Generating solutions

Sollio Agriculture, formerly La Coop fédérée, is the largest agri-food company in Quebec, the only Canada-wide agricultural cooperative, and the world’s 24th-largest agri-food cooperative. Sollio is looking to adapt genomic selection (GS) methods to improve efficiency of their milling oat breeding program. In comparison with conventional breeding methods, GS will enable superior genetic gains in comparison to conventional breeding methods. The goal of this project is to develop GS models specific to Sollio Agriculture’s oat breeding program to allow for the release of competitive cultivars, better suited to the Canadian environment and possessing higher beta-glucan contents.

The development of better adapted cultivars will allow growers to increase their yearly profit margin and to reduce their need for pesticides, impacting positively our environment and food products. Improved yield and beta-glucan content and stability will benefit consumers’ health and crop value for Canadian producers.