Positivity Will Help Push Canola Industry Ahead

Aug 01, 2011

Canadian canola producers could benefit from a good dose of positivity, says the former head of the Reform Party of Canada.

"Canada needs more positive thinking," said Preston Manning, Reform party founder and head of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, a Calgarybased think-tank dedicated to the development of political entrepreneurs guided by conservative principles.

Manning gave the closing speech of the 2011 Canola Council of Canada Conference Thursday in Saskatoon.

Manning believes the industry could improve itself in three ways: Through positive thinking, continued innovation and action. The industry has lots to be positive about, said Manning, who highlighted the strength of Canadian economy. A majority government will allow leaders to tackle issues and the Canadian West is emerging as a new centre of power, he said.

"After many years of struggle, I think it's safe to say that the West is in," Manning said.

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Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.