“Dan is a high-integrity, visionary executive with more than 30 years of leadership experience across the Canadian seed sector and the broader North American agriculture industry,” said Brent Collins, President of Seeds Canada in a LinkedIn post announcing the move.

Wright most recently worked at Syngenta as head of the company’s North American Enogen and Canada Seed divisions. He previously held senior roles at Monsanto and Bayer, and brings extensive association experience, having served seven years on the Canadian Seed Trade Association Board, including as president (2017–2018).

Experience spanning both multinationals and family-owned seed businesses makes Wright uniquely positioned to unite stakeholders and advance the priorities of Canada’s seed industry, said Collins.

“It is an honor to join Seeds Canada as CEO,” said Wright in the post, adding “having witnessed the incredible value of industry associations throughout my life, I am excited by the opportunity Seeds Canada and its members and clients have to continue to deliver value through innovation to Canadian farmers, ensuring they remain competitive globally.”

To help ensure a smooth transition, Wright will have the opportunity to spend some time with outgoing CEO Barry Senft before his departure at the end of January 2026.

Seeds Canada represents seed growers, analysts, breeders, distributors, processors, retailers, service providers and all stakeholders along the seed value chain in Canada. Its mandate is to support the growth of the seed sector in Canada and worldwide, focusing on plant breeding innovation, seed regulatory modernization, international trade, value creation and plant breeders’ rights.

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Through its Fields of Purpose program in 2025, the company donated $100,000 worth of seed and crop protection products to charitable growing projects across Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.

The initiative builds on the community harvest fundraisers already happening in many rural areas, where farmers seed, grow and harvest a crop entirely for donation. All proceeds go to local causes or organizations such as the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

“BASF is a proud partner of Canadian growers, their communities and the causes that matter most to them,” said Leta LaRush, vice-president of BASF Agricultural Solutions Canada. “Rural communities are the heartbeat and backbone of Canada, and BASF is proud to help amplify their efforts.”

This year, 36 community fields benefited from the initiative. One of them, the Leduc & District Growing Project in Alberta, held its 20th annual harvest fundraiser on Sept. 25. BASF donated fungicide to the project, which project organizers said helped them get more for the crop.

Every bushel from the project’s fields is sold, and the proceeds are donated to the Foodgrains Bank.

“All of the inputs and the time for seeding and harvest are donated,” said one project member. “And that goes a long way.”

Growers or retailers interested in nominating a community project for 2026 can contact their local BASF representative.

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“This is a direct threat to food security, seed sovereignty and farmer autonomy,” the NFU said on its website.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is in ongoing consultations around plant breeders’ rights regulations as part of the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act.

What would change?

The proposed amendments would:

• Limit the scope of farmers’ privilege to save seed only to crop kinds where there is a long-standing practice of saving and reusing seed. According to an impact analysis statement posted in the Canada Gazette on August 9, this would preserve the ability to save small grain and pulse seeds, but remove the right to save fruit, vegetable or ornamental plant seeds or propagate those vareties through tubers or cuttings. It would also bar the saving of hybrid seeds.
• Extend the duration of plant breeders’ rights protection to 25 years for crops that take longer to breed and gain market acceptance.
• Narrow the concept of sale for filing a plant breeders’ rights application.
• Reduce the plant breeders’ rights application fee to encourage filing electronic applications.

The purpose of the changes is to increase plant breeder protections in relation to other jurisdictions like the United States and European Union, which the CFIA said offer stronger intellectual property protections for plant breeders.

“As a result, these jurisdictions may have a competitive advantage in attracting investment and innovation in plant breeding,” the CFIA said in a ‘what we heard’ report.

NFU pushback

However, the NFU says these increased protections will come at farmers’ expense. It argues the consequences will include:

• Higher annual production costs due to increased seed and royalty expenses.
• No access to protected varieties that might be discontinued before the protection period expires.
• No access to protected varieties not available through licensed nurseries or seed sellers.
• No opportunity for farmers to adapt new varieties to local conditions by using saved seeds or propagating material harvested on their farms.
• No ability to replace lost fruit trees from the farm’s stock of the variety.
• Further entrenchment of “largely foreign private plant breeding.”

“The ultimate goal of the corporate seed sector is to require annual purchase and royalty payments for all crop kinds,” the NFU said in a news release.

The NFU called for people to sign a Parliamentary e-petition that would call for the government to abandoned the proposed changes.

The e-petition had 2,525 signatures at time of writing.

Industry response to changes

According to the CFIA, the industry is largely in favour of the proposed changes.

The agency held online consultations between May 29 and July 12, 2024 and heard from producer groups representing the agriculture, horticulture and ornamental sectors, international horticulture and ornamental growers, the organic sector, plant breeders, seed companies and others.

Support was consistent across almost every sector, the CFIA said in the ‘what we heard’ report. About ten per cent raised concerns.

“A provincial group representing fruit growers strongly endorsed the proposed amendment, indicating that the farmers’ privilege should not extend to asexually reproduced ornamental and fruit varieties,” the report said.

Other responses suggested the current regulation could be hindering research and innovation and that the changes could reassure foreign and domestic breeders about the strength of intellectual property protection in Canada. This could, in turn, improve access to new varieties.

“The fruit, vegetable, and ornamental sectors are highly dependent on genetics from foreign jurisdiction,” said Keystone Agricultural Producers in a July 12, 2024 submission.

“Adding clarity to farmers’ privilege will increase the confidence of plant breeders who are interested in doing business in Canada.”

The group also agreed with exempting hybrids from farmers’ privileges, saying saving of hybrid seed isn’t typical due to legal and contractual restraints and cropping issues like lower yields.

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Near the entrance to their booth they highlighted notable corn hybrids the firm has launched over the years under its Dekalb brand.

Kate Hyatt, marketing portfolio lead with the firm, said the idea came earlier this year when she and her colleagues were talking to growers, who spoke about why they chose a certain hybrid. After a while, the discussion morphed into hybrids they’ve used and liked over the years.

“The history makers campaign is about celebrating everything we’ve brought to the market in the past,” Hyatt said, while highlighting the display to Farmtario. “Just like in a music hall of fame, there’s platinum and gold levels. We’ve included those in showcases and captured some tidbits of information from our breeders that worked with them and the staff that have sold them in the field for many years.”

Hyatt noted the effort reflects the interactions farmers have with Dekalb in the field. It’s there that they put the hybrids to the test in real world conditions, and where winners emerge.

“It was about a particular soybean variety or corn hybrid, and what their experience was with that,” she said.

For more of our coverage of Canada’s Outdoor farm show, visit our landing page.

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Senft will continue to serve as CEO until the end of January 2026.

“I think after five years, it’s time for new leadership,” he said during the 2025 Seeds Canada conference in Quebec City.

He said someone with more seeds experience would make sense now that the organization is up and running.

Agriculture sector veteran

Seeds Canada was formed about five years ago in an amalgamation between the Canadian Plant Technology Agency, the Commercial Seed Analysts Association of Canada, the Canadian Seed Institute and the Canadian Seed Trade Association.

Senft has had numerous roles in the agriculture sector over his career, but several of them have been managing newly merged organizations. He oversaw the newly merged Grain Farmers of Ontario organization previous to his work at Seeds Canada.

“This is pretty big news for us,” said Brent Collins, president of Seeds Canada.

He thanked Senft and said the organization will have six months for him to finish up some of the projects he’s working on.

Seed modernization

Senft led Seeds Canada through the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s seed act modernization process, now five years into the process. A position paper with proposals for act changes is expected any day. There will be more consultations yet before the changes are posted in the Canada Gazette.

He says five years is a long time, and a lot of staff time has gone into the process.

“We’ll see what the end result is.”

He said despite moving some rules governing seeds from legislation to regulation, which can be changed more easily, the CFIA still retains control over many of the seed sector rules and processes.

The larger organization has more resources to react to issues in the sector.

Senft says the founding organizations are better together as Seeds Canada and points to the recent challenges around tariffs as an example. Previously, the smaller organizations would have had to go outside their offices to get the expertise needed to manage the tariff threats. Now they have access to those assets.

“We’ve been able to have the resources in place to be able to analyze that and advise our members accordingly.”

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Clubroot is a persistent and evolving soil-borne disease that affects canola and other cruciferous crops, causing swollen galls on roots that reduce nutrient uptake and stunt plant growth.

The Clubroot Steering Committee, an industry-led working group made up of seed companies, researchers and producer organizations, proposes a new voluntary labelling system that specifies the exact forms of clubroot to which a variety is resistant.

Instead of the current blanket “resistant” or “susceptible” tags, the new system would indicate resistance to specific strains, or pathotypes, of the clubroot organism common in Prairie soils.

The goal is to help farmers choose and rotate varieties more effectively, reducing disease pressure and preserving the usefulness of resistance over time.

Currently, seed varieties are labelled as resistant if they show less than 30 per cent disease compared to a susceptible check. But it doesn’t tell growers which specific strains a variety resists. The proposed changes aim to address that limitation.

Newer forms of the clubroot pathogen are already overcoming resistance bred into popular canola varieties, threatening yields and long-term soil health.

“Pathotypes in a field can shift dramatically within just a few years,” the Canola Council of Canada notes. “We need a more nuanced approach to help farmers rotate resistance sources and reduce disease pressure.”

Under the new proposal, seed labels would identify resistance to the three most common clubroot pathotypes in Western Canada, designated 3A, 3D and 3H. These are among the most widespread and damaging strains found in Prairie soils.

While the proposal focuses on just three, more than 47 distinct clubroot pathotypes have been identified in Canada, with new ones appearing nearly every year. Multiple forms of the pathogen can sometimes be found within a single clubroot gall. So, researchers are working to isolate and characterize minor strains for future inclusion.

“Eventually we’re getting to testing some of the minor pathotypes in Western Canada as well,” says Curtis Rempel, vice-president for crop production and innovation with the Canola Council of Canada.

Dr. Stephen Strelkov, a University of Alberta plant pathologist who has tracked clubroot’s spread since it was first identified near Edmonton in 2003, is leading the development of single-spore isolates for the most widespread pathotypes.

Strelkov shared updates earlier this year at CropConnect in Winnipeg, highlighting the urgency of staying ahead of evolving pathogen types. Rempel reports that Strelkov’s work on the three isolates is progressing well.

“Stephen is on track to have them available late this year or early next year for developers to start testing,” he says, adding that within the next couple of years he expects them to show up on labels. “It doesn’t happen overnight.”

The proposed system would give seed developers a clear framework to describe resistance consistently and in a grower-friendly way, making it easier for farmers to compare varieties based on how they perform against specific clubroot strains.

Rempel emphasized the practical value of this system for long-term resistance planning. He says the new labels could help growers plan rotations that reduce selection pressure.

For example, after planting a variety resistant to pathotype 3H for three cycles — nine years in a typical rotation — a grower might switch to a variety with resistance to 3A to keep the pathogen population off balance.

“It’s going to tell the farmer that whatever gene is in the variety they’re buying and growing will be resistant to pathogen type 3H,” he said.

Though the new labels will be voluntary, Rempel expects strong uptake.

“I’ve looked historically at our canola industry in Canada — the companies are always trying to do right by the grower,” he says. “They’re looking to optimize yields. They’re looking to optimize profitability. So all of this adds up as favourable for the grower.”

Breeding resistance to specific pathogen strains using single-spore isolates is not a new concept. It mirrors what’s already done in wheat breeding for leaf and stem rust resistance.

“This is a model that’s working elsewhere,” Rempel notes. “You have to be able to characterize it to know that your resistance genes are of any value — or optimum value.”

The labelling system is still under discussion, and key details such as implementation timelines and seed industry participation have not been finalized.

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Canterra Seeds announced May 1 it has acquired Alliance Seed for an undisclosed amount, and will continue to operate Alliance as “a standalone brand under Canterra Seeds’ umbrella, with key staff transitioning to maintain continuity and customer relationships.”

Alliance, headquartered in Winnipeg, dates back to 2009, when it formed as a joint venture between two privately held Winnipeg grain and agrifood firms (Paterson Grain, Parrish and Heimbecker) and four Saskatchewan grain terminal firms (North West Terminal, Weyburn Inland Terminal, Prairie West Terminal, Great Sandhills Terminal).

Paterson announced in December 2023 it had bought P&H’s share for an undisclosed amount. North West Terminal — the only other company still holding a share of Alliance at that time — later reported it had sold its stake in November 2024 for $8,300.

Alliance’s roster of seed varieties includes five varieties of Canada Western Red Spring wheat, one Canada Western Red Winter wheat, three durums, two Canada Prairie Spring Red wheats, three pea varieties, three barley varieties and two oat varieties.

Canterra, in a release May 1, described the deal as a “strategic acquisition” that supports its goal of “expanding its footprint in the pedigreed seed market by bringing high-performing, proven varieties such as CDC Endure milling oats and AAC Leroy VB CWRS wheat to more farmers across Western Canada.”

Alliance “has built an impressive portfolio and a network supported by committed seed growers,” Canterra CEO Brent Derkatch said in the release. “With our experience, we’re confident we can build on this strong foundation, help the brand grow, and offer even more value to Canadian farmers.”

Shane Paterson, director of trading and transportation for Paterson Grain and the former president of Alliance, said in the same release that as Paterson “looked for the right successor, it was important to find someone who aligned with Alliance Seed’s culture and commitment to personalized service.”

Paterson, he said, “look(s) forward to continuing our support through our retail network.”

Formed in 1996 by a group of Prairie seed growers, Winnipeg-based Canterra’s stakeholders today include about 175 seed growers, ag retailers and other private investors.

Among those are French farmer co-operative Limagrain, which bought its stake when it set up a wheat breeding joint venture with Canterra in 2015, and United Farmers of Alberta (UFA), which bought a 17 per cent share of Canterra from Ceres Global Ag Corp. for $2.5 million in July last year.

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Undersander ran 298 alfalfa yield trials between 1985 and 2016, results of which clearly showed penny-pinching doesn’t pay off when it comes to choosing a variety.

“Out of those 298 trials on average, the top variety yielded one-and-a-third tons more than the lowest variety in the seeding year,” he says. “You would have got your seed cost back in the seeding year.”

Yield the main consideration

Undersander led the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association’s intensive three-day forage workshop at the University of Manitoba on March 5-7, where he discussed the main considerations for a grower deciding on an alfalfa variety. Yield topped his list of these considerations for the simple reason that profitability increases with yield.

The reason for this, he says, is that many of the costs remain the same whether a high-yielding or low-yielding variety is chosen. Taxes, land expenses and harvest costs, for examples, are generally consistent. He pointed out there’s only about a five per cent difference in cost between producing one ton of yield versus two tons. Higher yield also enables farmers to produce more forage with fewer acres.

“That’s something that people should be thinking about, particularly as land taxes go up,” Undersander says, but adds that yield data is often difficult to come by, since most provinces and states have eliminated forage yield testing.

Disease resistance

“Another one of the benefits you get from a premium variety is good disease resistance,” Undersander says. “The good varieties have it; the cheaper ones don’t. So look for that.”

When selecting varieties, he says it’s important to understand how disease resistance is measured. In alfalfa breeding, varieties are evaluated based on the percentage of plants that are resistant to specific diseases. If at least 50 per cent of the plants in a variety are resistant, the variety is classified as highly resistant to that disease.

It’s important to recognize, though, that this still means nearly half of the plants may be susceptible, which can lead to disease problems in the field.

Undersander recommends farmers make an effort to figure out which diseases are present on their farms.

“Go out and walk through fields and see what you think you’ll need resistance to,” he says. “You don’t need resistance to every variety, every location. You also don’t need it every year.”

Winter hardiness

Undersander explains that winter hardiness is highly dependent on location — and more of a concern, then, in colder regions such as the Canadian Prairies.

One of the biggest factors in determining winter survival is the amount of snow cover. If there’s good snow cover, many varieties can survive the winter. However, without snow cover, farmers need to pay closer attention to other factors that influence winter hardiness.

“We’ve had California types survive for us in central Wisconsin, where we had good snow cover,” Undersander says.

Soil fertility is another critical factor — particularly the potassium levels, which should be kept high going into the winter to help alfalfa plants survive the cold months. Additionally, the frequency of cutting can affect winter survival.

“Some of the beef cattle producers who cut less frequently have better winter survival than dairy producers because they’re building more root carbohydrates with each cutting,” he says.

Lastly, whether you take a late fall cutting can influence survival. Undersander generally recommends taking a late cutting if snow is expected, as it helps the plants enter winter with a better chance of survival.

Fall dormancy

Closely tied to winter survival is fall dormancy, which refers to how much an alfalfa plant continues growing after a fall cutting.

Undersander points out there has been a trend to lean on less dormant varieties because they yield more. They start growth earlier in the spring and recover faster after cutting.

Alfalfa fall dormancy is measured on a scale from 1 to 10, with lower numbers indicating more dormant varieties that shut down earlier in the fall. In colder regions like the Prairies, dormancy ratings of 2 or 3 are typical, while much of the U.S. grows dormancy 4 varieties. Warmer regions, such as Florida or southern California, rely on dormancy 8 or 9.

However, Undersander notes, choosing a variety with too little dormancy for your region can lead to problems.

“A few companies have tried introducing dormancy 5s or 6s in Wisconsin,” he says. “But then you get some 70 F (21 C) days in January, and the buds start to grow. And you know it’s not going to stay 70 F.”

When the cold returns, that premature growth can be damaged, reducing stand longevity. In contrast, 3s or 4s take longer to break dormancy, making them less likely to be triggered by a short warm spell.

“You might have two or three warm days, but you won’t likely have a week that’s enough to trigger a dormancy 3 or 4,” Undersander explains.

Stand persistence

At the workshop Undersander also briefly touched on the concept of stand persistence in alfalfa. In general, persistence refers to the ability of an alfalfa variety to remain productive over multiple growing seasons.

For farmers looking to grow alfalfa for several years before replanting, persistence is important because it ensures a variety can withstand multiple seasons of harvesting and continue to contribute to soil health and forage production.

However, Undersander also notes the benefits of short rotations. He points out that older stands tend to yield less, and weed problems tend become more pronounced.

In such rotations, the key advantage of alfalfa is its ability to fix nitrogen, meaning persistence is a less important trait. And it would largely be determined by disease resistance, winter hardiness and fall dormancy.

“Our mistake with alfalfa is thinking of it only as a forage,” Undersander says. “While that’s a worthwhile thing, alfalfa not only produces enough nitrogen for itself and any grasses you put with it, but it also produces enough for the crop the next year when you plow it down.”

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“This recommendation, approved in principle by the Boards of Directors of both organizations, is designed to improve communication and collaboration between the seed sector, the broader value chain, and government,” CSGA said in a March 31 post on its website.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) launched the seed regulatory modernization process in September 2020, and has rolled out a series of surveys and consultations with seed companies and growers, farmers, breeders and other members of the value chain.

CSGA said the advisory committee would serve as a structured forum for discussion and information exchange on matters related to the ongoing modernization. It wouldn’t have governing power, fiduciary responsibilities or the ability to set standards.

“Providing a dedicated venue for engagement would help ensure that policy and regulatory matters are addressed through a timely, balanced, and inclusive approach,” CSGA said.

Seeds Canada and CSGA have sent a joint statement to the CFIA encouraging the agency to accept the proposal. CSGA will keep members appraised of developments, the organization said.

In October, the CFIA released the results of its third round of industry and expert consultations. According to the CFIA’s website, it’s currently in consultation with First Nations and Indigenous communities on their perspectives and priorities.

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The findings of the study in Brazil, the world’s largest producer and exporter of soybeans, underscore the challenges faced by seed, chemical and biotechnology companies doing business there.

Why it matters: Payment for seeds helps fund development of new and more advanced varieties, which aids farmers in growing more productive crops.

The country, which competes with the United States and Argentina in world markets, sells most of its soybeans for processing in China.

Pirated soybean seeds occupy 11 per cent of the area sowed with soybeans in Brazil, the study found after looking at planting data for the 2023/24 season. At that point, the total area planted with soy was 46.15 million hectares (114.039 million acres), data from national crop agency Conab shows.

The nation’s soy area in the 2024/2025 season is 47.45 million hectares (117.25 million acres).

Approximately 1 billion reais could be lost in taxes over the next 10 years due to seed piracy, the survey estimates. Also, combating seed piracy could contribute to increasing investments to improve seed varieties by 900 million reais over the next decade, according to the study.

Croplife represents seeds companies, biotechnology firms and pesticides and bioinput producers.

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