Interest in new canola variety with reduced pod shattering is high across the Prairies
Straight combining canola is gaining momentum.
InVigor L140P, which Bayer Crop Science introduced last year, is a canola hybrid with pod shatter tolerance.
Paul Chevalier, territory sales manager for Bayer in southern Manitoba, said grower interest in the variety is exceptional.
“Most of the questions I get are around this new variety … because this is a new practice and something new to growers,” he said.
A Bayer survey found that 80 farmers in southern Manitoba planted 17,600 acres of L140P last year, which represented one-third of L140P acreage in the region last. Most growers experimented with the hybrid because the on-farm average was 230 acres.
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Chevalier said southern Manitoba growers aren’t holding back this year.
“We expect acres to double, based on that survey from last year,” he said at a young farmers conference in Brandon.
“What I’m seeing in my territory is more than double.”
George Shelswell, Bayer’s marketing director of oilseeds, said grower interest is also strong in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
“The research that Paul shared at the farm conference in Brandon only focused on Manitoba, but we anticipate similar demand across Sask-atchewan and Alberta,” he said.
“We will have sufficient quantities to meet the demand for the 2015 season,” he said.
Many canola growers have been reluctant to switch from swathing to straight combining canola over fears of pod shatter, pod drop and lost yield, but Saskatchewan research suggests straight cutting and swathing produce similar yields.
“Even when we look at less than ideal harvest timing, the losses are not much greater than those experienced with swathed crop,” said Chris Holzapfel of the Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation, which has conducted more than five seasons of straight cutting canola research.
Chevalier said the labour- and time-savings of straight cutting has convinced growers to switch.
“We’re definitely seeing guys who haven’t straight cut in the past starting to adopt it now, trying small acres on the farm,” he said.
Growers have many questions about combine headers, he added.
“We’d like to get more information on the header types. That is one of the big questions that we get … what are guys having success with.”
The other common question is about future InVigor hybrids: will all of the new varieties come with the pod shatter tolerance trait?
Chevalier said it’s unlikely because some producers prefer to swath canola.
“As we’re releasing new varieties, we’re going to have (hybrids) with the pod shatter technology and traits without,” he said.
“There’s a price premium, and for the growers who have no interest in straight cutting … we’re still going to have other varieties to offer them comparable to the (pod shatter) varieties on the market.”
L140P costs $8.10 more per acre than InVigor L252, based on a seeding rate of five pounds per acre.
