WINNIPEG, NOVEMBER 20, 2019 - CS Accelerate, developed by Limagrain Cereals Research Canada (LCRC) in partnership with CANTERRA SEEDS, is the latest wheat variety to be accepted in the Warburtons Canadian Identity Preserved Program (IP Program).
“This is very exciting for everyone at CANTERRA SEEDS. Warburtons has very high quality standards, they take a lot of pride in their products,” says Rick Love, Pedigreed Seed Business Manager with CANTERRA SEEDS. “It is really rewarding to see CS Accelerate be a part of this program and be recognized for its quality.”
CS Accelerate is a Canadian Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) wheat, typically considered a mid-protein but high functioning quality milling wheat. Love says during the registration and testing process, the team saw that CS Accelerate possessed inherent value not fully captured by its classification.
Warburtons has a 26-year history of sourcing Canadian wheat with the end-use of providing premium bread products to U.K. consumers through the prestigious IP Program. CS Accelerate was the only new wheat variety selected to be added to the contract program for 2020.
This announcement is a milestone in collaboration between LCRC, CANTERRA SEEDS and Warburtons, who worked together leading up to CS Accelerate’s commercialization for Spring 2020 to evaluate its quality for the Warburtons program.
"We’ve been evaluating CS Accelerate for three years,” says Adam Dyck, Warburtons program manager for Western Canada. “In 2018, we had seen a couple of years of strong performance and really, really good bread quality. CS Accelerate’s performance in 2019 cemented our view that this is a Warburtons quality wheat.”
Along with extensive testing to make sure it possessed the end-use qualities, like dough and bread quality, that would make it desirable to bakers, the team at LCRC balanced the need for high, reliable grain yield to make it a productive choice for Canadian farmers.
“Combining high end-use quality with high grain yield is quite a challenge,” says Jason Reinheimer, senior breeder with LCRC. “CS Accelerate is unique as it can provide the high grain volumes per acre desired by farmers while being very desirable to millers and bakers through its great functional and end-use quality.”
LCRC was established in 2015 as a joint venture between Western Canadian-based CANTERRA SEEDS and France-based Limagrain, the fourth largest seed company in the world. LCRC’s mission is to develop superior cereal varieties to meet the needs of Western Canadian farmers and their customers. LCRC is the first endeavor of its kind in Canada, now with two varieties approaching commercialization for the 2020 growing season after four years of operations.
“LCRC has only been operating in Canada for a short period of time but has been very focused on understanding where it can best add the highest value,” says Reinheimer. “The Warburtons program has been one of many focus points for LCRC and for us to deliver in such a short period of time shows the capability of LCRC to achieve its mission.”
CANTERRA SEEDS and Warburtons have a long history of working together and CANTERRA SEEDS varieties, including Glenn, AAC Cameron VB and AAC W1876 (named for the founding year of Warburtons), have been included throughout the program’s history.
“We have a lot of trust in the leadership and staff at CANTERRA SEEDS, we’ve been able to really get to know each other and look at what each party can bring to the table,” says Dyck. “It is a real testament to CANTERRA SEEDS and LCRC that they brought CS Accelerate to the market very quickly, while at the same time, allowing us to test and identify it as a Warburtons variety.”
CANTERRA SEEDS and LCRC hope CS Accelerate will be the first of many wheat varieties coming out of the breeding program that will give Canadian farmers both strong agronomic options and products that are in high demand by end users.
“The more opportunities we can find where an end-user is actively sourcing and asking for products from Canadian farmers, the less uncertainty there is,” says Love. “We are proud to give them this added confidence in their planting decisions, right through to their grain marketing decisions.”
Farmers can inquire about production contract details when booking their seed. Warburtons IP production contracts are available at select Paterson Grain and Richardson Pioneer locations across the Eastern Prairies.
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For media inquiries please contact:
Krista Gagne
Communications Lead
CANTERRA SEEDS
201 - 1475 Chevrier Blvd.
Winnipeg, MB R3T 1Y7
Office: (204) 988-9751
Email: k.gagne@canterra.com