OUTLOOK, Sask. – At the recent Irrigation Crop Diversification Centre corn tour in Outlook, seed company representatives confirmed that new, early maturing corn varieties are here with more in the pipeline.
Murray Nelson, a sales agronomist with Keg Agro in Outlook, said Pioneer is interested in the western Canadian corn market.
“They’ve opened up a research facility in Edmonton looking into lower heat unit corn,” he said. “One example is the variety 39F45: a 2,000 heat unit conventional corn. In this area, two varieties that really stick out are T67 and T71, with many acres seeded to these varieties. One is Roundup Ready and one is Liberty Link.”
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He said Pioneer expects to have a Roundup Ready version of the variety 39F45 available in two years. A 2,050 heat unit corn variety called P78 is already available, he added.
“We do have some H83 out. It’s a 2,450 (heat unit) variety, so this year we’re stretching it to finish by the end of the season. One thing Pioneer suggests is balance your risk with a couple of different heat unit varieties: from 2000 to 2400.”
Brian Zwann, a territory manager with Prairie Seeds in Saskatoon, said his company handles Hyland corn: silage, conventional, Roundup Ready and leafy hybrids.
“We do have varieties, whether on dryland or irrigated, that will produce good feed grade corn, for silaging or grazing.”
Mike Cey, an agronomist with Federated Co-operatives Ltd. in Saskatoon, said the company is distributing Elite corn, developed and marketed by Co-op Federee, a Quebec co-op that’s also a large corn breeder.
“We’ve been demonstrating them out here and they’ll be available through your Co-op retails. There’s some decent varieties down into the 2,100 to 2,200 corn heat units. Our primary interest is in silage and grazing corn. These look like some varieties that could work well.”
A representative from Dow AgroScience mentioned that his company’s purchase of Mycogen Seed will allow it to diversify its seed lines in Western Canada.
A spokesperson for Monsanto said his company has many partners in the industry using the Roundup Ready technology. Monsanto has also purchased DeKalb and has a wide range of genetics to work with, so early maturing varieties may be available in the future.
