Western Canadian canola growers regularly grapple with many challenges that put significant pressure on both crop performance and profitability. From increasingly unpredictable weather patterns to persistent pest pressure and soil health issues, these factors, if left unchecked, can significantly affect the success of crops.
One of the most critical stages in a crop’s lifecycle starts with seed. Growers need a reliable product that not only supports the development of strong, healthy crops, but also enhances their overall yields.
BrettYoung, a trusted family-owned brand with more than 90 years of experience, has recently released to the market the first in a new generation of LibertyLink canola hybrids specifically designed to address many of the challenges faced by today’s farmers.
The hybrid, BY 7204LL, was launched in late 2023. It is a mid-maturity canola that offers best-in-class reliability, resistance and yield.
“BY 7204LL is the culmination of many things that growers are looking for in recent years – from pod shatter protection and next-generation clubroot resistance with the LibertyLink trait to a maturity profile that makes it well suited to most areas of Western Canada,” says Eric Gregory, director of marketing and canola product manager for BrettYoung.
With strong early-season vigour, BY 7204LL is particularly attractive for growers looking for that early season ground cover. It has also proven in trials to offer substantial gains in maturity from the current WCC/RRC checks. Gregory notes the canola hybrid is also 105 per cent of these checks in terms of yield performance.
BY 7204LL represents the first Pod DefendR-traited LibertyLink product that BrettYoung is bringing to the market. Pod DefendR means BY 7204LL has a durable pod shatter tolerance trait, making it well suited for either direct harvesting or a delayed swatch approach to harvesting canola.
“A lot of growers have moved toward direct harvesting canola and there’s some operating efficiencies and yield advantages to that,” Gregory says. “But there are other growers who still want to swath their canola, and they are really going to appreciate that pod shatter tolerance for the simple fact that they won’t have to worry about shattering losses if they get to the field a bit late.
The new-generation hybrid also has DefendR-rated clubroot protection, meaning it has stacked, first and next-generational clubroot resistance genes that allow it to successfully grow anywhere in Western Canada.
“Clubroot, which is prevalent in areas of central Alberta, is very crafty in that it can morph itself into different pathotypes that can evade what we call first-generation resistance,” Gregory says, noting that in severe cases, clubroot can reduce canola yields by 50 per cent or worse, depending on how badly the soil is infected.
BrettYoung’s canola breeding partner DL Seeds has, in turn, spent years developing solutions to combat clubroot by stacking newer, well-characterized resistance traits into their hybrids, along with first-generation resistance.
“That has been showing up in terms of the new hybrids that BrettYoung is releasing that have been developed by DL Seeds. Most of the hybrids that we have in our portfolio within the last two years all have that stacked next-generation resistance,” Gregory says.
He adds BrettYoung is proud of its long history with breeders such as DL Seeds – and their germplasm which growers cannot typically access through most other seed companies.
“It’s one of the things that we’re most excited about. We’ve always prided ourselves on bringing differentiated germplasm and different technologies to growers,” Gregory says.
“This relationship with DL Seeds, in particular, is providing growers with access to different germplasm beyond anything they can get from others in the market.”
Despite only a limited launch in late fall of 2023 and a full release earlier this year, BrettYoung is already receiving positive feedback for BY 7204LL from canola growers in Western Canada and beyond.
“We’ve had some fabulous feedback,” Gregory says. “My favorite quote so far was from a grower in North Dakota who recently said this is the biggest crop of canola he’s ever grown in his life.”
“We are also conducting commercial-scale side-by-side trials, and so far, BY 7204LL has been leading the pack. We’re confident, moving forward, it’s going to continue to be very competitive with any other hybrid it’s put it up against. And it’s going to be priced a little bit more competitively.”
Learn more about Brett Young’s BY 7204LL new-generation LibertyLink hybrid by contacting your local retailer or by visiting www.brettyoung.ca.
