WESTERN PRODUCER — In early October, Western Producer reporter Robert Arnason spoke with Curtis Rempel, vice-president of crop production and innovation with the Canola Council of Canada. The topic was canola yield gains over the last two decades and what will drive gains in the future.
RA: What happened in the 2000s, which led to significant yield increases from 2000 to 2010?
CR: The year 2000 is a great inflection point. Because yields ramped up dramatically after 2000 and kept going…. After 2000, we got the herbicide-tolerant trait stable, no yield drag and hybrid vigour. And zero-till, one-pass systems were starting to work. So, it’s kind of the perfect storm of hybrid, herbicide (tolerance) and the maturation of zero-till planting equipment for small seed. It’s that kind of trifecta.
RA: There was another inflection point (for yield gains) around 2013. Average yields topped 40 bushels. Was that shatter-resistant canola or clubroot resistance?
CR: Shatter came a bit later…. In 2018, 2019, 2020, where we had the 42 (bu. per acre average), that’s where shatter came in. But in the 2012-13, that’s where blackleg (resistance) and clubroot came forward. It (yield) kind of bumps up to there, plateaus, goes up again and now we’ve plateaued….. So, first generation (disease) resistance, the first plateau. Now second-generation resistance and pod shatter for the last (yield gain).
RA: Have yield gains slowed in the last 10 to 12 years?
CR: In the last five years, excluding the drought year (of 2021), the yields across the Prairies were pretty remarkably stable. 42, 42, 42. Hovering right around that 42 mark (on average).
It kind of went from 37 and was plateauing around 37, then it went up to 42 and it’s been pretty reliable.
RA: Looking back, we added about eight to nine million acres of canola from 2005-12. Acreage has been around 22 million since 2012. Now, canola is grown more frequently on the same piece of land. What does that mean for yield?
CR: If you look at a large chunk of the black and grey-wooded (soil zones), other than Manitoba it’s pretty much a one-in-two rotation. That’s probably why some of the resistance genes eroded, from what I call the first generation. And why we got a yield boost (from) the second generation (of resistance). The tighter rotations did initially put some downward pressure on yield… or made it plateau. But growers are figuring it out now and they have choices of different resistance genes to deploy. You’ve got to rotate something…. (so) you’re not putting the same gene out for the pathogen, for selection pressure.
RA: Are growers doing that? Or are they sticking with the same hybrid, year after year, because it got them 55 bu. per acre last year?
CR: What happens is (some) growers stick with the same hybrid, until they start seeing yield plateauing or declining…. What they are doing is looking at something (a new hybrid)… that has different resistance genes in it…. I think that’s starting to happen. And when we see more of that mindset happening (rotating resistance genes), I think we’ll start to see yields going up again.
RA: What about outside the black soil zone? Crop insurance data shows that canola yields are significantly lower in the brown soil zone of Saskatchewan.
CR: The brown soil zone, that’s the big focus, right now, of our crop production innovation team…. With lower moisture, unpredictable moisture and they tend to have higher summer temperatures, which really brings your yield down. There are three or four crush plants (in development) in the fringes of the browns. There is going to be demand…. One thing is to think about early planting to catch some moisture and growing shorter season varieties…. A lot of our top-yielding varieties have days to maturity of 105 to 110 and even longer…. The problem in the brown soil zone is we have to beat the heat in July, so we get flowering earlier in mid-June. In order to do that, they have to start growing earlier season varieties. They are going to give up some yield potential… but they’re going to get more consistent yields…. Can we increase it to 40, but where you get 40 almost every year? Also, figure out how to fertilize. Because you don’t need near as much nitrogen…. And we have to think about seeding rates because seed is a high cost.
RA: What you’re talking about is a change of thinking. Canola isn’t a home-run crop, but a single or a double in the brown soil zone?
CR: You have to (ask), what is a year-in and year-out realistic yield potential? And how am I going to get it? Someday we may have short-season varieties that yield 60 bu. per acre…. But right now, we’re not there. So, how do I manage my input costs if the moisture doesn’t show up? If you want to go for a moon shot, do it with one field only. Your best field.
RA: What are the big innovations that could push yield to another level?
CR: To handle more heat at flowering. I think that’s the big trigger for canola. Can we increase the temperature of pollen viability? Now, 30 C is the inflection point. You hit 30 C and pollen starts dying like crazy and that affects yield…. It’s completely possible in brassica to move the pollen viability up to 35 C or so. Then (there)would be a step change for the brown (soil zone) and other parts of the Prairies, like Manitoba.
RA: Other research and innovations, which could be game changers?
CR: The big ones are temperature (tolerance) at flowering. That’s a 10 to 15 year game…. Another one is a project at the U of Guelph. It’s turning canola from a C3 plant more into a C4 plant like corn, so it can handle higher heat and changing the carbon partitioning in the plant. The yield in those plants, we’re starting to see them now…. they are literally four times the yield.
RA: That innovation is longer term?
CR: That’s 10 to 15 years down the road. As is pollen (temperature tolerance). The other big one is deeper rooting canola. There’s a lot of work going on around that already. It gives you more carbon, better nitrogen-use efficiency and better water stress (tolerance). Those three things… higher temperature tolerance, carbon partitioning and deeper roots, are going to be the game changers. I’ll bet you a bottle of Scotch.
RA: Sure. I’ll take the bet.
In the shorter term, from now until 2030, or 2033, what needs to happen to increase yield?
CR: Adaptation. I think paying very close attention to the planting date…. Growers may have to have a seeding regime where sometimes I start my peas first. Then, when it’s ideal for canola (based on soil temperature) I pop my canola in and I go back to cereals. Or alternate between cereal and canola…. And wherever you are, you may have to plant some of your (acreage) to a shorter season canola. To hedge some of your risk. If we are hot and dry, maybe 30 percent of your acres is shorter season.
RA: You’re talking about fine-tuning the agronomy: seeding dates, seeding rates, choice of hybrid, choice of resistance genes, pest scouting, fertility management?
CR: Maybe the number one thing is to invest in a good agronomist for your farm…. If you start investing in thinking like that, it’s going to pay big dividends even when these new genetics (arrive)… in 10 to 15 years.
Bookmark SASKTODAY.ca, Saskatchewan's home page, at this link.
