Canola growers are reporting problems with herbicide-tolerant crops that are dying shortly after being sprayed with approved chemicals.
Close to 30 producers in northeastern Alberta and a “smattering” in Saskatchewan and Manitoba have complained that a Roundup Ready variety marketed by Brett-Young Seeds is not as tolerant as they expected.
A separate problem with Clearfield canola has been identified by farmers in the Naicam area of east-central Saskatchewan and in southern Alberta where applications of Pursuit and Odyssey are damaging crops.
There are also reports of herbicide-tolerant and conventional canola fields in northwestern Saskatchewan suffering from residual Group 2 herbicides left in the soil from previous years.
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The Canola Council of Canada summed up the situation in a crop report issued last week saying, “suspected herbicide damage with all herbicide-tolerant systems has been widely
reported.”
Marketers and distributors of herbicide-tolerant crops said there is no concrete proof that there is a “tolerance issue” occurring.
They say extensive crop damage could be due to severe bug and disease problems combined with a cold spring, a hypothesis corroborated by some canola specialists and agronomists.
However, one company is conducting a thorough inquiry of one of its varieties that includes a test of tolerance levels.
Brett-Young Seeds has visited close to 30 farms in an area east of Edmonton, from Camrose to St. Paul, to investigate problems related to its Roundup Ready variety, Libred 799.
Western Canadian marketing manager Harley House has seen fields where one-quarter of the crop is dead and that has him concerned, but he’s not convinced it is a seed issue.
“It almost seems like there is something environmental or soil-seedbed related going on.”
Dealer test strips of Libred 799 show good results in one field and extensive damage in an adjacent crop planted from the same batch of seed.
That, combined with the fact that damage reports are coming from fields planted with seed from different lots, leads him to believe it is not a seed issue.
House estimates between 1,000 and 1,500 western Canadian canola growers seeded Libred 799 this spring, for a total of about 250,000 acres. Problems have been reported on about 2,000 acres.
Damage to Clearfield canola varieties has also been reported on a few thousand acres of cropland, said Saskatchewan Agriculture oilseed specialist Bill Greuel.
Howie Zander, BASF Canada’s marketing manager for Clearfield canola, said every year the company receives a few calls about tolerance problems but “98 percent” of the time it turns out to be something else, like spray tank residues.
This year he suspects it has something to do with a “pile” of extenuating factors such as the grasshopper and flea beetle infestations.
Zander thinks producers may also be overreacting to last year’s tolerance problems with the Clearfield variety 45A77, which was pulled off the market by Proven Seed.
“I think that’s why some guys are also asking about other varieties, but the other varieties have been tolerant and will remain on the market,” he said.
House said Brett-Young Seeds will have an announcement in the next few weeks after its investigation is concluded.
“In terms of compensation, we’re a reputable seed company. We’re not going to shy away from anything. But at this stage we’re not discussing that aspect at all.”
