New tech advances mean continued growth for canola

By Jennifer Barber

From open-pollinated varieties to hybridization, herbicide tolerance and stacked traits, canola has come a long way in Canada. Annual production levels, which have grown steadily since 2000, have leveled off at about 20 million tonnes. Does this mean canola has reached its full potential? Some think we still have more bushels to find.

“We know we haven’t reached peak yield when it comes to Canadian canola production,” says Curtis Rempel, vice president, crop and innovation with the Canola Council of Canada (CCC). “But in order to make a big difference, we need to move forward with genetic advancements and how we manage harvest.”

With new traits for disease resistance and pod shatter, canola rapidly went from an average 20 bushels per acre to 42, but that ceiling has been hard to break through. The CCC’s strategic plan, first announced in 2014, targeted an average 52 bushels by 2025, which likely won’t happen — yet.

“We will get past 50 bushels, it will just take a bit more time,” says Rempel. “Combined with genetic gains, if growers continue to work with their local agronomist, set their yield expectations at the beginning of the season, manage their fertilizer use and focus on harvest management, we still have a lot more we can get from canola.”

Where growth began

“In the late 1990s to early 2000s, canola was grown on about 10 to 15 million acres,” says David Kelner, canola portfolio and launch lead with Bayer. “It took five to six years for the market to fully adopt hybrid canola, which contributed to a big part of the growth, together with the herbicide tolerant systems that came with it.”

Kelner says that the opportunities for better practices evolved with the crop. Hybrid canola behaved differently than open-pollinated canola and therefore needed to be grown differently.

“Herbicide tolerant (HT) systems were the game changer when it came to yield and quality of a canola crop,” says Rempel. “Before that, it was hard to make gains because weeds were difficult to control in minimum tillage situations.”

HT systems offered more uniform planting, which allowed zero tillage in canola production to take off, and farmers saw a direct yield benefit from the improved moisture conditions. Prior to the adoption of HT technology, hybrid and open-pollinated canola jockeyed to bring the latest advancements to registration. Once the systems were synchronized in the early 2000s, hybrid canola took over.

During the last 25 years, a lot of research and learning has resulted in improved hybrid production including dialed-in fertility plans (since hybrids use nutrients differently), decreased seeding rates to get optimal plant populations, and a shift toward earlier seeding.

“The yield average, while important, doesn’t tell the full story,” says Kelner. “In the early 2000s a good yield was 30 bushels per acre, and now we average around 40 bushels per acre with the best producing acres achieving 50 and higher, under much more challenging conditions in recent years. To help reach higher goals, we began packaging by seed count, taking seed size out of the equation for more reliable plant populations.”

The picture now

Today, much of canola’s yield gains come from traits. For example, the pod shatter trait has allowed the canola industry to move away, for the most part, from swathing to straight cutting a later harvest without yield loss. But there have been some setbacks.

“There is a learning curve when you move to straight cutting and there are still some opportunities for improvement,” says Rempel. “If a canola (crop) has pod shatter resistance and it stands too long before harvesting, the heavy pods can break off without shattering in high wind events and farmers lose yield.”

Clubroot has spread across the Prairies, but genetic advancements across soil maturity zones have been able to keep it at bay. Blackleg has long been managed by a single gene, but now the pathogen has adapted. Fortunately, new hybrids have been able to keep up with inclusion of new race-specific resistance genes, as blackleg incidence and severity increase.

“Verticillium stripe is also becoming an issue in many growing areas, and we are still figuring it out,” says Rempel. “We don’t have any resistance as yet, but we are seeing significant yield loss and rapid spread. It is sometimes confounded with blackleg, which makes addressing it even more challenging. Between the two diseases, 20 to 25 per cent of yield potential is at risk.”

At harvest, another issue to consider is combine settings. Most combines in Canada are optimized for large-seeded crops, such as wheat and soybeans. While they can be adjusted for canola, it takes time — a scarce commodity during harvest.

“We have seen evidence that growers can lose two bushels per acre out the back of the combine,” says Rempel. “We recognize that time and weather often don’t allow for adjustments, but by working with your agronomist to optimize your settings and using a drop pan, you can keep the canola from being lost.”

Looking forward to growth

While weather always fluctuates, the pattern in recent years has been one of the biggest limiting factors in growing canola. It’s hard to know if those patterns will continue, but the extremes are a concern going forward.

“We are commonly seeing widespread temperatures above 30 C during flowering with overnight lows over 25 C,” says Rempel. “These are yield limiting temperatures. But there are ways to mitigate against this.”

Rempel suggests seeding short season varieties and planting them as early as possible. While he acknowledges the limitations of these varieties mean yield potential may be lower, growers may end up with a higher yield in the end by setting realistic yield goals. “When you set a yield goal you look at all your potential in-season concerns and then fertilize accordingly.”

This year, Bayer has introduced DK401TL, the latest TruFlex-LibertyLink dual trait hybrid that provides more weed control options to help combat weeds such as resistant kochia and wild oats. “We expect higher adoption of dual trait products like this as growers experience the benefits they offer,” says Kelner. “When you think about what could have happened to yield under recent growing conditions if we weren’t constantly innovating, there continues to be a very strong case for high expectations from canola.”

When it comes to adding more seeded acres, Rempel sees potential from different than usual soil zones. “The black soil zones are already at a one-in-three or one-in-two canola rotation, and they can’t intensify those rotations,” he says. “But if we mitigate for weather risks at flowering, the brown and dark brown soil zones present more opportunities.”

While the brown soil zones have less disease presence, they tend to be hot and dry during flowering. But with genetic and agronomic advancements, there is still potential for growth.

“Over the next five to seven years we expect to see new traits that have even more disease resistance, insect resistance and more heat tolerance during flowering,” says Rempel. “We also expect to see breeding for larger plant roots which will allow the plant to stand up against drought stress. Canola still has a lot to give.”