Canola has always been the farmers’ Cinderella crop and its future still seems enchanted.
The announcements of massive biodiesel and crushing plants to be built on the Prairies, combined with canola’s new image as healthy oil, have magical possibilities for the oilseed crop.
“I see nothing but a great future,” says Stewart Gilroy, an Ohaton, Alta., farmer and vice chair of the Canola Council of Canada.
The biodiesel plants, which turn oilseed into fuel, will consume the seed from three to four million acres of canola, helping keep prices strong and the oilseed as part of the crop rotation, he said.
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Ever since canola was introduced to Prairie farmers more than 40 years ago, it has been embraced as an important cash crop.
“You could buy a new combine with a good crop of canola,” Gilroy said.
While it may take more than a good canola crop to buy a combine now, new varieties and better weed control help to keep the crop profitable.
“It was the crop that saved the grains and oilseed business. Had we not had canola, it would have been pretty miserable out there,” said Gilroy.
Even during years when canola prices are low, farmers have access to newer, higher-yielding varieties, which help keep the crop profitable.
“If it doesn’t return the big cash, it has the potential. Canola prices can turn on a dime.”
Introduction of genetically modified varieties of canola was an important change for producers. It allowed weed control chemicals to be used on the crop without killing the canola.
Farmers no longer needed to summerfallow their fields to kill weeds before planting the crop.
The newer varieties were often a step ahead of the disease or insects that had the potential to devastate farmers.
“Each time we tightened rotation, technology has been there to help us along,” Gilroy said.
The introduction of hybrid varieties for the food service market may offer one of the biggest growth potentials for the crop.
With a growing demand for healthy food, canola has qualities suitable for a more health-conscious fast food industry, as well as high-end restaurants.
Already several fast food chains have announced they will switch to canola oil to make their food healthier.
Canola is free of trans fats and cholesterol and it’s low in unhealthy saturated fatty acids. The oil has a solid place on grocery store shelves, but the ingredient market is an opportunity. About 75 to 80 percent of Canadian canola goes into the ingredient market for foods like muffins, cookies, energy bars and cakes.
Gilroy said an important next step would be to make canola the oil of choice in the large salad dressing and mayonnaise market, a huge consumer of oil.
The endless list of possibilities will ensure canola stays in Gilroy’s rotation, he said.
