Alberta Crop Conditions Up with Moisture

Jun 27, 2022

Alberta crop conditions inched higher this past week amid improving soil moisture conditions.

The latest weekly crop report on Friday pegged the overall condition of major crops in the province (spring wheat, barley, oats, canola and peas) at about 78% good to excellent as of Tuesday. That is up a couple of points from the previous week and is near both the five- and 10-year averages of 79% and 77% good to excellent, respectively.

The spring wheat crop was rated 84% good to excellent as of Tuesday, up 4 points on the week, while barley and peas both gained 2 points to improve to 78%. The condition of the canola crop was also up 2 points, improving to 73% good to excellent. The oat crop added 4 points from the previous week to 86% good to excellent.

Crop conditions in the Central region are the best at 88% good to excellent, followed by the North East and North West at 82% and the Peace at 81%. At just 62% good to excellent, crop conditions are lagging in the South region following earlier prolonged dryness.

Precipitation across the province last week ended the dry conditions dating back to last summer, the report said. While the moisture has mostly been welcome, there were reports of localized overland flooding. More rain is in the forecast to provide additional moisture in the central parts of the province, with lesser, but still appreciated, amounts expected in the more southern areas, it added.

Sub-surface soil moisture reserves, which were significantly depleted, now continue to build. Compared to the long-term normal, soil moisture is near normal or moderately higher than normal in most parts of the province, the report said. However, soil moisture is still low in some parts of the North West Region, along with some localized areas in the South and North East regions.

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Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”