I would like to now present some of the evidence that KVD has never been an effective method for quality segregation of the different wheat classes.
One, evidence for the unreliability of KVD can be drawn from the hard red spring wheat class. Approximately 10% of the time, registered spring wheat cultivars have been classified as having unacceptable KVD when they're included as hidden checks in spring wheat breeding trials. If this is the case, then one should also expect that 10% of the hard red spring wheat farm deliveries to elevators would fail KVD. This has not happened, suggesting that KVD has never been successfully employed as a method for identifying wheat classes at the time of delivery.
Two, the Canadian Grain Commission will not provide KVD descriptions of entries in cooperative trials unless checked cultivars have been identified. If the KVD system can effectively classify the different wheat cultivars, then the identity of the sample should be unknown at the time of description. If the KVD system actually works, there should be no need for a farmer to declare the cultivar name or class at the time of grain delivery. The buyer should be able to determine this by looking at the sample. However, if the Canadian Grain Commission experts cannot routinely identify registered cultivars through class using KVD unless they have reference checks grown in the same environment, are we then expected to believe that the grain buyer, who is grading on individual deliveries, can efficiently segregate for quality based on KVD?
Three, this comes from recent experiences with the one-week cooperative testing program that provides as a clear example the limitations that KVD have imposed upon the Canadian wheat development programs. In the last four years, not a single entry from any breeding program has survived more than two years in cooperative trials because the Canadian Grain Commission describes them as mixtures of red spring and winter wheat kernel characters. This includes nine entries where both parents were registered cultivars with KVD characteristics that were acceptable for the winter wheat class. One of the parents of all the remaining entries had KVD characteristics that had been determined acceptable for the Canadian Wheat Board market class in early cooperative trials. Now, if KVD is an inheritable trait, in other words if it's consistent from year to year, then it is next to impossible for all progeny of all entries to show mixtures of winter and spring wheat.
I'd like to move now to the cost of this system and move directly from this point. If the Canadian Grain Commission will not allow us to register winter wheat cultivars because they are mixtures of hard and red spring wheat kernel types, then I think this probably demonstrates that KVD is also bringing a problem into the system. If the Canadian Wheat Board experts tell us we cannot release these varieties because they're mixtures, what is there to stop farmers or the people who are handling the grain from mixing the current winter wheat and spring wheat cultivars and selling it as hard red spring wheat, which is a premium product?
It would appear that KVD would not be effective in maintaining quality standards in this instance, and I suggest that our present segregation equality at the time of delivery of wheat is not based on KVD but is in fact based on farmer declarations.
Every additional character the plant breeder must select increases the cost of the program and reduces the likelihood that overall breeding objectives will be met. There are ten kernel characteristics that are used to describe KVD and have no direct economic value by themselves. As such, they provide a tremendous drag on breeding programs and they interfere with us accomplishing our other objectives.
As noted as well in the review that you have, KVD has necessarily blocked the introduction of some new varieties that were greatly desired by those who would buy it for feed or feedstock. Two of the biggest individual markets we have for wheat in western Canada in the near future--right now feed is the biggest one, and fuel stock for the alcohol industry will become the next largest one. If KVD is interfering with us taking advantage of these opportunities, then I think we really have to question it.
I'd like to turn now to the solution to this problem. It's pretty obvious that the simple and most effective solution to restrictions imposed by KVD is the complete elimination of KVD requirements and the official recognition that we are actually using farmer declarations at the present time to segregate our wheat. The farmers tell the agent what they're delivering. Agents can't tell from looking at it what is on the load. The farmers are telling them.
There are examples where we have effectively separated out the different varieties. In 1985, U.S.A. hard red spring wheat semi-dwarfs were segregated on the basis of cultivar name; Grandin wheat was; and at the present time, KVD is not used to distinguish among quality types within durum and winter wheat classes. Cultivar name is used, and that name is declared.
There are no KVD requirements in other cereals that we grow. Oats never had KVD, and it was removed from barley a few years ago. We are the only country in the world, or western Canada is the only place in the world, that uses something like KVD to identify quality types.
I'd like to close by suggesting that the elimination of KVD requirements would allow for a completely fluid wheat marketplace based on cultivar name. A system would evolve that would allow for an immediate assessment of potential market opportunities. The availability of cultivars with the desired quality characteristics then becomes the factor limiting our ability to capitalize on market opportunities. This would make it important to have a wide selection of cultivar quality options available in the system.
The other option is the one we have at present, which is to identify a potential new market and then wait for fifteen or more years while plant breeders develop the necessary adapted prototype cultivars with accepted KVD so that true market opportunity can be established. We need a change in this system and we need it badly.
Thank you.