Working toward higher yields
Scott Larson, The Starphoenix
Published: Friday, July 18, 2014
When it comes to mustard crops, higher yields and better disease resistance are needed to make it a more viable alternative for producers and consumers alike. "What producers really need is yield," says Kevin
Hursh, executive director with the Saskatchewan Mustard Development Commission (Sask Mustard). "If a producer can get 25 bushels an acre of yellow mustard, that's a darn good crop. Whereas with canola people are getting 40 and 50 bushels an acre routinely. That is the kind of yield gap we need to bridge."
Sask Mustard recently held a field day in Saskatoon at Agriculture Canada's Saskatoon Research Centre, looking at the development of new mustard varieties and weed control improvements.
Hursh said mustard crops have been outpaced by canola because of financial investments that have led to higher yields.
"Now with producer dollars and more emphasis we are starting to catch up," Hursh said. "We (in Saskatchewan) are still the world's No. 1 exporter of mustard, but to continue to have it be a viable crop for producers we've got to make it economically attractive."
In general yellow mustard is exported to the U.S., brown mustard is sent to Europe for Dijon mustard, and oriental mustard goes to Asian countries for the oil in cooking uses.
"But you are also seeing mustard ingredients used, and whole seeds used, in more and more cooking uses and fine cuisine," Hursh said. "Mustard is a high nutrition, flavourful ingredient that can be added in to culinary uses."
Another mustard, brassica carinata, may be taking off in the near future.
Brassica carinata is an Ethiopian mustard that is drought and heat tolerant, and can be grown in areas not suited for canola, for instance, "Here, that is going to be our industrial oilseed crop," Hursh said.
A fuel blend derived from Agrisoma's Brassica carinata variety Resonance has already been tested as a biojet fuel.
Daryl Males, director of breeding and agronomy at Agrisoma, said the biodiesel market has been keen to pick up the oil side which "is very encouraging."
"It has to be price competitive for the biofuel user and it has to be competitive on the farm," Males said. "We now think we have the equation so that both of those things can be true."
What is helping the equation is the recent regulatory approval from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for carinata meal use in feed for grower and finisher beef cattle in Canada.
"That is what 60 per cent of the seed is, and if you don't have a market for that it hurts the whole economics," said Hursh.
Males said they will also target getting approval for the meal with dairy and poultry.
"I think we have more opportunity to bring more value to the meal side," Males said.
Steven Fabijanski, president and CEO of Agrisoma, said they are targeting a minimum 50,000 acres of carinata.
"That will provide two well-established biodiesel manufacturers with between five and 10 per cent their yearly uptake of oil," he said.
Kevin Falk, a research scientist at the research centre who has been working with carinata for many years, said they are working toward a hybrid that will hopefully produce much higher yields.
"I expect next summer to have experimental hybrids," Falk said, adding, "If they don't give us 15 (per cent more yield) we really can't afford to grow them because the cost of production is that much higher. That is the minimum we have to have."