Canola counts on agronomy, future innovation

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?