Dow AgroSciences Canada Inc. is pleased with the launch of its first wave of Nexera canola hybrids.
“We have had no complaints on the hybrids and in fact the feedback from our people in the field across Western Canada has been very positive,” said Van Ripley, the company’s global canola breeding leader.
The two Clearfield and two Roundup Ready hybrids that were commercially released this year have demonstrated excellent early season vigour, which was one of the main selling points of the varieties.
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Nexera canola brand manager Mark Woloshyn said the lack of hybrids is farmers’ biggest reason for not growing more specialty oil varieties.
“They’re just not going to grow an open-pollinated canola variety today,” he said.
Ripley said 30 to 40 percent of this year’s Nexera acres belong to the new hybrids. The company is using its extensive field-testing program to identify other candidates that could be made available to growers next year.
The company wants to stick to a maximum of two hybrids for each herbicide tolerant system, which means any replacement must provide growers with a significant agronomic advantage.
Results of the field testing program will be analyzed at the end of the growing season, but one line that shows promise is the company’s first clubroot resistant Roundup Ready hybrids, which are now in registration trials.
Woloshyn hopes growers will embrace his company’s hybrids because demand for Nexera canola oil is growing at a breakneck pace.
Dow has previously asked its customers to dedicate 20 to 30 percent of their canola acres to Nexera varieties. Growers can expect a stronger sales push this fall.
“We’ll be asking for all their acres, so we’re going to be much more aggressive on our ask of the grower,” said Woloshyn.
“Our message that we want to share by asking for all the acres is that we have a lot of confidence in the growth of this category.”
Omega 9 marketing manager Tyler Groeneveld said demand continues to grow in the restaurant industry, and the company is starting to make inroads into the much larger food manufacturing business.
Food companies are looking for a vegetable oil that offers stability and health attributes, and Groeneveld said Nexera delivers on both those fronts. As a result, demand for the product is outstripping supply.
“We’re short of performance oils,” he said. “There’s not enough right now. It’s our opportunity as the canola industry to respond and fill the void that’s there.”
There is also an increasing need for soybean oil to fill the U.S. biodiesel mandate. The renewable fuel industry will require 3.4 billion kilograms of soybean oil in 2012, which will limit the amount of oil available to meet the food service industry’s needs.
“If soy oil is moving into (biodiesel), there’s an opportunity for canola oil and for omega 9 oil to backfill,” said Groeneveld.
The company anticipates its retail partners, which include most of the major canola crushers operating in Western Canada, will start contracting Nexera acres with growers in September.
Dow officials said the premium for growing the identity preserved crop will be worked out on an individual basis with contracting agents in the fall.
“It will be very competitive, I have no doubt about that,” said Groeneveld.
