A new canola contracting program will pay farmers for increased oil production.
And it will supply an international grain company with an identity preserved source of non-genetically altered canola.
Farmers Co-op Seeds Ltd. in Rivers, Man. is offering the program with Louis Dreyfus Canada Ltd.
Don Kostesky of Farmers Co-op Seeds said his company this year will offer production contracts for Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan farmers to grow Beacon, a high oil canola developed by Svalof Weibull.
Narrow release
“We have enough seed this year for 160,000 acres so it is going to be a very limited release,” Kostesky said.
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Farmers Co-op will pay $1.25 a bushel premium for each half a percentage point oil content more than a benchmark. Beacon is rated as 48.2 percent oil, Kostesky said.
In some varieties, high oil content comes at the expense of another agronomic quality such as yield, but not in the case of Beacon, he said.
Louis Dreyfus will buy the canola from Farmers Co-op. It is interested because the canola will be collected in an identity preserved system and some European buyers want to be sure they are not buying gentically altered grain.
