It’s been a good year for Western Canada’s “mustard canola.”
The crop, commercially known as Prairie Canola, fared well in the early season heat and drought that marked the 2003 growing season, outyielding check varieties by 15 to 20 percent.
Its meal recently received regulatory approval to be used as feed in the United States, and it showed great results in feeding trials designed to address Japanese concerns about its palatability in hog rations.
But despite the good news, the crop won’t really take off until herbicide-tolerant varieties are available, says the head of plant breeding for Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
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“From what I’ve been hearing, people were quite happy with it this year,” Derek Potts said. “Once we get herbicide resistance, I would expect to see a major expansion.”
Researchers are now working to incorporate Clearfield herbicide tolerance into the crop, he said, but that’s still a few years off.
“Until then, that lack of herbicide tolerance will restrict the development of the crop.”
Brassica juncea is the formal name for the mustard plant that has been bred to produce canola quality oil and meal.
Owned by Sask Pool, the crop is ideally suited to be grown in hot, dry regions of the Prairies where traditional canola doesn’t fare well.
“This (2003) is the kind of year it was designed for,” Potts said in an interview during a canola industry conference in Saskatoon last week.
“There was good enough moisture to get it started, then the heat and drought, and it came through very well.”
Besides drought tolerance, it also boasts early vigour, good blackleg resistance, shattering resistance and yellow seed colour, which translates into low fibre and high energy meal.
The crop also lends itself to straight combining, which Potts said may be its most attractive feature to farmers in the southern Prairies.
“That’s probably the feature capturing the most attention,” he said.
“A lot of farmers down there don’t even own a swather so it’s the only way they can harvest it.”
Despite those selling points, the area planted to brassica juncea remains low. Fewer than 20,000 acres were seeded in 2003 to Arid and Amulet, the two commercially available varieties.
A new variety, still in the experimental stage and going under the moniker JOOD-89439, has a 10 percent yield advantage over Arid. It’s early maturing, with medium height, blackleg resistance and good vigour.
Brassica juncea is grown under contract and identity-preserved from farm to processor because it’s not visually distinguishable from oriental mustard.
The meal’s regulatory approval in the U.S. will overcome one barrier to juncea’s acceptance by processors. Last year, a prairie canola crusher refused to accept juncea because it didn’t want to risk it being mixed with shipments destined to the U.S.
Of potentially greater significance are the results of the feeding trials conducted by the Prairie Swine Centre in Saskatoon.
Pigs fed a ration including 15 percent juncea meal gained more weight than those on a diet with 15 percent traditional canola meal.
Dave Hickling, vice-president of canola use for the Canola Council of Canada, said those results will be presented at the annual Canada-Japan canola consultation in Tokyo early this month.
“We’ll tell them that there is no need to be concerned about the feed intake or palatability of juncea, and it can be accepted and distributed to the feed industry in Japan without negative consequences,” he said.
In fact, the trial results could open up a specialized market fro brassica juncea.
