Farmers in drier areas of the Prairies “not typically suited to canola production” can expect to benefit from a new juncea canola available through grain company Viterra.
Available in “limited quantities” for the 2009 season, Xceed juncea canola was bred by Viterra to meet the need for growers to diversify their rotation and still produce canola-quality oil, the company said in a release Wednesday.
“Its increased heat and drought tolerance make it ideal for producers in drier regions of Western Canada,” Doug Wonnacott, the Regina company’s senior vice-president for agri-products, said in the release.
Read Also
Path cleared to Mexico for fresh Canadian potatoes, supplanting U.S. spuds
A new agreement between national food safety agencies would allow Canada to export fresh potatoes to Mexico, whose imports of fresh potatoes for years have been solely from the U.S.
Xceed is also tolerant to herbicides used in BASF’s Clearfield production system, such as Odyssey, allowing “reliable one-pass weed control” in a crop considered non-GMO.
“Producers will also benefit from Xceed’s increased frost tolerance and pod shatter resistance, which provide the potential to straight-cut combine the crop,” the company said, also citing its “strong resistance” to blackleg and fusarium wilt, with “good” lodging resistance and medium maturity.
Wonnacott called the seed “a new canola opportunity for many growers that have been unable to produce a stable canola crop in the past” with an oil profile suitable for a “wide range” of end-use markets.
Viterra said it offered a number of Prairie farmers the chance to grow and harvest 20-acre plots of Xceed during 2008 and will have full yield results and other information from those demo plots available later this fall.
