Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
May 13, 2014

Winnipeg-based seed innovator CANTERRA SEEDS today announced that the company had another successful year acquiring new varieties in 2014.

“This year carries on our trend of success working with public breeding institutions. While our company continues to work with private breeders, we also recognize the high quality of products developed by public institutions,” said CANTERRA SEEDS Director of Research and Product Development, Dr. Erin Armstrong.

The company acquired five varieties – four from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and one from the Crop Development Centre (CDC) at the University of Saskatchewan.

The AAFC varieties include:

• BW485 - is a high-yielding CWRS variety with resistance to the orange blossom wheat midge as well as better resistance to a variety of other diseases.
   
• PT245 - is an early maturing, semi-dwarf CWRS variety with high yield potential and good disease resistance.
   
• MP1920 - is a very high yielding and early maturing yellow pea variety.

The company’s acquisition from CDC was TR07921, a two-row malt barley that is essentially the same as CDC Copeland, but with the same loxless characteristic as CDC PolarStar, which helps prolong the shelf-life of beer. This line was developed through a joint plant breeding project involving Sapporo Breweries, Prairie Malt Limited (PML) and the CDC.

“We are very pleased to add these high-quality products to our portfolio. We are confident that they will offer significant market opportunities for producers. We look forward to getting the varieties into commercial production as soon as possible,” said Armstrong.

Armstrong predicted the varieties would be in commercially available by the fall of 2016.

Website: http://www.canterra.com

Published: May 13, 2014