b'PLANT BREEDER PROFILEA Breed Apart For more than three decades, Rob Grafs dedication to wheat breeding in Canada has led to his contribution as principal developer of 12 wheat cultivars and co-developer of 12 other wheat and triticale cultivars. Hes now focusing his considerable abilities on winter wheat.LAST FALL, ROBERT GRAF, a wheat breeder at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canadas (AAFC) Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, seeded his 34th year of plot trials and nurseries. Graf has headed up AAFCs winter wheat breeding program since 1999, but he began his career 12 years earlier. Shortly before completing his PhD in plant breeding and agronomy at the University of Saskatchewan, he was hired by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, where his focus was primarily on developing Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat varieties. During that time, he developed three varieties, including McKenzie, the first doubled haploid wheat variety registered and released in North America. It remains Canadas most successful, privately developed CWRS wheat variety to date.Its no longer grown on any appreciable acres, but it was among the top five CWRS varieties for almost 10 years and has been used extensively as a parent, says Graf. Having producers and other breeders see value in what we do is what we strive forits part of what makes us tick.Today, Graf works exclusively on winter wheat, primarily of the Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW) class. Although many of the desired characteristics are the same as any other wheat class, such as high yield, excellent agronomics, good disease resistance and the appropriate quality profile, winter wheat varieties also need good cold tolerance to allow them to survive the winter, which presents added challenges for breeders.Because winter wheat has a vernalization requirement or, in other words, it needs that cold period during its seedling phase so it can become reproductive, were not able to use contra-season [warm winter location] nurseries like spring crop breeders do to speed up the breeding process. That means the breeding cycle is longer for a winter cereal or a fall sown crop, says Graf. Focus on Quality CharacteristicsOne of Grafs main projects, funded by the cluster program of the Canadian Agricultural Partnershipwhose funding PHOTO: HAMIS NAEEM partners include the Alberta Wheat Commission, Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission, Manitoba Wheat and Barley 40seed.ab.ca'