Reports of yield monitors hitting 100 bushels per acre in portions of some fields show how far canola breeding has advanced in 30 years.
Garth Hodges, the global general manager of canola for Bayer Crop-Science, said yield enhancement will continue to be a focus at the company’s recently expanded global canola research facility near Saskatoon.
But the $15 million investment in the centre will also be spent on creating new types of canola with different oil profiles for the health and nutrition markets, building better disease and shatter resistance into the company’s InVigor hybrids and boosting seed size.
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With 4,650 sq. metres of laboratory space and 750 sq. metres of greenhouses, Bayer’s scientists will be better equipped to research and analyze the seed samples coming off the 16,000 observation plots located on 560 acres of adjacent farmland.
“These new phytotron and greenhouse facilities allow an exponential leap in our plant breeding efficiency because we can grow four generations of canola plants in a single year under very exacting conditions of isolation to bring new innovation faster to the market,” said Hodges.
JoAnne Buth, president of the Canola Council of Canada, said the Bayer facility will help the industry achieve its goal of producing 15 million tonnes of canola by 2015.
Last year’s record output was 12.6 million tonnes.
“This is exactly the type of investment that we’re looking for,” said Buth at Bayer’s grand opening that attracted Western Economic Diversification minister Lynn Yelich, Saskatchewan minister of agriculture Bob Bjornerud, former federal Liberal cabinet minister Ralph Goodale and senator Pamela Wallin.
Hodges said InVigor accounts for almost half of the 15 million acres of canola grown in Canada. Bayer’s global seed sales of canola and rapeseed contribute $165 million to the company’s bottom line.
“We’re now the single largest canola-rapeseed company in the world,” he said.
Bayer recently signed a deal with Monsanto, giving it access to Monsanto’s Roundup Ready trait.
It also has an alliance with Cargill that resulted in the launch of Bayer’s first InVigor healthy oil products last year.
Hodges said the Saskatoon research facility will be a global hub for the company’s development and breeding work on canola and juncea and should attract more investment money in the future.
