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Pembina Valley Online: Perennial grain crops on the way

August 28, 2015 — 

Pembina Valley Online spoke with Doug Cattani, a perennial crop breeder with the faculty of agriculture and food sciences. Cattani says that they have been developing crops that would regrow each year in prairie conditions. The most successful perennial crop has been intermediate wheatgrass because it has adjusted to the Manitoba climate.

“It has successfully over-wintered and produced more than one grain crop. Any of the perennial wheat that have been tried, have all died after the first harvest. So it’s acted more like a winter wheat than a perennial wheat,” says Cattani.

He also says perennial cereal rye was more successful than wheat, but either survived only one or two harvests, or became very weak.

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