VEGREVILLE, Alta. — Farmers in the northern half of the Prairies hate growing flax.
If any moisture comes at harvest, the plant starts to reflower. If the plant is tough, the crop wraps around the cylinder and farmers spend hours hacking the woody stems out of the combine.
“Farmers looked at flax as a poor crop option,” said Paul Dribnenki, the chief flax breeder for Viterra during a tour of flax plots near Vegreville.
“Flax really has a crappy rap, especially in this province.”
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But Dribnenki sees flax as a crop with potential.
At the 32 acre Vegreville site, Dribnenki’s crew has seeded 28,000 strains of flax with the goal of developing varieties that are better adapted to the northern Prairies. Through the 10-year Northern Adapted Flax Variety Development Project, Dribnenki also wants to determine the best agronomic practices that will ensure farmers a good flax crop and a crop that will make money.
“This project has the potential to change and make flax an important part of the rotation, especially in northern and central Prairies.
“We see flax as a high value opportunity for central and northern Prairies.”
Less than three percent of Canada’s flax is grown in Alberta. Flax takes the most number of days to maturity of all the prairie crops. With its longer growing season, southwestern Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan are the prime flax growing regions of the Prairies.
“It’s a harvest problem here,” he said.
“We want high yielding flax varieties that farmers want to grow because they make money doing it.”
Early results from plots have already identified some promising lines. The 2010 performance of 132 lines showed promise. The average days to maturity was 7.8 days earlier than CDC Bethune, the most popular flax variety. The average yield was almost identical to Bethune, giving farmers comfort that early maturity doesn’t mean less yield.
“It’s absolutely amazing. There is lots of yield potential in this area,” said Dribnenki, who estimates many of the plots will yield more than 50 bushels per acre
All of the lines had better stem-ripening trains than Bethune and resisted flowering during harvest.
Researchers also discovered that flax likes the northern climate, giving higher yields than other sites and also higher oil content, especially the good polyunsaturated and omega 3 fatty acids.
“There is higher quality farther north,” Dribnenki told the group touring the plots.
Dribnenki said as well as developing better varieties of flax, the group of researchers involved in the flax project want to find out the best way to grow flax so farmers have clear guidelines how to produce a good crop.
Already the researchers know flax has to be one of the first crops seeded in the spring. Unlike canola, flax has a high cold, or chill tolerance. During early frosts this spring, many canola fields were harmed, but not flax.
“This is a positive thing,” he said. Part of the research is also to look at
the opportunities for flax as a fibre crop. Some of the lines yield twice as much fibre as others. Dribnenki believes fibre will never be the only reason for growing flax, but it could be a good secondary benefit.
