New Canadian Wheat Research Facility Opens
By Joe Dales , Farms.com
Dow AgroSciences hosted its grand opening of the first private breeding and cereal research program in Eastern Canada as the doors opened of the brand new cereal research facility. This 10,000-square-foot facility combines cutting edge breeding techniques, disease nurseries, di-haploids and shuttle breeding. The shuttle breeding done in Ontario, and is a joint operation with a winter nursery located in Chile as well as two other Dow AgroSciences research facilities in Australia and Washington State.
Dow AgroSciences’ goals for breeding aim at developing varieties of wheat which are superior in yield and are also naturally genetically disease tolerant. Specifically, the disease they are researching are, Fusarium head blight which is one of today’s most devastating economic problems in cereals crops.
“The techniques used at this research centre provide customers with new, high-yielding, high-quality varieties in an accelerated time frame specifically adapted to target environments,” states Henry Olechowski, the site leader at the Nairn centre. With Dow AgroSciences staying committed to the region, Olechowski says “we could have put this new facility anywhere in the world, but we stayed in Middlesex County because of the expertise of the people working here.”
The new facility currently employs six full time staff and other contract and summer workers. The National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) assists in partially funding local student employees. The facility employs six to eight college students each summer for help with the hopes that they will gain in experience in the world of agriculture.
Dow AgroSciences Canada Inc. headquartered in Calgary Alberta has commercial and research operations across Canada. Major research facilities include soybean and corn breeding in Blenheim and St. Mary’s, cereal breeding in Nairn, Ontario and finally global canola research in Saskatoon. Dow AgroSciences strives to bring innovation through chemistry, biotechnology and through people in the area of crop and seed protection. For more information on Dow AgroSciences Canada Inc. as well as product information, visit www.dowagro.ca.