Western Crop Innovations breeder Yadeta Kabeta explains how new barley varieties are helping Prairie farmers manage drought, improve water-use efficiency and maintain yield stability in an increasingly unpredictable climate.
Few production challenges occupy prairie farmers’ minds more consistently than water.
Some years it’s too little. Other years it’s too much. Even when total rainfall looks adequate, the timing often isn’t. Moisture may arrive after the crop’s most critical growth stages have passed, or disappear altogether during grain fill.
For Yadeta Kabeta, barley breeder with Western Crop Innovations (WCI), that increasing variability has become one of the defining challenges facing Prairie crop production.
“Low moisture availability or variability in moisture is currently probably a top concern for producers,” says Kabeta. “In recent years there has been so much variability in the amount of rainfall and in the patterns of rainfall. Sometimes it doesn’t come when crops need moisture most.”
The consequences extend beyond yield loss. Moisture stress can also affect grain quality, creating marketability challenges for both feed and malt markets.
“Later-season moisture stress or even early-season moisture stress can create huge quality issues,” he says. “When quality is affected, marketability is also affected.”
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