Yield improvement | Juncea canola is heat and drought tolerant and resists pod shattering better than napus varieties
Viterra is launching a product that could help the canola industry break through its acreage limitations.
The grain company is hoping to contract 19,000 acres of the world’s first canola quality juncea hybrid this spring.
Xceed Hybrid VT X121 CL was registered in February and is available in limited quantities for growers in the target area of the brown and dark brown soil zones. The company considers the hybrid its most exciting varietal release to date.
“This was a big step for us,” said Ryan McCann, manager of Viterra’s seed commercialization division.
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One of the knocks on juncea canola is the yield drag compared to regular canola. Viterra’s new hybrid delivered a 25 percent yield improvement over VT Oasis CL, an Xceed open pollinated variety, in grower strip trials conducted last year.
It also performed well against the company’s napus hybrid 45P70 in 15 performance check trials.
“We were basically equal to the napus hybrids in those brown and dark brown soil zones,” said McCann.
He believes the new hybrid will appeal to growers in some areas of the brown and dark brown soil zones who have been avoiding canola because it is too risky to grow in what is normally a dry region of the Prairies.
Juncea canola offers increased tolerance to heat and drought in moisture-deprived areas.
Growers will also be able to straight cut the crop because of its inherent pod shatter resistance. Company research shows that one to two bushels per acre of seeds were lost to pod shattering, half the amount found with conventional napus canola varieties. That allows growers to hold off on harvest activity, which comes with additional benefits.
“We’re seeing reduced green seed because guys aren’t pushing it in terms of the swathing timing and improved seed quality as well,” said McCann.
Patti Miller, president of the Canola Council of Canada, said there has been lots of talk in recent years about canola acres maxing out.
“We don’t think we’re quite at the limit,” she said.
However, she welcomes the addition of any crop that can expand the region where canola is grown.
“If the varieties give farmers more choice and they can tolerate different conditions more effectively, that’s a very good thing,” said Miller.
Franck Groeneweg, vice-chair of the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission, can see how the crop could appeal to growers in southwestern Saskatchewan who are just starting to dabble in canola.
However, he wonders if this is the best time to be showcasing the crop.
“In the last few years, we’ve been dealing with more excess moisture than anything, so drought is probably far from farmers’ minds in some ways,” he said.
The new juncea hybrid could help the canola industry push past the acreage ceiling it is facing as growers push rotations as much as possible.
“Generally, guys in the southwest haven’t been growing that much canola,” said Groeneweg.
“Having canola grown in a wider area of the province reduces some of the risk that we have with production problems (elsewhere).”
McCann said there is potential for significant acreage in Western Canada and around the world. The product is also being launched in the United States and Australia this year.
“If you look globally, (the potential) would be millions of acres, for sure, because there’s lots of geographies with low rainfall areas that certainly would be interested in growing canola.”
Viterra’s closed loop production contract provides growers with a $30 per tonne premium.
The new hybrid contains the Clear-field tolerance trait, which means the oil can be marketed as non-genetically modified oil.
“That’s primarily the reason why there is that $30 per tonne (premium) on the contract,” said McCann.
The other reason is that juncea meal is higher in protein and lower in fibre than canola meal.
Juncea canola requires slightly different agronomics than napus canola. Viterra recommends growers plant the crop at higher seeding rates of six to seven pounds per acre.
Xceed is different from other Clear-field canolas. Growers should not use products such as Absolute, Lontrel or any herbicide containing clopyralid. That could result in yield reductions of 50 percent or more.
A fall or pre-seed application of Edge could also injure the crop.
