Wheat is a widely grown crop in Canada covering more than 24 million acres. Among the two major wheat classes, Canada Western Amber Durum is the second largest and grown on close to 5 million acres. Among the primary breeding targets is to improve grain quality to compete in the global durum market. One challenge for durum wheat is timely harvest to protect grade that requires an optimum level of moisture in the straw and grain. Timely harvest is often difficult to achieve, especially on the Canadian prairies, due to a short growing season and unpredictable weather conditions during harvest. Availability of varieties with shorter period for dry down, i.e. the time period between physiological and harvesting maturity, could provide a solution to the issue of the protracted period of current wheat cultivars to reach harvest maturity, and help to minimize time to harvest the crop.  A panel of 110 durum wheat lines selected from a previous preliminary observation nursery of 235 lines was evaluated in year 2021 at two locations divided into three environments (irrigated and rainfed at Swift Current, SK and rainfed at Indian Head, SK, Canada). These lines, including Canadian varieties and collections from around the world, were studied to identify dry down variation in durum wheat. Preliminary data collected on physiological maturity, harvest maturity, and grain moisture content (digital moisture readings and oven dry method) revealed significant genetic variation in dry down among genotypes and within environments. Dry down period was longer under irrigation at Swift Current and shorter under Swift Current rainfed conditions. Mean dry down period varied from 2.5 to 6.4 days at Swift Current (irrigated), from 1.75 to 5 days at Swift Current (rainfed), and from 2.6 to 5.5 days at Indian Head. Dry down data, in addition to observations on agronomic traits (height, days to flowering, grain fill period), morphology (spike length, seed per spike, and seed size), and biochemical components (NDVI and SPAD) were analysed to select 30 lines for more intense studies in 2022-2023. Five wheat lines with the shortest dry down period in 2021 were identified as A1600A-001, A9918BXD, AAC Stronghold, CDC Dynamic, and DT866 whereas five lines with the longest dry down period were DT2003, A0132&CP054, Kahla, 8560-150D, and Green 27. Further experiments on dry down characterization will help to provide genetic material for the development of new varieties with fast dry down characteristics needed for timely harvesting of durum wheat.