Canadian Grain Commission’s new Science Strategy responds to the changing needs of the grain sector

Jan 27, 2023

The Canadian Grain Commission’s new Science Strategy is now available.

The strategy lays out a vision for the future of science and research at the Canadian Grain Commission and positions us to respond to the latest trends and developments in the grain sector.

Based on consultations with producer and industry organizations, end users, academia as well as other provincial and federal government departments, the Science Strategy identifies 5 drivers that will shape the future of grain science into the next decade:

- global trends and emerging market issues
- advances in technology
- evolving end uses
- climate change and extreme weather
- food safety and nutrition

The Science Strategy details the CGC's goals and desired outcomes for grain science in response to these drivers. It also outlines how the Canadian Grain Commission will implement these goals using an innovative approach to science, people, collaboration and infrastructure.

Click here to see more...

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.