Editors note: The Canola Performance Trials were discontinued following the 2022 growing season. For more information please read our previous story about it.

2022 Canola Performance Trials

The Canola Performance Trials (CPT) results in this report are based on 37 standard or swathed trials small plot trials, 40 straight cut small plot trials and 68 straight cut field scale trials across the Prairies. Site distribution is based on seeded acres in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

The 2022 growing season began with a rocky start as growers contended with rain, snow and flooding which brought about delayed seeding. For more information on accumulated precipitation, refer to the map below or visit Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s website.

The small plot system ensures that:

  • All varieties are treated with appropriate commercially associated herbicides: LibertyLink, Roundup Ready, TruFlex and *Clearfield. *only in Manitoba.
  • All varieties are treated with appropriate commercially associated seed treatments.
  • An independent third-party representative inspects all trials.

The CPT Technical Committee has established protocols and developed research plot designs to ensure the data is representative. Performance objectives were established to provide guidelines on timely field operations and data collection. All sites are inspected to verify these guidelines were followed to allow a fair comparison among the varieties tested.

Trial Design: Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications. Herbicide systems were blocked to minimize the potential for injury with the outer-most plots of the replications having at least one guard plot.

The 2022 program was funded by Alberta Canola Producers Commission (Alberta Canola), Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission (SaskCanola) and the Manitoba Canola Growers Association. The 2022 trials were coordinated by Murphy et al Inc. with the direction from the CPT Governance and Technical Committees. The Manitoba Canola Growers Association administered the program with additional support from Alberta Canola, SaskCanola and the Canola Council of Canada.

Commercial canola varieties tested in the 2022 small plot trials had seed provided by BASF – InVigor, BrettYoung Seeds, Corteva-Brevant, Canterra Seeds, Bayer-DeKalb, Corteva-Pioneer, Nutrien/Proven Seeds, Corteva-Brevant/Pioneer and Winfield United-CROPLAN.

Results are organized by short, medium, and long season zones. CPT uses the Western Canada Canola/Rapeseed Recommending Committee season zones, which are based on typical frost-free days, growing degree days and soil type.

The results tables include yield, days to maturity and lodging scores for each variety. Lodging scores are between one and five, with one being no lodging and five being completely lodged. It wan’t required by site cooperators to record height values, so they were not provided.

Seed is a major input decision that every grower has to make. In addition to evaluating data from sites near your farm, consider several years of data (at canolaperformancetrials.ca) from small plot and field scale sites grown in a range of agronomic and environmental conditions across Western Canada to make a well-informed choice. Consider climatic factors, geographic factors, herbicide tolerance systems, disease management, agronomic or special traits and yield potential for your operation when looking at days to maturity, lodging scores, disease tolerance and yield values of the varieties included in this booklet. Use caution when basing hybrid performance off a single site or single- year average yield. Compare varieties over multiple years to better understand performance under different environmental conditions.

For further information on the CPT Program and data from 2011 through 2021, see www.canolaperformancetrials.ca.

Using The Tables

Results are organized by short, medium and long season zones. CPT uses the Western Canada Canola/Rapeseed Recommending Committee (WCC/RRC) season zones, which are based on typical frost-free days, growing degree days and soil type. Grey wooded soils, for example, are in the short season zone. See Table A for specific numbers for each zone and the map for a depiction.

Canola season zones chart

Small plot data is presented separately in the following tables. For more detailed performance results, use the online CPT database at canolaperformancetrials.ca.

The tables include yield, days to maturity, and lodging scores for each variety.

Tools to Help You Make Better Choices

CV – For coefficient of variation (CV), the lower the CV value, the more reliable the test. For example, if comparing results from two test locations, one with a CV of four per cent and the other with a CV of eight per cent, the test with the CV of four per cent can be considered more reliable. There is always variability in research trials. The key is designing and managing experiments, so CVs stay within a reasonable range. For the CPT, experience has shown that CVs below 15 per cent indicate good test reliability.

LSD – The least significant difference (LSD at a five per cent level of statistical significance) for each dataset indicates whether differences between varieties are statistically meaningful. Varieties should only be considered different in yield performance if the numerical difference between them is greater than the LSD value.

Using the sample table below, if the LSD is 5.0, varieties A and B are not statistically different, B and C are not statistically different, but A and C are statistically different.

Canola variety chart

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