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Tag Archives genetics — page 3

Farmers plant saplings in a rice field on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India on July 5, 2019. (File photo: Reuters/Amit Dave)
Crops

India unveils new rice variety to reduce water use, labour

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New Delhi | Reuters — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched an array of new high-yielding crop varieties, including herbicide-tolerant rice that can be directly sown into the soil, cutting expenditure on water and farm workers. In India, the world’s biggest rice exporter, the conventional method of rice cultivation requires farmers to sow […] Read more
holstein calf
Livestock

Dairy producers should get to know beef breeding tools

Profitability of cross-bred calves can be enhanced with available genetic tools

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A term that might sound to some like scientific jargon – “expected progeny differences” (EPDs) – could become more well-known to Ontario’s dairy farmers as they pursue the breeding of a portion of their herds to beef genetics. That’s if they follow the advice of Brad Gilchrist, beef marketing and product specialist with the Semex […] Read more
(Freder/iStock/Getty Images)
Livestock

Don’t count chickens before they hatch: Tyson bet on wrong rooster

Meat giant books unexpected decline in hatching

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Chicago | Reuters — Tyson Foods is laying off a certain type of rooster from its U.S. chicken business after a surprising discovery that eggs fertilized by the male bird hatch less often, resulting in fewer chickens. The world’s largest meat producer by sales will install a replacement across its breeding program by this fall […] Read more
Good records will show which bulls worked out and which didn’t in a given year.
Livestock

Heterosis an overlooked way to improve less heritable cow traits

Elite animals can be best to use as crossbreds

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Glacier FarmMedia – Many cow-calf operations don’t use heterosis to full advantage in their herds, according to two producers who recently discussed breeding goals. “I was always told that commercial breeders should have better cattle than any purebred breeder because they’ve been able to capitalize on heterosis,” said Lance Leachman, a cattle producer from Maidstone, […] Read more
To develop the new guidelines, Health Canada experts reviewed the science around gene-edited crops and concluded that the technology is safe for human consumption and the environment.
News

Health Canada declares gene editing safe

The ruling is expected to give Canadian producers access to the same types of plant breeding available in other countries

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Glacier FarmMedia – Canadian farmers may soon be growing gene-edited crops. That’s because Health Canada has declared that gene-editing technology is safe. Health Canada recently proposed new rules to oversee plant breeding innovation, including gene editing. Why it matters: Canada has lagged other countries in its regulations surrounding gene editing, which could have put Canadian […] Read more
A recent survey found that 40 per cent of consumers associate gene editing with genetically modified organisms.
Crops, News

Gene-edited crops suffer in information war

Consumers continue to confuse gene editing with genetic modification

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Glacier FarmMedia – Canadians don’t know much, or think much, about gene-edited crops. But when asked about the technology, one phrase pops up: genetically modified organisms. Last summer, CropLife Canada hired a polling firm to gauge public knowledge and perceptions about gene-edited crops. Why it matters: How gene-edited crops are regulated around the world will […] Read more
Stem cell growth, required for kernel development, is controlled in corn by a set of genes called CLEs. Using CRISPR genome editing, CSHL researchers found they could change kernel yield and ear size by fine-tuning the activity of one of the CLE genes, ZmCLE7.
News

Tweaking corn kernels with CRISPR

Science Notes: In some of the first work of its kind, researchers modified corn kernel numbers using CRISPR

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Corn has changed over thousands of years from weedy plants that make ears with less than a dozen kernels to the cobs packed with hundreds of juicy kernels that we see on farms today.  Powerful DNA-editing techniques such as CRISPR can speed up that process.  Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor David Jackson and his […] Read more
Alexandra Sébastien (left) with colleagues at an apiculture research site.
News

Genetic technologies rooted and ready to sprout

How RNAi and gene editing could impact farms

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Biotechnology advancements are promising to reshape agriculture as the full potential of tools such as RNAi and gene editing gain acceptance. The full potential of mRNA to speed up vaccine development leapt to the forefront during the fight to contain the pandemic, but it’s biotechnological cousin RNAi has been quietly gaining momentum in food and […] Read more
When resistance genes become a secret door
News

When resistance genes become a secret door

Science Notes: Genetic mechanism that produces oat blight discovered

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A multi-institution team co-led by a Cornell University researcher has identified the genetic mechanisms that enable the production of a deadly toxin called Victorin — the causal agent for Victoria blight of oats, a disease that wiped out oat crops in the United States in the 1940s. Victoria blight is caused by the fungus Cochliobolus […] Read more
File photo of a rye field in Kazakhstan. (Stsmhn/iStock/Getty Images)
Crops

Beware of Kazakhs wanting to buy seed, agency says

Seed growers and farmers alike are being warned such sales breach breeders' rights rules

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Western Canadian seed growers, seed retailers and commercial farmers are being urged not to sell seed to Kazakhs or their agents because it breaches plant breeders’ rights rules. “The basic fact is no Canadian breeder has given permission for their genetics to go to Kazakhstan,” Lorne Hadley, executive director of the Canadian Plant Technology Agency, […] Read more

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