Relatively high prices and increasing demand for canola have prompted growers to produce more canola on more cropland. Here we determine if canola seed yield and oil concentration can be increased over current levels with high levels of crop inputs. From 2008 to 2010, direct-seeded experiments involving two seeding rates, two nitrogen rates (100 vs. 150% of soil test recommendation), and the presence or absence of polymer-coated nitrogen or fungicides, were conducted at eight western Canada locations in canola-wheat-canola or continuous canola rotations.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced $14.5 million in funding for agronomic and nutrition research under a new Canola/Flax Agri-Science Cluster. Industry and farmers will match this funding for a total amount of nearly $20 million. An additional $4.6 million of government funding will support the Clubroot Risk Mitigation Project, which seeks to identify best management practices and breed clubroot-resistant canola varieties. All research funding will help the canola industry increase production to 15 million tones by 2015.

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The goal of this program is to increase the profitability of canola production. The funding groups of CARP are the Canola Council of Canada, Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission, the Alberta Canola Producer Commission and the Manitoba Canola Growers Association.

CARP projects are selected by the Board of Directors of MCGA. The projects that are selectedare brought to the larger funding group (the ones named above) and this group decides who will fund what projects based on the organizations priorities. Most of the projects are co-funded so that each organization can maximize their dollars.

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Protein Fractionation project is a joint project with SaskCanola and AAFC that will test Brassica protein fractionation process under large scale processing, execute economic analysis of the process and market positioning of the products.

Clubroot research project is a 4 year project to build a durable clubroot resistance. This is funded by Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund (ACIDF) and the three grower groups.

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Producers are entitled to obtain taxable benefits on canola check-off deductions that are used to support Research & Development. Individual producers are entitled to claim investment tax credits at 20% and the corporate producer rate for Canadian Controlled Private Corporations (CCPC) is 35%.

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The Manitoba Canola Growers’ Association (MCGA) engaged Strategic Vision Consulting Ltd. (SVC) to compile a list of open pollinated canola varieties Canadian farmers may have the right to save and replant under the definitionof farm saved seed. In this document, SVC will refer to these varieties as “free to reseed.

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Herbicide tolerant (HT) canola was introduced in Western Canada in 1995 through an identity preserved production and marketing system, with unrestricted commercial production beginning in 1997. The subsequent adoption was relatively rapid, with 26% in the initial year, 78% by 2002 and 95% by 2007. In 2007, a producer survey was undertaken to learn more about the producer level impacts that were being observed one decade after commercialization.

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Canola production overview for 2009.

The most recent Census of Agriculture counted 19,054 farms in Manitoba. 

• Canola, Manitoba’s 2nd largest field crop, was produced on 5,861 farms.
• As the number of census farms continue to drop, Manitoba’s canola farm numbers follow similar trends.
• Canola is grown in most agricultural areas of the province, with the largest concentrations in Central andSouthwest regions.
• Agronomic concerns make it unlikely that canola area in Manitoba will surpass 3.1 million acres or approximately 16% of the province’s 19,073,005 acres of cropland.

Relatively high seed prices and low canola (Brassica napus L.) grain prices created a controversy over using farm-saved seed from hybrids. Agronomic implications of saving seed from a canola crop were investigated by planting certifi ed seed and saved-seed of an open-pollinated and a hybrid canola cultivar at eight site-years in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada. In one series of experiments cultivars and seed rates were compared, while in another experiment seed treatments and use of sized seed were investigated.

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The high cost of hybrid (HY) canola (Brassica napus L.) seed has some producers considering F2 generation hybrid farm-saved seed (HY-FSS), or open-pollinated (OP) varieties (both certified and farm-saved seed). The net return (NR) of different varieties, genetic backgrounds, seeding rates, seed treatments, and seed sizing was evaluated from three experiments over eight site-years of field data from western Canada.

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