Specialty Oil Canola

[charliep]

I was at a Alberta Canola Producers Commission meeting on Thurs. in Westlock and watched presentations by both Cargill and Dow Agro on their specialty oil variety canolas. Has anyone grow these canolas? What has your experience been on the production side? What market signals do farm managers need to get to encourage these varieties? Do they have a fit in the western Canadian crop rotations?

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie,

I grew a quarter of HEAR, It yeilded OK, the premium was good, but delivery can be restricted to special crush runs at specific crushing plants.

My long term plan is to continue growing this specialty oil instead of regular Canola in rotation for the forseeable future.

Therefore growing these specialized products are need to be made on a long term basis, to prevent cross contamination of the oil types.

[winston]

The premiums are not near high enough to encourage production. I think it is a cruel joke for the companies involved to expect us to take all the risk of growing these varities with poorer yields, agronomics and tight quality specs for a little premium. I think they are making a good premium for the oil and passing on little to the farmer. This year some of the contracts were even for amounts that were lower than you can get for regular canola and the yields were horrible

[charliep]

Winston

I have heard the similar comments from many farm managers that the extra cost and in some cases (not always) lower yields more than offset any price premium/profit gains from growing one of these types of canola.

What perplexes me is how to get consumer signals down to the farm level in a way that generates more profit for farm businesses/more accurately matches quality characturistics of crops with consumer needs/wants. I see our processing industry/that of export markets getting a lot more picky in needing grains, oilseeds and pulses that meet pretty exacting quality/characturistic specifications.

How should industry be communicating consumer needs back to the farm level? What information do farm managers need to be given to ensure they are being treated fairly in the value chain? Are there other things that value chain companies can bring to the table including help on input costs, crop scouting services that will help you be successfull?