Lentil growers will take the first big step in overcoming one of the industry’s biggest constraints this spring.
Commercial supplies of the first two Clearfield lentil varieties will be available in 2007, ending five years of hype and anticipation about the new technology.
Saskatchewan Pulse Growers executive director Garth Patterson estimates there is enough seed of CDC Impact, a Blaze-type red lentil, and CDC Imperial, a Robin-type red, to plant about 200,000 acres this spring, or 14 percent of the anticipated lentil crop.
The new varieties represent the first foray into a technology that experts expect will eventually account for far more than half the lentil acreage.
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The Clearfield system is a non-GM herbicide tolerant cropping alternative that provides the first real answer to a broadleaf weed problem that has kept a lid on lentil yields.
“I’m really optimistic on the Clearfield lentils,” said Patterson.
Part of the reason he is excited is that the crop will be distributed royalty-free to growers, there will be no restrictions on using farm-saved seed and growers will not be obliged to pay the same controversial technology use agreement fees commonplace in the canola industry.
“When we start explaining to growers what it’s about they sometimes think, ‘is there a catch or something here? This sounds too good to be true,’ ” said Patterson.
The only catch is that growers have to sign a Clearfield commitment. The document allows BASF, the chemical company marketing the Clearfield technology, to track acreage and it restricts farmers to using BASF’s imidazolinone or imy herbicide, which is Odyssey.
Growers are not required to use an imy product; they can apply whatever registered herbicide they want. But that wouldn’t be taking advantage of the technology built into the crop.
The reason pulse growers got such a deal was that they funded the research at the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre that led to the technology breakthrough.
“If growers wouldn’t have been involved through the pulse checkoff in investing in the development of this, we wouldn’t have this kind of program,” said Patterson.
A side benefit of introducing Clear-field lentils is that growers will stop experimenting with unregistered weed control products.
“I’m convinced what has been happening is we’ve been delaying our maturity by damaging our lentils by trying other ways of controlling our weeds,” said Patterson.
In addition to the two new lines of reds, growers will soon have access to a large green Clearfield lentil called CDC Improve, which will undergo seed multiplication in 2007.
There are more varieties in the works. Last week, the Prairie Recommending Committee for Pulse and Special Crops approved three new Clearfield lentil cultivars, small supplies of which will be going to select seed growers this spring.
Tom Warkentin, pulse breeder at the Crop Development Centre, said a green and two more reds have been added to the portfolio.
The imy-tolerant gene was backcrossed into existing lines that have proven market acceptance. In the case of the medium green, it was CDC Meteor, for the small red it was CDC Redberry and for the extra small red the recurrent parent was CDC Rosetown.
Warkentin said it will take a while to build up seed supplies of the three varieties, but within three years farmers will have six options for weed control beyond the current solution of applying Sencor herbicide, which often injures lentil crops.
“The idea is that we would have imy-resistant varieties in all of the important market classes,” he said.
Patterson said within two years of the release of a conventional line of green or red lentils, crop breeders will be able to have an imy-tolerant version on the market.
