The company that brought genetically modified crops to Canada has achieved regulatory approval for its first new trait in canola since 1996.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada have granted food, feed and environmental safety approval to Monsanto Canada’s new line of Roundup Ready canola.
The company claims that TruFlex Roundup Ready canola provides a wider window of application for glyphosate on canola fields and allows growers to use higher rates.
“Dandelions and foxtail barley are two great examples of weeds that can be controlled with the TruFlex Roundup Ready canola system,” said David Kelner, Monsanto’s canola technical lead for Western Canada.
Read Also
Farming Smarter receives financial boost from Alberta government for potato research
Farming Smarter near Lethbridge got a boost to its research equipment, thanks to the Alberta government’s increase in funding for research associations.
The company intends to commercialize the product in 2014 once it gains regulatory approval in key export markets.
DuPont Pioneer recently received Canadian regulatory approval for a similar trait called Optimum GLY canola that it hopes to commercialize by mid-decade.
Todd Hames, president of the Canadian Canola Growers Association, is pleased that a second generation of herbicide tolerance is finally hitting the market.
“It is a long time coming. It’s something that growers have heard about for a number of years,” he said.
Hames expects the product will have great appeal for growers in certain areas of the Prairies who are contending with hard-to-control weeds such as cleavers.
“A higher dose of Roundup gives you better success rates in conditions that may not be ideal,” he said.
The wider window of application will be helpful in years such as this one when weather conditions hinder spraying.
The current Roundup label allows farmers to spray from the zero to six leaf stage of crop development. The new trait will extend that window, helping large farms clean up weeds in crops that are at different stages of development.
Jessie Hamonic, canola traits manager with Monsanto Canada, said the company needs another year of field trials before conveying some of the results to growers.
He said it will be hard to come up with an average yield benefit because a farmer whose field is infested with hard-to-control dandelions will be in a different situation than a farmer who wants to spray later in the year.
“One thing I can guarantee, though, is that it will be a positive yield experience, so that’s one thing I will stand on,” said Hamonic.
The trials will help determine the estimated value of the system to growers, which will help establish the price.
Hames said it always comes back to profitability for growers.
“The new products are going to have to show value to the producer, and I expect they will,” he said.
The TruFlex canola announcement came out around the same time that Monsanto released its 2011 Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Report.
It boasted that Monsanto’s GM crops have helped reduce pesticide use, yet the TruFlex system allows growers to use higher rates of Roundup herbicides.
Monsanto spokesperson Trish Jordan said the trait doesn’t mean growers will be consistently increasing the amount of product they spray. Rather, it allows them the flexibility to do so when problems arise.
She said the product offers sus-tainability benefits such as reducing harm caused by spraying overlap and increasing yields through better weed control.
