Growers see a promising future for canola in Ontario

Monday, October 3, 2011

Though it lags far behind soybeans and corn, acreage has more than quadrupled since 2006, yields are improving and it fits well with crop rotation

by MARY BAXTER

For Mike Schill, there's nothing new about adding canola into the crop rotation. The spike-leaved, yellow-flowered plant occupies about 35 per cent of the roughly 5,000 acres he farms with his father and brother near Arthur in Wellington County. "My father started growing it in the mid-1980s," says Schill.

The Schills were among a handful of growers in Ontario who stuck with the crop after a disastrous year in 2005. That year, ADM (Archer Daniels Midland Company) Windsor, the province's sole canola crushing facility, rejected the Ontario crop because brown seed levels were too high. High levels of brown seed, produced by severe heat and moisture stress during the plant's filling in period, reduce oil quality.

Today, canola production in the province remains tiny compared to soybean or corn acreage. Provincial statistics show that in 2010 about 2.4 million acres of soybeans were harvested compared to about 70,000 acres of canola. Yet interest is growing. In 2006, only 15,000 acres were harvested in the province. This year, industry predictions put the final crop size anywhere from 63,500 (the amount of acreage Agricorp has insured) to about 80,000.

Jason Pronk, who farms with his father Clarence when he's not studying the business of agriculture at the University of Guelph, says that, next year, they will establish a 48-acre canola test plot on their 1,200-acre cash crop and poultry operation west of Arthur. 
When asked why they decided to add canola into the rotation, Jason replies: "Mainly profitability."

Although inputs can be expensive, its selling price is identical to corn, he says. The plant's taproot, which can break up soil structure below ground, also enhances soil health. Another plus is its mid-August to mid-September harvest period, meaning that harvest is well out of the way before winter wheat planting begins.

That's what convinced Bill McFadden to add 100 acres of canola into his corn, soybeans and wheat rotation in 2010. McFadden farms 1,000 acres near Belwood, southeast of Arthur. He grew canola for about 15 years but quit in the early 2000s because of lacklustre prices and quality problems. "Soybeans were by far easier to grow." But improvements in the varieties have led to improved yields and more consistent quality, he says.

Ravenna-area farmer James McKinlay, president of the Ontario Canola Growers, says new buyers in the marketplace since 2005 have greatly improved the crop's selling prospects.  In early 2008, Bunge North America, the operating arm of Bunge Limited, revived its crushing operations at its Hamilton plant. The company had suspended canola crushing for about two or three years because of market conditions. Earlier this year, Twin Rivers Technologies-Entreprises de transformation de graines oléagineuses du Québec also began operations. The plant is processing canola, soy and palm oil for human food and the animal feed industry.

"The other big advantage to the crush plant in Trois-Rivières is that they can crush off-grade canola as well," McKinlay notes. A lack of off-grade markets "is what nearly decimated the industry in 2005," he says.

Growers in southern Ontario have an edge in supplying these plants, McKinlay adds, pointing out that harvest begins earlier here than in northern Ontario or Western Canada. Much of the crop in the province's south is therefore sold at harvest. The quick turnaround generates cash flow and negates the need for elevator space. Proximity to the plants reduces shipping expenses, too.  

"We don't have that advantage," says Terry Phillips, an agronomist for the Co-opérative Régionale de Nipissing Sudbury Limited and Canola Growers' vice-president. In northern Ontario, harvest starts in mid-September and the crop is stored. Crushers appreciate the availability, he says. But a higher moisture content in last year's southern Ontario crop "caused some havoc" because Bunge doesn't have drying facilities at Hamilton.

The Temiskaming and Nipissing Districts grow nearly half of Ontario's total canola acreage. "It's probably one of our best grossing or best-value crops," says Phillips, who grows canola on his 450-acre mixed farm. Production grew substantially over the past five years and in particular in the past two. Cattle and dairy operators, who are growing it for cash and as a nitrogen sink for manure management, are behind the growth spurt, he says. (Canola uses as much nitrogen as corn). Some growers have also expanded canola acreage in their rotations because of fusarium problems in spring wheat crops over the past two years, he adds.

The introduction of glufosinate ammonium-tolerant canola Liberty Link provides an opportunity for northern growers to rotate between chemical families. "We have had issues with volunteer Roundup Ready canola in RR beans and RR corn," Phillips says.

He estimates about two thirds of the canola grown in northern Ontario is now glufosinate ammonium-tolerant.

Too-distant markets historically discouraged canola production in eastern Ontario, but both Phillips and McKinlay predict the new Quebec plant will stimulate interest. "It's really started to open up eastern Ontario and I've even talked to guys from New Brunswick who are starting to grow a lot more canola," Phillips says.

Brian Hall, canola specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, notes that establishing a stand is the crop's greatest management challenge.

Seeding rates are still being debated. A University of Guelph study suggests that growers can obtain good stands at half the seeding rates in good growing conditions (four to five pounds is the most common range). "But if you don't have these conditions, it struggles more, it doesn't canopy as well," he says.

Controlling seeding depth can also be problematic. Older seed drills are not equipped to handle small seeds planted at low rates. Seeding at uneven depths means the plants will mature unevenly and create challenges for fungicide applications.

This year, swede midge infestations in crops whose plantings were delayed because of bad weather presented a different pest-related problem; there was no product registered to help control the outbreaks. A later maturing crop may make it more difficult to get winter wheat planted. Finally, reducing moisture can be tricky for growers who lack storage space, he says.

But for every challenge, there are solutions. Hall points out that newer equipment and air carts are sensitive enough to plant the seeds properly. Mixing monoammonium phosphate fertilizer with the seed can help increase the seeding accuracy in conventional seed drills. So can the addition of corncob grits as a bulking agent.

Like others involved in canola in Ontario, Tim Martin, Pioneer Hi-Bred plant manager for canola parent seed production, sees a promising future for the crop in Ontario. New hybrids mean more stress tolerance and the ability to cope with a variety of conditions.

There's "a lot of investment to develop new tools" for canola production, he says, and Pioneer is currently building a new canola seed production plant in Wingham for parent seed and experimental hybrid production.

"The challenge for canola in Ontario is that it yields much better if temperatures are cooler during flowering," Martin explains.

But for the grower in areas where heat corn units are lower, it will fit in well with rotations, "especially if people want to plant wheat after canola," he says. BF