Conference Abstracts

70 Pages·2012·0.6 MB·English

Conference Abstracts
CSA-CSHS-CCA-AIC Conference 2012

―Adapting Crops to Change‖
―Technology Transfer in the 21st Century‖

A Joint Meeting of the:
Canadian Society of Agronomy Agricultural Institute of Canada
Canadian Society for Horticultural Science North American Fruit Explorer
Certified Crop Advisors – Prairie Board

University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

July 16 - 19, 2012
Table of Contents
Presentation Guidelines ................................................................................................................ 1
Oral Presentation ......................................................................................................................... 1
Poster Presentations .................................................................................................................... 1
Poster Guidelines ........................................................................................................................ 1
Oral Presentations ........................................................................................................................ 3
Tuesday July 17, 2012 ................................................................................................................... 3
Conference Plenary Sessions ...................................................................................................... 3
PL1: Plenary 1: Adapting Crops to Change .......................................................................... 3
PL2: Plenary 2: Technology Transfer for the 21st Century .................................................. 5
Session A1: Crop Development into the Future .................................................................... 6
Session A2: Media Tools and Extension for the Future ......................................................... 8
Wednesday July 18, 2012 ........................................................................................................... 11
Canadian Society of Agronomy (CSA) .................................................................................... 11
Session B1: CSA & Student Competition ........................................................................... 11
Session B2: CSA Student Competition................................................................................ 17
Session B3: Borlaug Seminars ―Plant Breeding 150 years after Mendel‖ .......................... 21
Canadian Society of Horticultural Science (CSHS) ................................................................. 26
Session C1: CSHS & Student Competition ......................................................................... 26
Session C2: Mini-Symposium - Biocontrol Methods ........................................................... 31
Session C3: Mini-Symposium: Northern Greenhouses ....................................................... 34
Thursday July 19, 2012............................................................................................................... 36
Canadian Society of Agronomy (CSA) .................................................................................... 36
Session D1: CSA................................................................................................................... 36
Joint CSHS/ North American Fruit Explorers (NAFEX) ......................................................... 41
Session E: CSHS-NAFEX ................................................................................................... 41
Poster Presentations.................................................................................................................... 44
Tuesday July 17, 2012 ................................................................................................................. 44
Poster Sessions 1 and 2 ............................................................................................................. 44
Poster Session 1: CSA & CSHS Student Competitions....................................................... 44
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Abstracts for Oral Presentations
Poster Session 2: CSA .......................................................................................................... 50
Wednesday July 18, 2012 ........................................................................................................... 55
Poster Sessions 3 and 4 ............................................................................................................. 55
Poster Session 3: CSHS Fruit Science ................................................................................. 55
Poster Session 4: CSA Adapting Crops to Change ............................................................. 59
Author Index ............................................................................................................................... 65

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Presentation Guidelines
Oral Presentation
At the conference, the time available for each oral presentation is limited to 15 minutes,
including a brief question period. No exceptions will be made.
Presentations should be in Microsoft PowerPoint [Office 97-2003 (.ppt); Office 2007
(PC) or 2008 (Mac) versions (.pptx). Please notify the session chair well in advance if
your presentation is in a different format.
Please bring your presentation on a USB memory stick or CD. Be sure to CLEARLY
identify your USB memory stick or CD with your name & the session in which you are
presenting.
At the beginning of each day, 30 minutes before the speaker sessions, please submit
your presentation media to the session chair in the room in which your presentation will
take place. The session chair (or another volunteer) will be present in each room to help
you load your presentation on the appropriate computer. Make sure you have already
pre-scanned your memory device and file so it is virus free.
At least one (1) hour before your session starts, please check with the session chair for
scheduling changes and to be sure that your presentation has been loaded.
Please be sure to check your presentation for viruses before uploading and presenting at
the meeting.
Poster Presentations
Attendees can participate through poster submissions. Posters will be available for viewing each
lunch hour during the conference on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Atrium and second floor
walkway area of the Agriculture building. A poster is on display for one day only. On
designated days, authors will stand beside their posters to discuss their poster with interested
persons from 4.30 to 6.00 pm. Students with posters in the Student Presentation Competition
need to be at their posters from 4.00 to 6.00 pm. Poster submissions are made online using the
Abstract Submission Form. Posters must be designated as to society and theme topic as laid out
in the submission form and follow the Poster Guidelines described out below.
Poster Guidelines
Please use the following guidelines and format to prepare your poster:
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Dimensions of the poster MUST NOT exceed 42‖ wide by 48‖ high.
Limit the text to about ¼ to ½ of the poster space, and use images, photographs, and
graphs to present your research. Make a banner to display the title, name, and affiliation
at top-center of the poster.
The text should be readable from five feet away. Use a minimum font size of 20 points.
Lettering for the title should be large (at least 70-point font).
Use of the following format/sections is suggested :
o Title
o Author names and affiliation
o Abstract
o Introduction
o Materials and methods
o Result/discussion
o Conclusions
o References
Bring your own vecro or push pins to attach the poster to the board.

You are welcome to bring one-page handouts of your poster to give away to interested
attendees.

Publication in special issue of Canadian Journal of Plant Science
Following peer review, papers submitted under CSA, CSHS, and CCA are eligible for
publication in a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Plant Science (CJPS). The instructions
to submit your paper will be announced soon.

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Oral Presentations
Tuesday July 17, 2012
Conference Plenary Sessions
PL1: Plenary 1: Adapting Crops to Change 8:35 am – 12:00 pm
Neatby Timlin Theatre
PL1.1 Abstract Id 3911
Adapting Cropping Systems to Change from a Historical Perspective
Thomas R. Sinclair, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, [email protected]
Improved cropping systems in history may offer insights for projecting needed adaptations in the
future. Starting with the first major agricultural societies, Sumeria and Egypt, irrigation from the
Euphrates and Nile rivers provided essential water and nutrients, particularly nitrogen. During
much of the subsequent history of mankind, crop yields were limited to that allowed by natural
nitrogen input. The next major increase in yields did not occur until the 18th century in Great
Britain. The introduction of a crop rotation that included clover provided nitrogen for more than
a doubling in wheat yields. The Green Revolutions following World War resulted in a series of
yield increases, all tied closely to increased nitrogen availability. Future yield increases are now
challenged due to nitrogen's expense, negative environmental impacts, and accumulation
capacity of crops. Future cropping systems will need continued focus on improved husbandry of
nitrogen. Nitrogen needs to be provided to crops to match their ability to accumulate and store
nitrogen in the plant. An important option is to enhance the roles of legumes and their ability to
symbiotically fixed atmospheric nitrogen.
PL1.2 Abstract id 3916
Pressures On Wheat To Produce Safe, Nutritious And Affordable Quantities At
Sustainable Prices For Producers –Adapting to Change
*R.M. DePauw, Y. He, H. Wang, H. Cutforth, R. Cuthbert, A.K. Singh, R.E. Knox, SemiArid
Prairie Agricultural Research Centre, Agriculture and AgriFood Canada, Box 1030, Swift
Current, SK, S9H 3X2, [email protected]
Projects for population growth, increased demand and costs for crop input, and climate change
are converging to challenge everyone to meet the projected increased requirement for food. It has
been estimated that by 2050, the production of wheat will have to double. In the past 10 years,
global consumption has exceeded production and stocks have been drawn down. Currently, more
than one billion people are in a food deficit situation. In the past four years more than 300
million people have shifted to a food deficit category. If the world‘s food-deficit-people could
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be brought into the economic sphere, this demand for food represents an enormous economic
opportunity for Canada. Climate change projections for Canada include warmer average
temperatures and more weather event variability. The cropping season is expected to extend due
to an earlier date of last killing frost in spring and later date of first fall killing frost. Heat shocks
during critical growth phases result in irreversible damage to yield components. Agronomic
production practices may result in innovations to conserve water, improve water and nutrient use
efficiency. Generally, changes in production practices are coupled with changes in agricultural
machinery. These drivers for change provide an opportunity to develop and employ new tools to
adapt the wheat plant to meet the requirements for safe, nutritious supplies of wheat. The
presentation will elaborate.
PL1.3 Abstract id 3919
Adapting to change – a land perspective
Henry Janzen, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 5403 - 1 Avenue South PO Box 3000
Lethbridge, Alberta T1J 4B1, [email protected]
The biosphere is changing, partly through the relentless activity of its most capricious species:
humanity. Our growing numbers and powers generate stresses – related to food, water, energy,
biodiversity, waste dispersal, social upheavals, and climate – that foment change at scales and
rates perhaps unprecedented. All of these, one way or another, are tied to land – the interwoven
web of biota enmeshed in their physical habitat. Land is the recipient of global change; and also
the medium by which we adapt to change. To contend with coming pressures, therefore, we will
need in decades ahead to find ways of living more gently on the land. That will demand long and
patient foresight, seeking not merely to conserve our ecosystems as they are now, but instead to
preserve the functions they provide, despite the changes. My objective, therefore, is to ponder
how best to foster such resilience, by proffering some tentative guiding perspectives, merely to
elicit further collective thought. Our legacy, decades hence, may be measured not just in the size
of yield produced, but also in how well we have stewarded land, sustaining its myriad functions,
through the stresses ahead.

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PL2: Plenary 2: Technology Transfer for the 21st Century 1:15 pm – 5:30 pm
Neatby Timlin Theatre
PL2.1 Abstract not available.
Getting information in the future – a producer’s perspective
Peter Gredig

PL2.2 Abstract id 3921
Extending agronomic information in the future — an industry perspective
Jay Whetter, Canola Council of Canada, 205 Autumnwood Dr. Kenora, ON P9N 4H6,
[email protected]
How will the Canola Council of Canada deliver agronomy information over the next 5 years? It
will be a combination of ―old‖ and ―new.‖ We‘ll continue to use the old standards: printed
material, face to face presentations and crop walks. The CCC has a new stronger presence at the
January trade shows across the Prairies, and paper handouts remain a common way to
disseminate information at these events. The CCC also continues to publish Canola Digest
magazine on behalf of the provincial canola grower associations who pay its way and see it as a
valuable communications tool. CCC agronomists will remain very busy in the winter with
presentation and in the summer on crop tours. New methods are taking over however, especially
as high-speed Internet becomes commonplace across rural areas and as more and more growers
— more than 34% and counting — are using smart phones. The foundation of new delivery will
be the wiki-style canola growers manual, like an online and easy to update canola encyclopedia.
Linking to the manual will be an new diagnostic tool, a massive project we‘re currently working
through, and Canola Watch email newsletters, Canola Watch alerts, and — something I might
not have said even a few months ago — Twitter. We‘ll also expand on webinars, looking toward
virtual clinics and live web conferences. My presentation will give details on how valuable
canola research performed on the Prairies will reach growers, agronomists and retailers through
all these channels.

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Concurrent Sessions (A1 & A2)
Session A1: Crop Development into the Future 3:00pm – 5:30 pm
Arts
A1.1 Abstract Id 3838
Global Scientific Collaboration on Technology Transfer to increase Food Security
*Tom Beach, International Program, AIC, 9 Corvus Court, Nepean, Ontario, [email protected]
Dinah Ceplis, International Program, AIC, 9 Corvus Court, Nepean, Ontario,
[email protected]
The unique methodology of partnering Canadian and developing country scientific societies to
implement community and agricultural development projects has demonstrated results in
increasing food security and incomes. Through the Agricultural Institute of Canada, and with
financial support from the Canadian International Development Agency, five Canadian scientific
societies partnered with relevant societies in six developing countries and implemented
community and agricultural development projects from 2006 to 2011. Documented results show
how partner organizations supported rural beneficiaries through training sessions, training of
trainers, demonstration sites, field days and participatory research to improve food security and
increase incomes. Farmers (women and men) accessed information and developed skills in
leadership, entrepreneurship, micro credit management, budgeting, record keeping, gender
equality, crop and animal husbandry, climate change, soil conservation and post harvest
management. Technology transfer related to horticultural crops (tomatoes, banana, sweet
peppers), field crops (corn/maize, cassava, sweet potato, rice, peanuts/groundnuts) and cash
crops (sugar cane, spices and tea) with the integration of poultry and livestock to contribute
organic matter and diversify income. Results were accomplished while supporting the broader
goals of gender equality and environmental sustainability. In addition to results in project
countries, Canadian scientists‘ strengthened their understanding of international development
and global development issues.
A1.2 Abstract not available
Brassica carinata
Steven Fabijanski

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A1.3 Abstract not available
Camelina sativa – an old crop with new prospects in sustainable agriculture
*Christina Eynck and Jack Grushcow, Linnaeus Plant Sciences Inc., 107 Science Place
Saskatoon, SK, S7N 0X2 Canada

Camelina sativa (camelina) is an oilseed crop that has gained renewed interest due to an
increasing demand for renewable, plant-based substitutes for petroleum-derived fuels and
feedstocks for industrial applications such as lubricants, polymers, and industrial fluids.
Camelina combines several agronomic attributes that render it well-suited to a wide range of
environments: frost and drought tolerance, a short vegetation period and low input requirements.
It can be grown on poor lands, thus delivering significant reductions in carbon footprint without
reducing acreage dedicated to food production. In an effort to contribute to sustainable
agriculture solutions, Linnaeus Plant Sciences Inc. develops improved camelina germplasm for
use as a dedicated non-food oilseed crop and feedstock for non-fuel biobased products.

A1.4 Abstract not available
Adapting Crops to Change
Marian Stypa, Syngenta

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