Prairie canola crushers want nothing to do with canola that has laid in
swaths under the snow all winter, a crusher manager said last week.
“Let’s just say, if it does stay out over winter, we won’t want it,”
said Tom Hastie, grains manager for CanAmera Foods in Fort
Saskatchewan, Alta.
“We just have too many problems with it.”
He said CanAmera Foods is encouraging farmers to do what they can to
get canola out of the swaths before spring.
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Staying in the swath over the winter allows mould and mildew to grow on
the seed, and changes the oil’s composition.
Hastie said CanAmera has taken poor quality seed in the past, but it’s
a problem in a year with limited good seed for blending.
“We very, very seldom use it. There has been the odd time when it has
come through, but we haven’t had this volume out ever.”
Hastie said the company doesn’t have a good estimate of how much canola
is still in the field, but he hopes the recent warm weather will allow
farmers to harvest.
He said the company insists that the canola it buys must test less than
11 percent moisture.
“We’re pretty fussy. Anything over 11, we just don’t want it.”
Despite the poor crop, Hastie believes the plant will have enough
canola to operate until the next crop year.
