A new program that evaluates the performance of canola varieties grown in Western Canada will be taking root this spring.
The program will cost $1 million this year and receive funding from grower groups in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It will include test sites in all three provinces.
Additional funding will come from seed companies, which will pay fees to enter canola varieties in the trials.
As of late last week, all but two of the major canola seed companies – Pioneer and Viterra – had agreed to take part in the program.
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“I am confident that the new program will fulfill the objectives that growers have had from the outset,” said Denise Maurice, vice-president of crop production at the Canola Council of Canada.
The new system will replace the Prairie Canola Variety Trials (PCVT), which were suspended in 2010 after canola companies objected to the way the trials were conducted.
Brett Halstead, a spokesperson for the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission, said the new trial system will give farmers a better sense of how canola varieties perform at the farm level.
It will use variety specific weed control programs and standard growing practices, he added.
“It’s a systems based approach, so if we’re testing a Roundup canola, we’re going to spray it with Roundup, and if it’s an Invigor canola, we’ll spray it with Invigor,” said Halstead.
“It will give us a better sense of how the different varieties perform under actual growing conditions.”
The previous PCVT system treated all varieties with the same weed management program, regardless of the herbicide tolerance package they employed.
Halstead also said the new trials will use grower practices commonly used by farmers.
For example, if the majority of canola acres in a given region are direct seeded into standing stubble, then the test sites in that area would also use a direct seeding system.
Unlike the old PCVT system, which included only small plot trials, the new system will use small plot trials and field-scale trials.
Small plot trials will examine the performance of newly introduced varieties as well as the most popular commercial canola varieties grown in Western Canada.
Protocols used in the small plot trials will be rejigged to address canola company concerns over plot design, data delivery and harvest management.
The work conducted on small plot trials will be contracted to an impartial third party and plots will be audited to ensure information derived from the trials is accurate and unbiased.
Seed companies will manage the field-scale trials, but they will be expected to follow a set of protocols.
An audit process will also be developed to ensure that reliable data is produced.
Jody Klassen, chair of the Alberta Canola Producers Commission, said the field scale trials will provide farmers with additional data that was not available under the previous system.
The protocols will ensure the data is unbiased, he added.
“It’s not about imposing a protocol on them (the seed companies),” said Klassen.
“It’s about ensuring their protocols are based on sound science so that the data accurately reflects performance.”
Data from small plot and field scale trials will be presented separately.
Reporting will include site specific data on weather, soil type, previous crop history, fertility, seeding date and rate and harvest date.
Information from the trials will be published in a printed format and on websites of the provincial canola grower associations and the Canola Council of Canada (CCC).
The data will continue to be reported in the provincial seed guides.
A governance body will also be established to oversee the program and provide a mechanism for evaluating the new system and making improvements to protocols.
It will be charged with resolving details around data analysis and reporting.
Board membership will include growers, provincial specialists, the seed trade and the CCC.