LETHBRIDGE – There’s a bit of canola magic around Alberta’s feedlot alley. And that magic has resulted in an estimated 40,000 acres of hybrid seed production in the region and drawn the attention of the world’s largest seed company.
Pioneer Hi-Bred recently expanded its canola operations in the region with a new $12 million, 30,000 sq. foot canola seed conditioning and production facility.
“All of the major (canola) seed companies are located here. There is some magic in producing canola seed here in this area. And I’m a scientist saying this,” said Dave Charne, the company’s director of crop genetics research.
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“It’s more than the weather. It’s more than the soil. We’ve tried and continue to try in southern Manitoba and in Saskatchewan. Fact is we get the best results here. And so do the other companies that produce hybrid canola seed,” he said.
Producers with access to irrigation in the area are accustomed to producing a variety of crops under contract. That experience helps the company find growers to feed the new facility.
Plant manager Darrel Armstrong said it can be tricky organizing the company’s seed production so it meets the required 800 metre minimum buffer from other canola crops because of commercial brassica crops, as well as the other seed growers in the area.
“We’re at a mile mostly. It means a lot of planning to get the rotations right. To get the isolation. It’s a lot of meeting with farmers, talking to neighbours, creating long-term relationships in the area,” he said.
Producing hybrids also requires intensive management due to mixing of highly genetically diverse male and female lines in the fields.
Rob Wauters, an agronomist with Pioneer Hi-Bred, said the plots require old-fashioned weed control because the male lines do not contain herbicide resistant genes.
“It’s like the old days of canola production: Edge, Post, Muster, Lontrel,” he said.
Male plants must be mowed down and allowed to re-grow and bloom again during the flowering period to ensure they flower as long as sterile female hybrid-seed-producing plants are also in flower.
“The growers in the area are used to labour intensive crops,” he said.
A supply of bees, both heat-loving leaf cutters and cool, damp preferring honeybees, are necessary to the industry.
“Lethbridge has it all,” said Wauters.
While irrigation helps to take weather out of play as a risk factor, 2008 has delivered a harsh blow to all hybrid canola seed companies.
Hail and high winds destroyed many seed fields in the region in recent weeks.
Armstrong said production from the lost canola acres would be made up for in South America. The company’s operations in Chile will produce, clean and ship seed to the Alberta facility in time for the 2009 seeding season.
At the Lethbridge facility, the conditioning side of the operation prepares the hybrid canola seed for sale and arranges production.
The plant is expected to produce more than 200,000 bags of seed in 2008, with potential to reach 500,000 bags with additional storage and warehouse space.
“We can clean 10 tonnes an hour here on the cleaning and conditioning side of the plant,” said Armstrong.
“The facility was brought into production in late 2007, but we’re still refining things. It’s state of the art when it comes to seed production. That means it takes some time to get the most out of every aspect of the facility, but so far it meets and in some cases exceeds our best expectations,” he said.
Pioneer Hi-Bred Ltd. Canada president Ian Grant said the seed produced at the facility is the highest quality that industry is capable of delivering.
“This is a significant investment in canola. It’s an investment in the quality and our ability to grow our lines of canola for the Canadian market,” he said.
Armstrong said the company has increased its canola seed production in the region by 58 percent this year and plans to expand again in the 2009 growing season.
“We will start cleaning and treating seed in December and then get into full swing in January through April. We don’t want to anticipate producer demands for seed treatment options as we can produce custom products with this new equipment. We need to hear from the reps in the field and from our customers to make that call,” he said.
“We know our seed is stable when it’s treated, but we don’t want to have too little of one and too much of another as that causes delays in distribution,” he said.
Once the canola is treated, automation takes over. A bagging machine fills, sews and labels sixteen 50 pound bags every minute. Bags are then sent off to a robot that stacks them on pallets and sends them off to the first human hands to touch the oilseeds since they entered the plant.
Even then, pallets are fully wrapped before warehouse staff stack or ship the products.
“Human hands don’t come into contact with the product, not because it’s hazardous. It is a matter of consistency. Uniform seed from reliable processing means improved production in the field. It’s reliable,” said Armstrong.
