Commercially launching a crop too quickly will ensure limited producer uptake later. I personally feel we need to be cautious until we have learned more.”

That’s the goal of a new, three-year project being funded by Alberta Pulse Growers and Results Driven Agriculture Research. Davidson wants to address some of the agronomic concerns that would quickly come to light if growers started planting lupins at scale. As with faba beans until recently, lupins have not yet had the agronomic research scrutiny they need.

“This is not a crop you can put in and forget about,” Davidson explained. “Lupins are prone to shattering and they lack a good herbicide package. When farmers ask about lupins, I tell them the crop needs 8-10 inches of rain, and many areas in Alberta don’t get that.”

Davidson will spend the next three years attempting to unravel some of the unknowns about lupins. She’s determined not to give growers too much hope until the basics of this crop are better understood.

“We need to put a crop in the hands of producers that they can be successful with,” Davidson said. “With lupins, the potential is there but not yet. People look at lupins as they do soybeans – but in my view, we’re not there with soybeans either.”

Sectional control technologies are widely available across the Canadian prairies for modern day sowing, seeding and planting equipment. With funding from the Canadian Agriculture Partnership, the Prairie Agriculture Machinery Institute conducted in-field testing during the 2020 growing season to measure seeded overlap acres of different seeding equipment. Three different types of air seeder equipment were tested in-field to determine actual product overlap on both a pea and canola crop at headlands and around an obstacle.

This Phase II report can help farmers determine which sectional control technology may be a fit on their farm and inform them of importance of calibration to ensure proper shut off and reduced overlap.

Sectional Control Phase 2 Report

Sectional Control Phase 1 Report

2020 Research Report Sectional Control Story

Sharing information on modern farming practices is key to building public trust in the quality, safety and sustainability of our food supply. Here’s how APG is contributing.

When Alberta farm producers talk about issues that matter to their businesses, the concept of public trust is certain to be mentioned. Recent years have demonstrated the need to build understanding between the 2% of Albertans who farm and the 98% who don’t.

Debra McLennan, Food and Nutrition Coordinator with Alberta Pulse Growers, is taking the lead on public trust initiatives within APG. She believes that many producers are keen to get the conversation started.

“Farmers I’ve worked with tell me how much they want to share their story about their farm,” said McLennan, a Registered Dietitian. “It’s about helping people who don’t know anything about farming understand how farmers take care of the land and produce the healthiest, most nutritious food possible.”

Teachers seek one-stop curriculum shopping

With funding from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, APG is working with other crop- and livestock-related commissions to share agriculture’s story in a clear and compelling way. This collaboration is essential, in McLennan’s view, to avoid having messages coming from many different sources.

This public trust work is taking place in two main streams: Youth Agriculture Education and Public Agriculture Literacy. Under Youth Agriculture Education, APG is teaming up with Alberta’s barley, wheat and canola commissions. In an initial phase, focus groups helped determine how best to guide teachers in taking accurate ag information into the classroom.

“A number of teachers told us they wanted to talk about agriculture, but hesitated because they didn’t know much about it,” said McLennan. “That’s an ideal opportunity if we pursue it the right way. Teachers were also clear they wanted one place to go for information and not to have different crop and livestock groups all with different resources.”

The crop commissions are now working to develop – and secure funding for – three information modules that address knowledge gaps identified by the research phase.

Healthy and sustainable

The second public trust stream, Public Agriculture Literacy, brings together APG with provincial commissions representing canola, pork and the supply-managed livestock sectors. Millennials (born 1981 to 1996) and Generation Z (born starting in the mid-1990s) are key targets under an initiative known as Be Assured. This work seeks to assure consumers that their food is nutritious, safe and sustainable in environmental terms. Befitting this young adult and teen demographic, tactics are mainly delivered through online and social media platforms. (You can sample the flavour of this initiative at tastealberta.ca).

“An older audience tends to be more interested in nutrition,” McLennan said. “But as you engage with younger people, nutrition combines with sustainability. People feel, ‘I want to eat healthy, I want to understand what our farmers do and I want to do something good for the planet’. We’ll be rolling out new resources under Be Assured all through 2020.”