b'PLANT BREEDER PROFILEBig Steps Forward forSpring Triticale and Wheat Triticale is holding its own thanks to Alberta Agriculture and Forestry plant breeder Mazen Aljarrah.THIRTY-FOUR YEARS into breeding wheat and triticale, Mazen Aljarrah, a researcher at Alberta Agriculture and Forestrys Field Crop Development Centre (FCDC) in Lacombe, Alta., is as excited about the work hes doing now as he was at the outset. I enjoy every moment working in this centre. As a plant breeder, you have a hope and a dream every year that youre going to get a super variety next year. When you go through the advanced material and you see the babies, you always hope that one day well get one variety that is perfect: that will satisfy all of a farmers needs. Will that happen? Maybe not, but every year were making progress in a good way that adds value. Progress, indeed. Over the last three years, Aljarrah has released three new winter triticale varieties to the market. The real excitementand, for the past five years, exclusive emphasisof his breeding program today, however, is in the spring varieties. Spring TriticaleSince 2018, Aljarrah has released four new spring triticale varieties. More are coming soon. Much more important than numbers, however, is the quality of the new lines.When I meet with farmers and livestock producers, I say: dont ever judge triticale by old triticale varieties, he says. Try the new ones and then let me know. Its not the same crop as itMazen Aljarrah has been breeding wheat and triticale for 34 years.used to be. Given Albertas strong livestock sector, Aljarrahs prioritybigger and more fertile heads. The heads of the new varieties with triticale is to continuously improve the crops forage traits.contribute 45 per cent of biomass during cutting compared to In addition to dry matter and forage yield, Aljarrah is focusingmaybe only 30 per cent. The change maintains good biomass on a host of forage attributes including digestibility, lodgingyield but improves the forage quality and achieves much better resistance, reduced awn and disease resistance.lodging resistance. Im not worried about productivity in triticale. Our newMeanwhile, he is also striving to improve the smoothness of varieties produce at least 15 per cent higher than barley. Theyretriticales traditionally rough awns and increase both ergot and pretty similar to oats, which used to be No. 1 for productivity.fusarium head blight (FHB) resistance. My challenge is to enhance the other features to make triticale aAll the lines we registered this year and last year have very top forage crop, he says. low ergot infection compared to checks. Many farmers believe Currently, triticale ranks between barley and oats forall triticale gets ergot, but that is not the case.digestibility. Aljarrah hopes to bring triticales digestibility closerWhile FHB is not province-wide, infection levels are on to that of top-ranking barley. Already, his newest varieties showthe rise. Theres little question that FHB will be an increasing a significant jump in the right direction. In order to improveconcern in Alberta in the future. digestibility further, Aljarrah is reshaping the crop, a move thatFHB is something we really have to pay attention to, says also tackles triticales tendency to lodge.Aljarrah. Triticale is sensitive to FHB so we are trying to Usually the reason triticale has lower digestibility thanincrease FHB resistance level in our genotypes. Most of the barley is that it has a high quantity of lignin, mainly in the stem.lines weve developed have an MS [moderate susceptible] rating, What Im doing is reshaping triticale to have shorter stems butwhich is acceptable. However, the last variety we developed44seed.ab.ca'