b'Whats one of your top pieces of advice for how we canmaintain a strong plant breeding industry in Canada?Im a very staunch supporter of a strong variety regis-tration system, because it evaluates the merit of new varieties relative to industry standards. I see that as absolutely critical not just for our producers, but for the entire industry. I dont know any farmers that say they want more varieties. What they do want is better varie-ties, and an effective registration system is central to that. Over the past decade, the evolution of the Prairie Grain Development Committee, where there is now very good predictability, transparency and cross-sectorial representa-tion, has been very important. Whats the top challenge breeders face in the future in your opinion?Weve been seeing a lot more variability in our climate over the past decade. Breeders will continue to have toRob Graf is known as one of Canadas top winter wheat breeders.develop varieties that are going to work well in all these different environments while resisting constantly evolv- ties are regionally adapted so farmers can make informed ing disease and insect threats. It probably means that itschoices as to what they should grow. Ultimately, all of this not just one or two varieties that are going to carry thewill take more funding. How do we get more investment day. What are the implications of that? Were going toin breeding? There are different ideas. Now that weve need larger plant breeding programs to find those rareturned the corner on the pandemic, we need to restart segregants that work well in particular environments. Wesome of these conversations. I think these are exciting also need to have effective post-registration testing sys- times and I hope to be able to contribute. tems so that we get a good handle on where new varie-with files from Trevor Bacque 26GERMINATION.CANOVEMBER 2022'