British bakery firm Warburtons Foods has added another Prairie wheat to its identity-preserved (IP) program for Canadian grain.
AC Unity VB, one of the first Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) varieties to bear the Sm1 gene for midge tolerance, will be accepted from a “limited number” of acres in 2010, the company said in a release from seed supplier SeCan.
SeCan last Thursday announced Unity, bred by Stephen Fox at the federal Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg, has made Warburtons’ select variety list.
Producers are asked to talk with the Warburtons Foods contracting station regarding availability, SeCan said.
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“This is the first step in Warburtons Foods’ initiative to upgrade the current varieties being contracted in our program,” Adam Dyck, manager of the IP program for Warburtons, said in the release.
Lancashire-based Warburtons “has been testing AC Unity VB for a number of years and the quality is very good,” Dyck said.
Unity “exceeds quality standards and offers producers an excellent agronomic package, all the while being a top yielder,” SeCan business manager Todd Hyra said in the same release.
The bakery company contracts annually with about 800 eastern Prairie farmers to grow specific varieties of hard red spring wheat, which it then buys directly through the Canadian Wheat Board.
IP production that meets Warburtons’ quality requirements is eligible for a per-tonne premium.
