Wheat Research Benefits Farmers (Video)
For every dollar invested in wheat research there's a net return of twenty dollars to farmers. View this video to learn exactly how those research dollars are invested.
Video transcript
[An image and a maple leaf appear on screen. This is the title graphic for the video.]
[Energetic guitar music fades in.]
Text on screen: Wheat Research Benefits Farmers
[The shot opens with Dr. Richard Cuthbert examining wheat in a field.]
Dr. Richard Cuthbert: Wheat has a strong history in Canada.
[Cut to a close up shot of Dr. Richard Cuthbert examining wheat in a field.]
Roughly 96% of Canadian wheat is produced in western Canada.
[Cut to an extreme close up of wheat.]
Wheat is a very large part of the Canadian economy...
[Cut to an extreme close up of wheat grains.]
...with export sales of roughly 8 billion dollars annually.
[Cut to a shot of Dr. Richard Cuthbert standing in a wheat field. He is speaking slightly off camera.]
Text on screen: Dr. Richard Cuthbert, Swift Current Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
I'm Richard Cuthbert. I'm a spring wheat breeder at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, based in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.
[Cut to a shot of two workers examining seeds.]
We're here to make farmers more competitive in the global marketplace.
[Cut back to a shot of Dr. Richard Cuthbert standing in a wheat field.]
We're here to increase their productivity through our research.
[Cut to an extreme close up of Dr. Cuthbert holding a grain of wheat in his hand.]
We do that by producing cultivars that reduce their business risk.
[Cut to a shot of Dr. Harpinder Randhawa standing in a greenhouse containing wheat. Is is speaking slightly off camera.]
Text on screen: Dr. Harpinder Randhawa, Research Scientist, Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Dr. Harpinder Randhawa: I'm Harpinder Singh Randhawa. I'm a spring wheat breeder...
[Cut to a different shot of Dr. Randhawa in the wheat greenhouse. He has his arms crossed and he's smiling at the camera.]
...here at the Lethbridge Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research centre.
[Cut to a close up of Dr. Randhawa examining a wheat plant.]
[Cut back to a shot of Dr. Randhawa in the wheat greenhouse and speaking slightly off camera.]
There are a few diseases that are important in western Canada from a wheat standpoint.
[Cut to a photo of a wheat plant that has fusarium head blight.]
One is fusarium head blight.
[Cut to a shot of Dr. Randhawa examining young wheat plants affected by stripe rust.]
And another one is stripe rust.
[Cut to a close up shot of the stripe rust on the young wheat plants.]
We try to breed genetic resistance for these diseases.
[Cut back to the shot of Dr. Randhawa standing in the wheat greenhouse.]
We incorporate different sources of resistance into our new cultivars.
[Cut to a shot of one of Dr. Randhawa's lab technicians examining wheat embreyos under a microscope.]
The pathogen at the same time mutates and changes...
[Cut to a shot of the same lab technician placing a wheat embreyo in a test tube.]
...so we have to continually breed for resistance.
[Cut to a shot of Dr. Brian Beres sitting in his office at the Lethbridge Research and Development Centre. He is speaking slightly off camera.]
Text on screen: Dr. Brian Beres, Research Scientist, Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Dr. Brian Beres: My name is Brian Beres and I'm a research scientist here at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
[Cut to a shot of a wheat thresher working a field.]
Farming is such a complex endevour...
[Cut to a close up of the head on the thresher as it moves past the camera.]
...that on the same farm you can have muliple issues that will change from year to year.
[Cut back to the shot of Dr. Beres sitting in his office.]
If it's dynamic on the farm, we have to respond with dynamic research.
[Cut to a close up shot of Dr. Cuthbert holding a small, glass container and working with a microscope.]
Dr. Richard Cuthbert: Of all the wheat varieties grown on the prairies...
[Cut to a shot of Dr. Cuthbert holding the container up to a light so he can examine the contents.]
...approximately 70%...
[Cut to a shot of two wooden frames mounted on a wall. The frames contain grain samples of many different types of wheat that has been bred by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists.]
...have been bred by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
[Cut to the shot of Dr. Cuthbert standing in a wheat field.]
We're developing varieties with better nutrient use and water use efficiency...
[Cut to a close up shot of wheat in the field.]
...and varieties that have resistance to economic pests...
[Cut to a shot of a model of a wheat stem sawfly.]
...such as wheat stem sawfly...
[Cut to an image of an orange wheat blossom midge.]
...and orange wheat blossom midge.
[Cut to a shot of Garth Paterson standing in a well-lit hallway. He is speaking slightly off camera.]
Text on screen: Garth Paterson, Executive Director, Western Grains Research Foundation.
Garth Paterson: My name is Garth Paterson. I'm the executive director of the Western Grains Research Foundation.
[Cut to a close up shot of Garth Paterson in the well-lit hallway.]
We're directed by western Canadian farmers and funded by western Canadian farmers.
[Cut back to the wider shot of Garth Paterson in the well-lit hallway.]
We provide about 8 million dollars a year to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as well as the western Canadian agricultural universities to support variety development.
[Cut to a close up shot of a scientist manually pollinating a wheat plant.]
Dr. Richard Cuthbert: Studies have show that in wheat research...
[Cut to an extreme close up of the scientist manually pollinating a wheat plant.]
...for every dollar invested...
[Cut back to the shot of Dr. Richard Cuthbert standing in a wheat field.]
...there's a net return of twenty dollars to famers.
[Cut to a shot of a small threasher working a field on a bright sunny day.]
Garth Paterson: The bottom line is to get new and improved varieties...
[Cut back to the close up of Garth Paterson standing in the well-lit hallway.]
...of wheat out in the field. And through those partnerships, that's provided almost two hundred varieties since 1995.
[Cut to a shot of a farmer standing in a wheat field on a bright sunny day. He is looking out over the field.]
Dr. Richard Cuthbert: The future of wheat in Canada is very bright.
[Cut back to the shot of Dr. Cuthbert standing in a wheat field.]
We have a number of new tools at our disposal such as the DNA sequence and we're using that to incorporate new traits into wheat which will help farmers boost their productivity.
[Cut to a close up shot of wheat blowing in the wind.]
[Cross dissolve to the end graphic for the video.]
Text on screen: Modern. Innovative. Growing. Discover other agricultural innovations at www.agr.gc.ca.
[Energetic guitar music fades out.]
Text on screen: Canada, © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food (2016).
[Fade to black.]
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