Red Fife is a heritage land-race wheat, meaning there is genetic variability in the wheat that allows it to adapt to a diversity of growing conditions. David Fife, a Scottish immigrant farming in Ontario, developed the variety in 1842 and by the 1860s Red Fife was distributed and growing across Canada, adapting to a broad diversity of growing conditions.

Renowned as a fine milling and baking wheat it set Canadian wheat standards for over forty years. Red Fife was gradually replaced with other wheat varieties, many of them hybridized with Red Fife for reasons of better disease resistance, improved yields, and earlier maturity.