A wheat breeder out of Saskatchewan says there a number of new plant breeding technologies hitting the field.

Dr. Curtis Pozniak is a wheat breeder at the Crop Development Centre at the University of Saskatchewan.

He discussed the topic this week at Manitoba Ag Days.

“Over the last several years we've seen changes in technologies that are helping to improve the efficiency of our breeding programs," explained Pozniak. "Things like DNA testing to actually predict the phenotype of some traits like resistance versus susceptibility to a particular disease.”

Pozniak notes that even with the advancement in technology, breeders are still needed out in the field.

He adds while there is a lot of research happening around gene editing, there is still some uncertainty on whether this type of practice will be widely accepted.