The ripening of fleshy fruits such as apple, pears and tomatoes results in a coordinated change in texture, nutritional characteristics, color, flavor and aroma, and initiates senescence processes that reduce shelf life. Fresh market apples are often treated with 1-methylcyclopropene and stored under controlled atmosphere conditions to delay ripening and extend the supply period to […]

This project is in partnership with AFMNet. There are a number of common techniques used to evaluate wheat quality for food use in breeding programs, however they require large samples sizes (100 – 500 grams). Therefore, samples can only be evaluated at later stages of crossing (4th or 5th generation) when enough sample is available […]

The use of propagative material represents one of the major methods used for crop establishment in the Ontario floricultural greenhouse industry. A portion of this propagative material is important but there also is substantial inter- and intra-provincial movement. It is important to remain vigilant to potential introductions of insect pests through transfer of this plant […]

The research project involves examining spring barley purelines and mixtures of purelines through yield trials at multiple locations across Ontario. The data from the trial will be analyzed with the appropriate analysis of variance, enabling Hyland Seeds to adapt the current barley breeding program to a program that selects the best barley mixtures. The benefits […]

The development of an effective technology that permits the selection of sperm bearing either a X or Y chromosome without damaging fertilization capacity of the sperm and embryo development is of great interest in animal production because it will permit the farmers to chose the sex of offspring when breeding their animals. In order to […]

The recently introduced variety, Honeycrisp, is well-suited to the Annapolis region. Already planted in over 350 acres, Honeycrisp sells for four times the price of other apples. Unfortunately this variety has a major flaw – a tendency to biennial bearing through a strong tendency of producing only spurs and no substantial shoot growth. We need […]

Spectrum Resource Group Inc. (Spectrum), looking to diversify from solely Forestry Consulting and Contracting, is striving to horizontally integrate into Industrial Vegetation Management projects. These Industrial Vegetation Projects, in many cases, are very similar to Forestry projects, but access into these markets remains difficult. Research needs to be completed to determine what capital assets would […]

Final cheese characterizations are dependent on the treatment (s) and ingredient (s) put into the cheese milk.  Although in general, cheese making processes are reasonably understood, there is still a lack of basic understanding of what processing history of the ingredients will do the final cheese products.  The effect of processing history of milk, such […]

We have discovered a set of naturally occurring GATA transcription factors that increase chlorophyll levels, chloroplast numbers and starch in plants. Maize (corn) and Oryza (rice) lines have been created by Syngenta and are being analyzed in the Rothstein laboratory. The project primarily involves determining the exact genes that are controlled by these transcription factors, […]

The objective of this research is to estimate the total production cost and its components for chicken producers in Saskatchewan, with different technologies and size, using a survey analysis. The results of this research are expected to provide a ranking on efficiency of different technologies and scales of production (efficiency in terms of both total […]

The generation of agricultural biomass is a key component of Ontario’s emerging bioeconomy. Miscanthus, a warm-season, perennial grass is being considered as a bioenergy crop due to its high yield potential and favourable combustion qualities. One of the primary obstacles to commercializing and establishing miscanthus in Ontario is the poor cold tolerance of some of the genotypes under consideration. Research […]

For the past decade, I have been researching new types of biofilters for treatment of livestock odours.  Although I anticipate the fabrication of a prototype biofilter by April 2011, I do not expect the design team to have time to evaluate the functioning of the biofilter.  It is my intention to recruit a student during […]