Make Wheat Great Again: The

Potential of Perennial Wheat

Jamie Larsen

AAFC-Lethbridge

Do You Ever Regret Writing or Saying Something?

• Wheat is a great crop. Always

was…always will be

• We need it:

– For food

– For sustainability of the

agriculture system

• Great long term plot work

tells us this very clearly

– Dr. Dave Hooker

– Dr. Bill Deen

– Peter Johnson

From: Dr. Bill Deen via twitter

From: Dr. Dave Hooker via twitter

Outline

• Capitalizing on environmental benefits

• Types of perennial wheat

• Summary of biomass and grain yield data

• The business case for perennial wheat

• Perennial wheat production system

• Social benefits of perennial wheat

• Development of perennial wheat

Perennial Cereals vs. Annual Cereals

Perennials

• Trade-off theory

• Two sinks for

photosynthetic products

– Crown and roots for

survival

– Grain

• Lower grain yield

• Access to more

resources

– Capture more of the sun’s

energy per year

– Large roots access more

water and nutrients

Cox et al. 2005

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

rangeland

wheat

proportion of annual NPP

below ground

above residue

above harvested

Annuals

• Go for broke

• One sink for

photosynthetic

products

– Grain

• Capture less sun

energy per year

• Selection for yield

over 10,000 years

Perennial Cereal Crops Have Many Advantages

Over Annual Cereal Crops• Make use of full season moisture

• Reduce nutrient run-off

• Improve soil quality by increasing soil organic matter

• Limit soil erosion through reduced tillage and constant cover

• Make use of soil biology/ plant interactions

• Minimize herbicide application

• Reduce seeding costs

• Potential benefits for mixed farming operations

• Constant capture of sunlight

Utilization of Soil Moisture by Perennials

• In comparison to annual

wheat:

– Perennials take up more

soil moisture including at

peak productive periods

– Perennials make use of

soil moisture to greater

depths

• Attributed to large roots

systemFrom Cutforth et al 2005From Glover et al. 2010

Ability to Limit Nitrogen Leaching and Run Off

• Spring wheat roots are

only able to access N and

water to 120 cm

• Data shows the ability of

Alfalfa and Crested

Wheatgrass to use N

twice as deep as spring

wheat

From Cutforth et al 2010

Soil Organic Carbon-Time lapse

• All systems approach some level of stasis– Finite amount of SOC can be

stored

– Based on many factors

• Conversion to arable farming caused a loss of SOC

• No-till led to less soil disturbance and often increased carbon sequestration but not to the original levels of pre-agriculture

From Janzen et al. 1998

Perennial Wheat?

annual wheat on fallow

perennial grass

macro

organic matter

= MOM

9

Relative Global Warming Potential (GWP) of

Agriculture (from Robertson et al 2000)

• GWP is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere

• Expressed as grams of CO2 equivalents/m2/year

CO2

Ecosystem management N2O CH4 Net

N GWP

Soil C fertilizer Lime Fuel

Annual Crops (C-S-W)

Conventional tillage 0 27 23 16 52 -4 114

No till -110 27 34 12 56 -5 14

Low input w legume cover -40 9 19 20 60 -5 63

Organic w legume cover -29 0 0 19 56 -5 41

Perennial Crops

Alfalfa -161 0 80 8 59 -6 -20

Poplar -117 5 0 2 10 -5 -105

Extrapolated

potential?

Perennial Wheat -161 27 34 8 56 -5 -41

TYPES OF PERENNIAL WHEAT

Development of Perennial Wheat

• ‘Perennial’ depends on your

perspective (2 to ∞ years)

• Two types

– Kernza (domesticated

intermediate wheatgrass)

– Perennial wheat (wheat x

wheatgrass hybrid)

• Targeting 3 years with minimal

drop off in productivity

• Grain yield target

– 80%-90% or winter wheat

Types of Perennial Wheat

Kernza

• Domesticated Intermediate Wheatgrass (Th. intermedium)

• Breeding programs– The Land Institute (Kansas)

– U. of Manitoba

– U. of Minnesota

• Impressive rapid improvement

• In commercial production

• Grain quality is similar to soft wheat

T. aestivum Wheat x Wheatgrass Kernza Th. intermedium

(Bread wheat) hybrid (Wheatgrass)

Types of Perennial WheatPerennial wheat

• Wheat x Wheatgrass crosses

• Sources of Perennial Habit

• Tall wheatgrass (Th. ponticum and Th.

elongatum)

• Kernza

• Chromosome numbers: 14, 42, 56, 70

• Triticale model

- 42 wheat (bread) + 14 wheatgrass

- 28 wheat (durum) + 28 wheatgrass

- 28 wheat (durum) + 14 wheatgrass

T. aestivum Wheat x Wheatgrass Domesticated Th. intermedium

(Bread wheat) hybrid Th. intermedium

GRAIN YIELD AND BIOMASS DATA

FROM PERENNIAL WHEAT TRIALS

• Assumed yield of perennial wheat was 60% of annual

wheat in Australia

• Combined with sheep for grazing of regrowth

The Business Case of Perennial Wheat (Bell et al 2007)

Scenario Farm Perennial Crop Pasture Stocking Supplementary

profit wheat area area rate feed

per ha (ha) (ha) (ha) (dse/ha) (kg/dse)

Without 55.6 0 1100 900 7.6 59.4

Perennial wheat

With 76.5 400 900 1100 8.9 58.4

Perennial wheat

Change +20.9 +400 -200 +200 +1.3 -1.0

Perennial Cereal Rye Biomass and Grain Data

Grain Test Thousand Ergot Falling Protein

Treatment Yield weight Kernal wt. number

(t/ha) (kg/hL) (g) (%) (s) (%)

Early-grain 1.2 65.5 22.8 31.9 297.0 12.2

Boot-grain 0.9 n.d. 22.7 44.5 306.0 11.8

Grain 2.5 67.1 25.8 10.4 261.3 12.9

P-value 0.01 0.26 0.03 0.001 0.08 0.34

Tukey 0.86 n.s. 2.67 10.45 n.s. n.s.

0102030405060708090100

05000

100001500020000250003000035000

Bio

mass y

ield

(kg/h

a)

2014 W

inte

r S

urv

ival (%

)

Cutting Treatment

18

Kernza Dual-Use Pilot Study

• Objectives:

– Document Kernza forage and grain yields over range of

environments

– Determine the effects of defoliation on grain yields, plant

height and forage dry matter and quality

• Led by Dr. Steve Culman at Ohio State with multiple

trial sites across the US and Canada

– No cut (grain yield only)

– Control = Summer cut after grain harvest

– Spring cut + summer cut after grain harvest

– Fall cut + summer cut after grain harvest

From: S. Culman, OSU

From: S. Culman, OSU

Grain Yields

Colorado Kansas Minnesota New York Western OH Wooster OH Iowa Maryland Wisconsin

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2015

2016

2015

2016

2015

2016

2015

2016

2015

2016

2015

2016

2015

2016

2015

2016

2015

2016

Year

Gra

in Y

ield

(kg

/ha

)

Year

2015

2016

Average Grain Yields Over All

Sites:

2015 = 704 kg/ ha

2016 = 363 kg/ ha

From: S. Culman, OSU

Grain Yields with Defoliation Treatment

Colorado Kansas Minnesota New York Western OH Wooster OH

0

300

600

900

0

300

600

900

2015

20

16

Con

trol

Spr

ing

Fall

Con

trol

Spr

ing

Fall

Con

trol

Spr

ing

Fall

Con

trol

Spr

ing

Fall

Con

trol

Spr

ing

Fall

Con

trol

Spr

ing

Fall

Clip

Gra

in Y

ield

(kg/h

a)

Clip

Control

Spring

Fall

a b

a bb

From: S. Culman, OSU

Preliminary Conclusions

• Yields vary widely across sites

• Spring clip didn’t reduce grain yield

• Fall clip appears to increase grain yield

Perennial Wheat Trials

• Grown under irrigation at Lethbridge, AB

• Short rows replicated three times

• Best perennial wheat germplasm that currently exists

• Comparison to winter wheat and Kernza

• Part of a larger experiment with trials located around the

world

Wheat x Wheatgrass study

Parental Lines Plot yield Relative Relative TKW Height Regrowth

(kg/ha) Yield Biomass (g) (cm) Score

Th. elongatum 7692 74 196 26 99 18

Th. intermedium 5224 51 150 28 87 14

Th. ponticum 6941 67 160 26 96 20

PC Rye 5820 56 162 31 101 20

Kernza 541 5 162 10 102 22

Annual Wheat 10331 100 100 39 76 3

Perennial Wheat Conclusions-First Year

• All perennial wheat lines yielded less grain than annual

wheat (~64% of annual)

• Perennial lines yielded much more biomass than annual

wheat line due to increase height (~161% of annual)

• Regrowth scores from perennial wheat lines were

higher

• We’ll see what next year brings!

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR

PERENNIAL WHEAT

Business Case Based on Real Perennial Wheat Data

• OMAFRA enterprise budgets for costs

• Used relative perennial wheat yield (0.64) to calculate grain

yields

• Used relative perennial wheat straw yield (1.61) to calculate

straw yields

• Perennial wheat grain and straw yield was assumed to

decrease 30% per year (rough estimate of stand thinnng)

• Wheat price =$4.70/bu

• Straw price= $0.07/lb

• All values are on a per acre basis

Soft red winter wheat: Conventional vs. No-till Cost Conv No-Till

Seed 72.80 72.80

N 71.65 71.65

P 27.05 27.05

K 13.35 13.35

Herb 8.00 8.00

FHB 16.40 16.40

Leaf 10.50 10.50

Fuel 15.70 7.40

Repairs 15.55 12.45

Crop in 10.30 10.30

marketing 1.85 1.85

Cust fert 9.85 9.85

cust pest 19.70 19.70

Trucking 16.85 16.85

labour 13.70 5.95

interest 9.95 9.35

Total 333.20 313.45

Cost Conv No-Till

Straw P 2.45 2.45

K 13.90 13.90

Fuel 2.95 2.95

repairs 3.25 3.25

twine 2.95 2.95

other 12.70 12.70

Overhead depreciation 33.30 21.90

interest 16.95 12.30

other 12.75 8.10

Total 101.20 80.50

Revenue Conv No-Till

Grain yield 80.00 80.00

(bu/ac) price 4.70 4.70

straw yield 2513 2513

(lbs/ac) price 0.07 0.07

Total 551.91 551.91

Net Income: $/ac

Conv No-Till

117.51 157.96

Economics (If all things equal!)Annual Perennial Wheat

Cost no-till Year1 Year 2 Year 3

Seed 72.80 72.80 0.00 0.00

N 71.65 71.65 71.65 71.65

P 27.05 27.05 27.05 27.05

K 13.35 13.35 13.35 13.35

Herb 8.00 8.00 8.00 8.00

FHB 16.40 16.40 16.40 16.40

Leaf 10.50 10.50 10.50 10.50

Fuel 7.40 7.40 4.00 4.00

Repairs 12.45 12.45 9.00 9.00

Crop in 10.30 10.30 10.30 10.30

marketing 1.85 1.85 1.85 1.85

Cust fert 9.85 9.85 9.85 9.85

cust pest 19.70 19.70 19.70 19.70

Trucking 16.85 16.85 16.85 16.85

labour 5.95 5.95 4.00 4.00

interest 9.35 9.35 9.35 9.35

Total 313.45 313.45 231.85 231.85

Annual Perennial Wheat

Cost no-till Year1 Year 2 Year 3

Straw 38.20 38.20 38.20 38.20

O/H 42.30 42.30 42.30 42.30

Total 80.50 80.50 80.50 80.50

Annual Perennial Wheat

Revenue no-till Year1 Year 2 Year 3

grain yield 80 51 36 25

price 4.70 4.70 4.70 4.70

straw yield 2513 4045 2832 1982

price 0.07 0.07 0.07 0.07

Total 551.91 523.86 366.70 256.69

Annual Perennial Wheat

no-till Year1 Year 2 Year 3

Net Income 157.96 129.91 54.35 -55.66

But, what if…

• Is harvesting straw from your wheat crop sustainable long

term?

– Annuals=loss of organic matter and nutrients

– Perennials=living plant remains, anchoring soil, some maintenance of

nutrients

Annual Perennial Wheat

no-till Year1 Year 2 Year 3

Seed 313.45 313.45 231.85 231.85

Straw 0 38.20 38.20 38.20

O/H 42.30 42.30 42.30 42.30

Revenue (@4.70/bu) 376.00 523.86 366.70 256.69

Income 20.25 129.91 54.35 -55.66

But, what if…

• Is harvesting straw from your wheat crop sustainable long

term?

• Grain value for perennials is much higher

– US farmers being paid 800/ac for 20-30 bu/ac Kernza (=$26/bu)

– Or paid like organic wheat ($10/bu)

Annual Perennial Wheat

no-till Year1 Year 2 Year 3

Seed 313.45 313.45 231.85 231.85

Straw 0 38.20 38.20 38.20

O/H 42.30 42.30 42.30 42.30

Revenue ($10/bu) 376.00 795.22 556.65 389.66

Income 20.25 401.27 244.30 77.31

Environmental Benefits of Grazing of Perennial Cereals

After Grain Harvest

• Cow calf ranching is one of the

largest emitters of enteric

methane

• Recommended mitigation

strategies (From Beauchemin et al. 2011)

– Extend grain finishing

– Improved forage quality

– Change in land management

• All of these strategies relate to

perennial wheat

Mitigation of GHG’s Scenarios and Perennial Wheat

• After reproductive phase perennial cereals return to vegetative growth

– High quality pasture

– Winter grazing

• Grain marketable as food or feed after cleaning

• What’s carbon worth? = $10-50/t (could be worth $34- $294/ac)

Scenario Age of Pasture Total emissions GHG intensity % change in Soil CO2 SoilCO2

(years) (Mg CO2e) (kg CO2e/kg intensity from emissions (Mg CO2e

beef carcass) baseline (Mg CO2e) /ha/yr)

Pasture lands

Recent 1-8 -23,731.2 -94.69 -535.8 -29,176.9 2.38

Older 20-27 -11,403.0 -45.50 -309.4 -16,848.8 1.38

Other mitigation scenarios

Improved 5181.7 20.68 -4.85

forage quality

Extending grain 5277.2 21.35 -1.76

finishing

From Beauchemin et al. 2011

Conclusions from Economic Analysis

• Perennial wheat can be competitive to annual wheat if

straw is considered

• If a price premium (>$9.62) exists for perennial wheat

then it become economically viable

• If carbon sequestration is considered that could change

the economics as well

• Further efforts into examining economic benefits to

livestock producers from grazing perennial wheat in the

spring and fall is required

PERENNIAL WHEAT PRODUCTION

SYSTEM

What Would a Perennial Grain System Look

Like?

• Monoculture vs. polyculture

• Livestock focused vs. grain production system

• Natural vs. intensive management

The truth is we don’t know!

• Major factors include

– Life span of the perennial plant

– Complimentary species in polyculture

– Environmental conditions (moisture, length of season)

Polyculture and Mixtures

Bell, 2013

Phase cropping

Bell, 2013

Biggest fears!• Wheat on wheat on wheat

• Disease!

• Insect and virus resistance is

critical

– Mites

– Aphids

• Wheatgrass is a source of

disease and pest resistance for

wheat

• Further research is required

– Cereal entomology

– Cereal pathology

Photo by Jeanne Falk Jones

Photo by DAFWA © 2013,

Photo by Amer. Pth. Soc/.

Other methods to counter these issues

Varietal Blends

• Example in barley for Ontario

• Can increase yield

• Can provide yield stability

• Blends are used to preserve

orange wheat blossom midge

resistance in spring wheat

• Blends considered to preserve

disease resistance traits in

multiple cereal species

What are the Social Benefits of Perennial

Cereals?

• Reduction in farm labour and stress

– Seeding is spread out…over years!

– Think of perennial grains like fall seeded grains

– Reduced handling and application of pesticides

– More access to soil water and increase soil organic carbon

means production stability for farms

– Gains in efficiency

• Benefits to civilization

– It’s food, people eat it in many forms

– Many linked to environmental improvements

– Stable cost effective food production

DEVELOPMENT OF PERENNIAL

WHEAT

Problems with Perennial Wheat

• Major issues with genomic stability– Lose chromosomes

randomly

– Bits and pieces of chromosomes broken off or added

• Major issues with seed set

• Major issues with perennial growth habit

• 90 years of work by breeders and there isn’t anything viable!

0102030405060708090

Per

cen

t F

erti

lity

of

Sp

ikes

Perennial Wheat Line

TFL1

FDL2

+

TFL1

Juvenile

Phase

PPD1

CO2

VRN3

(FT)

FDL2

+

VRN3

Vegetative Phase

Secondary induction Primary induction

Long daysShort days

Long days

vernalizationVRN1

VRN2

Before

vernalization

Aftervernalization

TFL vs VRN3FDL2

CO2 vs. VRN2NF-Y

Flowering

Reproductive

Phase

Winter

(short day)

Spring/Summer

(long day)

Fall

(short day)

upregulation of

VRN3 (+ve

feedback loop

with VRN1)

induces

flowering

upregulation of

TFL1 at the

crown regulates

vegetative

growth

mR

NA

exp

ressio

n

VRN3 mRNA

TFL1 mRNA

VRN2 mRNA

VRN2

Expression

starts to get

downregulate

d

Figure 1a: A flowering pathway model based on earlier studies

in Arabidopsis, wheat and perennial plants

Figure 1b: A simplified hypothetical model for

expression pattern of three key flowering time genes

(VRN2, VRN3, TFL1) in perennial wheatgrass

requiring vernalization. The cartoon represents one

complete growth cycle.

VRN1 mRNA

PPD1 mRNA

Wheatgrass Flowering Gene Sequence

Similarity in Comparison to Wheat

Take home message: They are similar!

Young leaf Crown meristemV

RN

1lo

g2 e

xpre

ssio

nV

RN

2lo

g2 e

xpre

ssio

nP

PD

1lo

g2 e

xpre

ssio

nV

RN

3lo

g2 e

xpre

ssio

nT

FL

1lo

g2 e

xpre

ssio

n

Developmental stages

-5

0

5

10

-15

-10

-5

0

5

-15

-10

-5

0

5

-15

-10

-5

0

5

-10

-5

0

5

Norstar

PI 206624

Z22 Z22

V-2

Z22

V-8

Z31 Z39 Z47 Z65 Z85 Z22 Z22

V-2

Z22

V-8

Z31 Z39 Z47 Z65 Z85

Z22 Z22

V-2

Z22

V-8

Z31 Z39 Z47 Z65 Z85 Z22 Z22

V-2

Z22

V-8

Z31 Z39 Z47 Z65 Z85

Z22 Z22

V-2

Z22

V-8

Z31 Z39 Z47 Z65 Z85 Z22 Z22

V-2

Z22

V-8

Z31 Z39 Z47 Z65 Z85

Z22 Z22

V-2

Z22

V-8

Z31 Z39 Z47 Z65 Z85 Z22 Z22

V-2

Z22

V-8

Z31 Z39 Z47 Z65 Z85

Z22 Z22

V-2

Z22

V-8

Z31 Z39 Z47 Z65 Z85Z22 Z22

V-2

Z22

V-8

Z31 Z39 Z47 Z65 Z85

How Can We Use This Information• What about a GMO?

– Main problem is that it appears that

the annual habit genes dominate

over the perennial genes

– Probably requires a knockout of

annual gene and then insertion of

the new perennial gene (lots of

work)

• What about this gene editing thingy

(ZFN, TALEN & CRISPR)?

– A new technology with limited

research in introducing new

sequence over old sequence

– Seems like the best approach based

on what we know

Summary

• Perennial wheat has real benefits from a sustainability

perspective (environmental, economic and social)

• Grain yields are lower than annual wheat

• Biomass yields are higher than annual wheat providing

marketing avenues for straw and livestock grazing

• Perennial wheat can be economical viable in comparison to

annual wheat based on marketing of straw and price premiums

• Production system will provide novel benefits and will challenge

us to develop new methods of cropping

• Perennial wheat breeding is a long term endeavour which will

require all possible tools to reach the end goal50

Thank you!

For more information, please contact:

jamie.larsen@agr.gc.ca

@jamie_larsen