Canola industry stakeholders expect to meet in January to discuss why canola seed is not always performing the way it should.
Recent complaints about Innovator, a herbicide tolerant canola, are only this year’s example of the problem, said Tony Zatylny, vice-president of crop production with the Canola Council of Canada.
“Every year we have some level of seed related issues,” he said. “Everybody’s intention is to put good, high quality seed out there. Occasionally something happens and we can’t put our finger on what that is.”
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The Saskatchewan Canola Growers Association has called for the use of a seed vigor test. In Canada, only germination is recognized as a factor in testing.
“This isn’t necessarily a new type of problem, and there have been attempts to get a seed vigor test, and it hasn’t been easy,” said Holly Rask, executive director of the association. “It’s not something that will be a quick cure, but we are going to try to do our best to make sure something gets implemented this time.”
Middle ground
The problem with vigor tests is they identify very good and very poor germination but nothing in between, Zatylny said.
Mike Scheffel, chief of seed standards at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said it is difficult to get accurate results with vigor tests from lab to lab or even test to test and that is why they haven’t been imposed through legislation.
There may be other reasons for seed vigor problems, he said.
Concerns particular to canola in the last three or four years include treatment and how it may have damaged the seed. If the seed is tested for germination before the treatment, no one knows what it will do.
Damaged embryo
Breeding programs might also be pushing canola too hard.
“While trying to increase yields of oil and protein, they may be decreasing the seed coat to the point where chemical treatments are getting into the seed and damaging the embryo,” Zatylny said.
Then, there is what he refers to as the “hostile environment.” Today’s direct seeding, earlier seeding and high fertilizer applications are vastly different from the warm, firm, moist seed bed of 25 years ago.
“You get a 10 to 15 percent yield advantage by seeding much earlier, but that’s not without peril,” he said. “Vigor becomes more important as you have these less than optimal conditions.”
Rask said even producers who have grown canola for 20 years are having problems.
“It’s not like they don’t know what they are doing,” she said. “You have to go by individual case, but there is definitely too many people complaining and too many of them are very good producers.”
Zatylny added the intent of the January meeting is not to point fingers but to encourage research and solutions.
