New grains laboratory shares $100,000 in crop research funding

Saskatoon, SK – University of Saskatchewan plant breeding research has received a major boost from a combined $100,000 cash and in-kind donation from Saskatoon-based implement manufacturer Morris Industries.

The donation provides the university’s Crop Development Centre (CDC) with the use for three years of innovative seeding equipment, as well as a significant cash donation towards the CDC’s new Grains Innovation Laboratory (GIL) now under construction and slated for completion in the fall of 2009.

“This generous sponsorship from Morris Industries will enable the CDC to gain new efficiencies in managing its farmlands and breeding programs and will contribute to the successful completion of the new lab,” said Dorothy Murrell, CDC’s managing director.

The GIL will provide expanded space for CDC scientists to screen cultivated varieties of plants – such as malting barley, wheat, pulses, flax, and oats – for quality characteristics that will lead to improved commercial products such as beer, bread, pasta, pea soup, flaxseed oil, and breakfast cereals.

She noted the use of the new Morris air drill and air cart will help the CDC seed its lands in a more accurate and efficient way. The centre manages 3,000 acres of land east of Saskatoon, seeding 75% to commercial crops and 25% for breeding programs each year.

The new lab’s core funding is being provided by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture and Agriculture and Agri-food Canada.