INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Nexera canola program is about to move to better-performing hybrids from open pollinated varieties, said the program manager.
Dow AgroSciences Canada Inc. will have four new varieties for growers to choose from in 2011, including two Clearfield hybrids.
Nex 845 CL delivers average yields of 39.5 bushels per acre, matures 3.5 days later than competitive varieties, has medium height, good lodging resistance, is resistant to fusarium wilt and is rated moderately resistant to blackleg.
NX4-205 CL has average yields of 46.6 bu. per acre, fewer days to maturity and improved blackleg resistance compared to Nex 845 CL.
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Dow claims both varieties deliver better profits to farmers than competitive commodity canola varieties.
Next year’s launch of Nex 845 CL and NX4-205 CL will be the first step in what the company says will be a complete transition to hybrids by 2015.
“The hybrid varieties are just going to make the Nexera canola program that much more competitive for growers,” said Mark Woloshyn, Nexera brand leader for Dow AgroSciences Canada Inc.
He said that when the Nexera program started 12 years ago, the breeding program was akin to a high school project. The company was forced to pick the best out of the worst varieties.
“Today that is not the case. These guys are blasting us with excellent varieties,” Woloshyn said during a tour of Dow’s headquarters in Indianapolis.
The company plants 18,000 new Nexera lines at its Saskatoon nurseries every year with only a handful being picked for commercialization.
“Our challenge now is which ones do we not kill,” said Woloshyn.
The knock on Nexera lines used to be the yield drag. But according to 2009 Manitoba Crop Insurance data, Nexera’s variety NX4-105 RR was the top yielding Roundup Ready variety in the province at 43.4 bu. per acre.
And based on 24 grower strip trials conducted by Dow in 2009, Nexera generated higher profits than conventional canola 94 percent of the time. The average Nexera return was $17 per acre more than commodity canola.
In the last three years, farmers have received $150 million in premiums for growing Nexera varieties. The average premium amounts to about $1.13 per bu.
Tyler Groeneveld, Dow’s omega-9 market manager, said the company isn’t resting on its laurels. It is developing an omega-9 canola oil containing DHS, the beneficial omega-3 fatty acid found in salmon. That product is five years from commercialization.
The Canola Council of Canada has established a goal of having 25 percent of all canola acres being designer lines like high oleic canola by 2015.
Woloshyn said varieties produced by Dow and Cargill, the only other provider of high oleic canola, now occupy less than 10 percent of the 16 million acres planted to the oilseed.
But he is confident they will achieve the 25 percent target because North American demand for healthy oils continues to rise.
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