The University of Manitoba is receiving $1.9 million dollars from the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) to continue research in winter wheat and fusarium head blight.

The winter wheat breeding program focuses on developing varieties that are disease resistant, semi-dwarf, high yielding, cold hardy, and suited to the higher moisture regions of the eastern Prairies.

Professor Anita Brûlé-Babel says the fusarium nursery is used in part to test new lines in registration trials.

"The other thing we do in that nursery is we also evaluate mapping populations from researchers who are trying to identify new sources of resistance to fusarium head blight and are actually trying to identify the molecular location of the genes for resistance to assist with marker-assisted selection in breeding programs," she says.

The funding from WGRF will cover a five-year period, and while Brûlé-Babel says they currently have materials ready to be released to producers, overall research work can take a bit longer.

"From the start of when we make our first crosses to the time that we have something that's field-ready for producers, it usually takes eight to 10 years, and that's from the breeding standpoint," Brûlé-Babel says. "With the fusarium nursery, the individual research projects that we do where we identify new sources of resistance, those are three- to four-year projects usually."

Brûlé-Babel says WGRF's investment is essential to carry out their research work, as it provides solid, stable funding.