Media Release
Innovative University of Saskatchewan Led Partnership Creates Oat Variety Breakthrough
Wednesday, November 8, 2006 –Livestock producers will soon have access to a new variety
of oat with a nutritional profile similar to barley, thanks to an innovative partnership among producers, the provincial government, and the
“This oat variety is the first designed to combine a more digestible hull with a higher fat content,” said plant sciences professor Brian Rossnagel, an oat and barley breeder at the
U of S Crop Development Centre (CDC).
“This is a significant development for the cattle feed and oat industries.”
CDC SO-I, boasts a higher-fat groat and a more digestible hull. Its registration was recently approved by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Now that it has been registered, CDC SO-I will go to FarmPure Seeds Inc. of
“This is a superb example of technology transfer, where the university, farmers, and the government have worked together to bring a really innovative variety to market,” said Trenton Baisley, President of Super Oats Canada Ltd. and CEO of FarmPure Seeds.
The name of the new variety, CDC SO-I, (CDC Super Oats, variety number one) is derived from its unique genesis. The project began in 1999 as an idea at the CDC to develop better feed oat by “fast tracking” the research cycle. Rather than developing field-ready varieties for animal testing, CDC plant breeders produced prototype varieties with the desired nutritional traits.
These prototype varieties would normally need more work to bring to commercialization. Instead, collaborators at the U of S department of animal and poultry science and the Prairie Feed Resource Centre (now the Feeds Innovation Institute (FII)) conducted feed tests on livestock with the prototypes to see if the plant breeders were on the right track.
“Doing the feed testing and variety development work simultaneously allowed the research team to determine if the prototype had promise early in the process,” said Scott Wright, FII executive director at the U of S department of animal and poultry science. “This helped bring CDC SO-I to market many years earlier than the traditional route.”
Funding totaling $210,000 over six years was provided through Super Oats Canada, a producer-researcher consortium created in 1999. Later, the
“Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food and the Crop Development Centre have a long history of working together,” Agriculture and Food Minister Mark Wartman said. “The success of this project highlights the benefits of drawing on additional resources and direction from industry and other university departments.”
Super Oats Canada has committed to continued funding to the CDC for improved oat varieties of this type both for the domestic market and to strengthen the position of
“We export 90 per cent of the feeds produced in
For more information, contact:
Brian Rossnagel
Professor (CDC)
Dept. of Plant Sciences
(306) 966-4976
brian.rossnagel@sask.usask.ca
CEO, FarmPure Family of Companies
President, Super Oats Canada
(306) 791-3770 ext. 221
tbaisley@farmpure.com
Scott Wright
Executive Director
Feeds Innovation Institute
Department of Animal and Poultry Science
(306) 230-7102
scott.wright@usask.ca
Michael Robin
U of S Research Communications
(306) 966-2427
michael.robin@usask.ca
Scott Brown
Director of Communications
(306) 787-4031
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