ABERDEEN, Sask. – A sea of yellow flowers bob in the wind as a moving grey mass overhead promises more showers and chokes out the sun.
It’s picture perfect for canola field trials at Cargill’s expanding production site in central Saskatchewan, unlike last year’s heat that caused widespread flower blasting in prairie canola.
Lorin DeBonte, assistant vice-president and technical director of specialty canola oils with Cargill, said the specialty canola oils production centre should be completed by fall and will employ 20 working on plant breeding and pathology.
Read Also
Organic farmers urged to make better use of trade deals
Organic growers should be singing CUSMA’s praises, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
On July 23, Cargill salespeople assembled at the 160 acre irrigated farm to learn about the centre and about Cargill’s Victory canola and its ability to produce high linoleic traits for a trans fat-free marketplace.
Those traits could produce oils for deep fryers with a longer shelf life.
DeBonte said the centre, in its second crop year, will be a canola university, where growers can see and touch the plants and learn more about growing them.
The centre will allow researchers to choose a hybrid with the right agronomic package of herbicides and disease tolerance that will also be economical for the producer to grow.
“With higher fuel prices, we need to manage shattering resistance and how to increase harvestibility so he can pass over the field fewer times and get a higher yield coming back,” said DeBonte.
“In order to select the right hybrid performance for Saskatchewan, we need to be here,” he said.
Breeding teams will look at maturity, early vigour and establishment in addition to how fast the pods fill and how quickly the plants cover the ground.
DeBonte expects good contracting opportunities next year for Victory 1037, the next generation hybrid. He said it covers the ground quickly and requires only one application of Roundup.
In addition to the Aberdeen research farm, Cargill also runs canola trials at Elm Creek, Man., and Camrose, Alta.
Chris Anderson of the Canola Council of Canada sees the centre helping expand the demand for canola overall.
“That translates into more opportunities for producers, requests for more value and hopefully translates into higher prices and into additional production options,” he said, citing identity-preserved products as an example.
He said such work on modified oil profiles will lead to agronomic advances for producers because research in yield, stress and disease tolerance are parts of any breeding program.
“That innovation is important for any crop to succeed,” said Anderson.
He was pleased to see the investment made in the heart of canola growing country.
“It will result in products that suit our area but will have a broad adaptation for all of Western Canada,” he said.
Jenny Verner, business unit president with Cargill specialty canola oils, said the Aberdeen centre will give Cargill a greater Canadian presence in a growing marketplace.
“We can share our science and research as it’s being developed,” she said.
Verner noted the impending development of oil crushing plants in Yorkton, Sask., which will compete with Cargill’s plant at Clavet, Sask.
“There will be crush plants around and we will leverage those as we can but building this was more of a commitment to the growth in the canola business that we’ve made,” she said.
