Seed technology companies continue to ramp up their investment in Canada’s canola industry.
Pioneer Hi-Bred hosted an open house earlier this month at the new seed production facility it is building in Wingham, Ont.
The $15 million plant will produce parent inbreds for the company’s hybrid seed production facility in Lethbridge and experimental hybrids for its large plot testing program.
The 3,251 sq. metre facility will include a warehouse, seed plant and office building. The warehouse is built and the rest of the project is under construction.
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The plant is expected to be fully operational by late 2012.
Pioneer built the facility because its parent seed production business had outgrown the space it shared with the breeding and research group in Georgetown, Ont.
Plant manger Tim Martin said Pioneer built its parent seed production plant in Eastern Canada to maintain the purity of the parent lines.
“Isolation is critical and we can get that in Ontario because we’re not in the canola belt,” he said.
The new facility will allow Pioneer to produce more parent inbreds and experimental hybrids.
“This gives us capacity to do more testing so that farmers can be confident that they’re getting the best possible products,” said Martin.
The plant will multiply breeder seed provided by Pioneer’s research centres in Edmonton, Saskatoon, Carmen, Man., and Georgetown.
The company is focusing on sclerotinia and clubroot resistant lines and eventually Liberty tolerant hybrids.
Rick White, general manager of the Canadian Canola Growers Association, said those are the kinds of traits have real value for farmers.
“Investments by development companies like Pioneer certainly are instrumental in keeping Canadian growers at the leading edge of seed development,” he said.
Companies have made a lot of those types of investments in recent years:
• Cargill opened a specialty canola research and production centre in Aberdeen, Sask.
• Bayer CropScience spent $15 million expanding its centre of innovation near Saskatoon into a global canola breeding centre.
• Monsanto is building a $15 million breeding centre at the University of Manitoba and expanding its crop technology research centre in Saskatoon.
“It shows that the canola industry is on the right track. It is a healthy industry, not only for the growers but for the investors and development companies,” said White.
“It seems to be working for everyone. I guess that’s why we see such a vibrant and competitive canola industry in Canada.”
