Canada's First Dedicated Forage Wheat CDC Bandit Enters the Market

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 24, the Crop Development Centre (CDC) at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada announced that CDC Bandit, a new dedicated forage wheat variety, has entered the commercial promotion stage, becoming Canada's first wheat variety bred specifically for forage use. The variety was developed by the breeding team at the University of Saskatchewan, with commercial rights granted to Proven Seed. It is primarily aimed at livestock production in Western Canada, providing cattle and sheep producers with a new annual forage crop option.

The most distinctive morphological characteristic of CDC Bandit is that it is completely awnless. Common spring wheat, durum wheat, and winter wheat typically have awns on their spikes, which can affect direct grazing by livestock after maturity. During the long-term selection process, the breeding team fixed the awnless trait while screening materials with wider leaves and better nutritional quality and biomass performance, making them more suitable for forage uses such as greenfeed and hay.

The variety was advanced jointly by wheat breeder Pierre Hucl and forage crop breeder Bill Biligetu. The project can be traced back to the 2000s, with the later breeding stages focusing on field plot trials of candidate materials to screen for forage yield, nutritional quality, and livestock utilization characteristics. During the research and development process, particular attention was given to the low-precipitation production environment of the Canadian Prairies, with the hope of leveraging wheat's relatively strong dryland adaptability to add an annual forage option alongside barley, oats, and triticale.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency completed the registration of CDC Bandit on March 28, 2025. The registration number was previously 15FOR36, and the applicable regions include British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. In 2026, the Canadian Grain Commission will include CDC Bandit in the Canada Western Special Purpose (CWSP) class, establishing a formal variety identity for its seed production and commercial promotion.

Proven Seed has obtained the commercial rights to this variety and showcased CDC Bandit this summer at the Ag in Motion agricultural exhibition in Saskatchewan. Current promotion efforts are focused on the livestock regions of Western Canada, targeting cattle and sheep producers who need annual greenfeed, hay, and forage rotation crops.

The launch of CDC Bandit also ends Canada's long-standing lack of dedicated forage wheat varieties. Previously, local forage cereals were mainly barley, oats, and triticale, while wheat varieties were primarily bred for grain yield and processing quality. This commercialization formally adds a new variety category of wheat specifically for forage production.