• BASF shorter-season hybrids mitigate risk
  • Bayer enhances straight cut feature
  • BrettYoung introduces new generation LibertyLink hybrid
  • Canterra Seeds introduces its earliest-maturing hybrid
  • Corteva ramps up sclerotinia tolerance
  • Proven adds pod shatter trait

Seed shorts

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BASF shorter-season hybrids mitigate risk

BASF has two new shorter-season hybrids for 2025. They are InVigor L330PC and InVigor L333PC. They have maturity similar to InVigor L233P, but with added first-generation clubroot resistance, hence the “C”. The “P” is for pod shatter.

“Longer maturity is still genetically programmed to yield the highest,” says Russell Trischuk, technical services manager with BASF.

“For that reason, this is probably the earliest range we would think of launching without sacrificing yield,” says Blaine Woycheshin, marketing manager, InVigor, for BASF.

For relative ranges, the two new shorter season hybrids will mature roughly one to two days earlier than InVigor L340PC and roughly three to four days earlier than InVigor hybrids with a “5” in the middle spot.

“We see these new shorter-season hybrids going into short to mid growing zones,” Trischuk says. Farmers can plant them earlier and have them flowering ahead of the peak summer heat. “Beat the heat and get the combine rolling earlier,” Woycheshin says.

Besides planting early to avoid hot conditions at flowering, Trischuk outlines three other potential use scenarios for short-season hybrids:

Later seeding to avoid flea beetles. “Often the field put in first is the one the flea beetles eat,” he says. “Short-season hybrids seeded later give farmers the opportunity to stagger seeding to avoid flea beetles.”

The opportunity to seed later can also help with weed management. It gives more time for a pre-seed burnoff.

Early seeding and the pod shatter trait give maximum harvest flexibility, whether swathing later or straight combining. It will fit into most harvest scenarios.

Ultimately, these use scenarios all come down to risk mitigation. “Multiple maturities spread out risk,” Trischuk says. “We strongly encourage growing multiple hybrids on the farm.”

Bayer enhances straight cut feature

DK401TL is the newest, highest yield-potential hybrid from Dekalb, says parent company Bayer. It has mid-maturity, clubroot and blackleg resistance, and the Straight Cut Plus trait.

Using the Canola Council of Canada pod shatter rating scale (read more about it in the Harvest Management section at canolaencyclopedia.ca), Bayer scores DK401TL a 7.1. The scale goes from 1 to 9, which 9 being the most shatter resistant. Bayer has four other hybrids with Straight Cut Plus, all with scores from 7.0 to 7.3.

“Like all Dekalb canola hybrids, we’ve seen harvestability benefits with DK401TL, including earlier maturity, quicker drydown and flexibility to choose harvest timing with the SC+ enhanced pod integrity,” says Tim Darragh, market development manager – canola trait systems, at Bayer.

The combined LibertyLink and TruFlex traits give the flexibility to apply Liberty or Roundup alone or in sequence, depending on the weed situation. For example, farmers can apply Liberty early to go after Group 9-resistant kochia and have the option to come in later with Roundup for Group 1-resistant wild oats and volunteer cereals.

BrettYoung introduces new generation LibertyLink hybrid

BY 7204LL from BrettYoung is the first release in what the company calls its new generation of LibertyLink canola hybrids.

“New generation is a reference to all relevant traits showing up in a single hybrid,” says Eric Gregory, director of marketing for BrettYoung. “Our breeder DL Seeds has had a lot of moving parts within their breeding program the last few years, including pod shatter trait, LibertyLink trait, switch to Ogura pollination systems and new major gene blackleg traits. BY 7204LL is the first hybrid to be commercialized that reflects the seven-plus years of introgression efforts.”

The hybrid’s Pod DefendR shatter tolerance rates a 7.5 on the Canola Council of Canada’s shatter tolerance rating scale. Next generation clubroot protection includes field resistance to predominant pathotypes. The hybrid also contains the Rlm7 major gene for blackleg resistance.

Canterra Seeds introduces its earliest-maturing hybrid

This fall, Canterra Seeds introduced CS3300 TF, their earliest-maturing hybrid to date and featuring their PodProtect trait that the company says gives the hybrid a score of 7+ on the Canola Council of Canada’s shatter tolerance rating scale.

Courtney Welch, canola product manager for Canterra Seeds, says her team has noticed a trend with farmers in longer season zones adding an early-maturing hybrid to their plan in case seeding is delayed or so they can space things out at harvest. “But the yield has to be there,” she says.

TF stands for TruFlex, the glyphosate-based herbicide tolerance system and Welch says CS3300 TF has “excellent standability”, first-generation clubroot resistance and multigenic blackleg resistance with major resistance genes representing group A (Rlm1/LepR3) and E2 (Rlm7).

For more on blackleg and choosing resistance that matches the common races in a field, see “Genetic resistance” in the Blackleg chapter at canolaencyclopedia.ca.

Corteva ramps up sclerotinia tolerance

The new Pioneer canola cultivar P617SL has the strongest built-in sclerotinia disease tolerance in the Pioneer canola portfolio, says parent company Corteva Agriscience.

Corteva Agriscience introduced its first cultivar with advanced tolerance in 2008. “Corteva scientists spent many years identifying and accumulating multiple native genes for sclerotinia resistance,” says Steven King, global canola lead for Corteva. “One of the keys to this breakthrough is the ability to induce the disease in test plots consistently year over year by creating the ideal environment for disease development – temperature, humidity and pathogen inoculation. Another key is using this field data to create DNA markers tagging each of the identified resistance genes.”

The company says P617SL offers a greater than 80 per cent reduction in sclerotinia stem rot infection in canola, compared to 65 per cent for the previous generation. Sclerotinia resistance is not a requirement for Western Canada Canola/Rapeseed Recommending Committee, so we have no third-party verification of these tolerance levels.

Corteva also claims strong verticillium stripe protection. There are no industry standards at this time for verticillium stripe resistance.

The cultivar has blackleg resistance and a new source of clubroot resistance, with resistance to several pathotypes, including 3H, 3A and 3D. The Corteva spec sheet lists P617SL as a tall canola cultivar with good standability, late maturity and a pod shatter score of 6.

Proven adds pod shatter trait

The two new Proven Seed canola hybrids for 2025 – PV 782 TCN and PV 783 TCN – have the company’s new Ntact trait to improve pod shatter tolerance. These hybrids have been bred and tested in Western Canadian conditions to achieve high pod integrity, the company says, adding: “Their increased pod integrity from the Ntact trait technology give growers the option for a wider harvest window that includes the straight cut option.”

Both hybrids are clubroot resistant. Proven Seed is a division of Nutrien Ag Solutions.