SeCan will introduce a new, inexpensive herbicide-tolerant canola variety next year.
DS Roughrider shares its name with Saskatchewan’s professional football team, prompting the grower-owned seed company to hope that a successful season on the gridiron this year will put the name in a popular light in farmers’ minds.
“I hope they win some games,” Brent McCarthy, SeCan marketing representative, said with a chuckle.
McCarthy said the new variety does not have eye-popping yield potential, but it should give the company a good toehold in the highly competitive herbicide-tolerant canola market.
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“The all-round package looks very good,” he said at a plot tour for seed producers last week.
“It is going to be a competitive variety and a competitive price. We are looking at setting a suggested retail price of $1.99 a pound.”
That price is based on treated seed.
DS Roughrider, bred by Danisco Seed of Denmark, is Roundup Ready. In co-op trials in 1998 and 1999, it yielded 106 percent of the AC Excel check. It matures one day later than AC Excel.
Its straw is stronger than the check, Legacy and Defender.
Height and green seed are similar to the check variety and the oil content is high, 3.5 percent more than AC Excel.
There will be no production contract, so the grower will be able to market to the buyer of his choice.
The variety’s weakness is moderate susceptibility to blackleg.
McCarthy said the company is counting on DS Roughrider to reinvigorate its canola business.
SeCan hasn’t had the money to invest heavily in new canola varieties and to support them with advertising.
“But I think we can get the message out there that there are options and this one is pretty attractive,” he said.
“Right off the bat, if you are looking at a buck a pound difference in seed cost, that adds $5-$6 per acre to your bottom line.”
Robin Fenton of Tisdale, Sask., is one of about 45 growers building the seed stock this year for DS Roughrider’s launch this fall.
His farm has enjoyed good weather this year and as of late July, DS Roughrider was growing well .
“We’re pretty happy with it,” he said. “It is coming along as good as the other varieties and we have a lot.”
As a SeCan grower, he is pleased he will be able to offer customers a herbicide-tolerant variety.
“The last year or so it has been a bit up in the air as far as the GMO issue, but I think we have to keep moving ahead and keep up with the other competitors,” he said.
“It will have a good fit in rotations. I know it isn’t going to be hard to sell with the retail price they are suggesting.”
Kim Berscheid of Berscheid Brothers Seed at Lake Lenore, Sask., is also growing the variety for seed multiplication.
“It has good vigor. It was one of the first to come out of the ground,” the seed grower said.
“It looks as good or better than the other varieties we have.”
With canola prices down, Berscheid said, farmers are looking for inexpensive, all-round varieties to lower their risk.
