RealAg Radio: The Future of Canola — innovation, challenges & what's next for farmers, Mar 31, 2026

This Real Egg Radio podcast is brought to you by Corygen Max Insecticide from fmc. Get fast selective extended control of grasshoppers, Bertha armyworms, diamondback moth and cutworms in a convenient concentrated formulation. And Coregen Max insecticide works alongside beneficials for a one, two punch that keeps the fight going long after you've left the field. It's time for Real Egg Radio on rural radio channel 147 on Sirius. RealAg radio and real EggCulture.com is your home for insight and analysis of the issues that are impacting your farm business. Let's get real and get connected with RealAg Radio. Welcome to RealAg Radio here on roll rated 147Sirius XL. Shaun Haney, your host here on this Tuesday edition of the show. Hey, thanks so much everybody for making Real Life Radio and Rural Radio 147 a big part of your workday. Also, huge shout out to every listening out there on the RealLight Radio podcast as well. Welcome to the Future of Canola series on Re Alive Radio. It's presented by Bear Crop Science Canada. You know, because canola's future is being written right now and you need to be a part of this conversation, I'm talking to you, Real agriculture audience. You know, during these episodes we'll connect industry leaders and farmers to dig into today's hot topics about canola. There's a lot happening in this sector right now. It's not just a pretty yellow flower provides a lot of economic value across Canada. The innovations, the systems and the partnerships that'll make canola more profitable and resilient. 10 years, 20 years, 30 years from now, we're going to have some honest dialogue about the industry pressures we're facing and how we can solve them together. There's a lot I want to really force collaboration here across the different stakeholder groups, whether that's farmers, seed company like Bayer, as well as processors and grain companies and exporters as well. The future of Canola, part of Bayer's Advancing Better Canola initiative only on RealAg Radio and we are so proud to host it. And we got a great panel here today. It will be a full panel discussion. We're not going to hold back. We're going to ask some tough questions. Of this panel, we've got Shaun Connolly. He is with Bear Crop Science Canada. He is their North American lead for both cereals and Canola. We've got Darrell Franzu, farmer from Glassland, Saskatchewan. Darrell is also on the Wheat Growers. He's a director there. And we'll Also be joined by Chris Davison, who is the president and CEO the Canola Council of Canada. So three leaders in our industry representing three different stakeholders and we're going to get after it here today as we really look at Canola, the future of it from the perspective of kind of 100,000ft. What is actually happening when it comes to innovation to drive that future? What do farmers need? Where's Bayer's mindset and also where is a value chain representative like the Canola Council of Canada? Where do they sit in all of this as well, because they're really the custodian internationally with a lot of customers as well as some things that are happening domestically from a policy perspective and things like that as well. So really look forward to interacting with both or all three. Darrel, Chris and Shaun. If you have any feedback on today's show, you can send me an email shaneyaalagriculture.com you can also call or text the real life feedback line 855776. We're going to get started on the future of Canola here with Bear Crop Science Canada. Our show sponsored today right after this quick break. If you're serious about agriculture, Real Ag's got you covered. For over 10 years we've listened to and shared what producers have to say about everything from policy to agronomy from coast to coast. Keep up with the latest in Canadian [email protected] through daily newsletters and cheque out our YouTube channel. Thanks for joining us in the Realite community as we continue to cover and serve North American agriculture. I'm Lindsay Smith joining me now at Marika Vanderlan with Syngenta. If you're still in that spot of that it's been a rotation crop for me. Get to know this crop like it will reward you. Boots on the ground so important make a plan for that planting date. We know been involved in the yen for a couple years that is like your number one thing thing is getting that planting date as close to optimal as possible. Something you can still change this year. Sulphur. If you're not putting sulphur on your wheat, they think about that. And of course from the Syngenta stacked cereal approach, I'm a big fan of that T1 fungicide. We have two options. We have a lower cost option with quilt and we have what I would consider, you know, your Cadillac just nervous Neo. Why am I caring about this T1 space? Well last year we saw stripe rust again and we've had a similar winter than we had last winter that maybe allow some stripe rust to overwinter. As we're climbing that yield ladder, we need to protect that crop. We have a beautiful website, just Google stacked cereals. It will be the first thing that comes up. And welcome back to Reel Lag Radio here on Rural Radio 147 Series XM. And this is the the first part in a six part series, the the Future of Canola brought to you by Bear Crop Science Canada. Let's dive into topics all centred around the future of canola and it's obviously a very important crop to the western Canadian prairies, growing in importance also in other parts of Canada as well. As I travel across the country, a lot of opportunities provided a, you know, a lot of margin for farmers over the years. What does the future look like for this, you know, postcard crop? As I had an audience member say from the US a couple weeks ago, we're joined right now by Shaun Corneli. He is the North American canola and cereal lead for Bear Crop Science. How we doing today, Shaun? Very well. Shaun, shout out to you for spelling your name correctly. Yeah, you know what, I appreciate that. Although I do prefer. I wish my parents would have gone with the Shaun. Yeah, I do. Yeah, fair enough. It seems like the proper spelling. I don't know about the W people. I'm not sure what they have going on. Also joining us here is the President CEO of the Canola Council of Canada is Chris Davison. Hey, Chris, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Good to see you this morning. Yeah, great to see you too. And congratulations on the crops convention conference that went off a couple weeks ago. It looked fantastic. Yeah, thanks very much. We had a really good turnout and a really good programme and I think it was very timely. Our theme this year was trade and transition and so I thought it was very timely. Happy to have that wrapped up. But a really good programme this year. Awesome. Also joining us is Darrell Franzu. He's a farmer from Glasland, Saskatchewan. He's also director on the Wheat Growers. Hey, Darrell, it's. And a wily veteran of RealAg Radio. How are you doing today, Darrell? I'm doing good, buddy. How are you, Shaun? Good. Hey, how close are you to maybe thinking about starting farming? Not even close. We have 2ft of snow on the ground still. It's minus 14 this morning. Winter, first day of spring came and then they said, we're joking. Here's some more winter. Man, that is absolutely unreal. So when would you ideally want to get started? We shoot for May 1st. Doesn't happen very often. But May 1st, May 10th at the latest, we want our canola in around May 15th, ideally. Okay. So, Darrell, let's start with you. And you know, we're talking about the future of Canola and tied to that, one of the words that comes to mind right away is innovation. What does innovation when it comes to canola? What does innovation actually mean to you as the farmer? Yeah, no, that's a great question. I think, you know, a lot of Western Canadian farms have been built on canola. Meeting with companies like Bayer, et cetera, et cetera. If we don't have innovation, you know, we can. We can't take on new challenges, you know, like flea beetles, verticillium, etc. Etc. So we need these companies to keep investing in the innovation aspect of Canola, to keep it successful and keep it growing and keep our farms profitable, I guess. Right. And, Chris, from your aspect as being, you know, somebody's leading the, you know, the industry organisation for this crop, you hear from. You hear from farmers, you hear from processors, you hear from grain companies. As stakeholders in the Canola Council of Canada, do all of those stakeholders view innovation or the future of canola the same? I'm not sure they view it all the same, but they all see the importance in innovation and innovation happens across the value chain. And so I think if we look at the history of canola, which I think a number of us know sort of have been socialised pretty well over many years. It's a Canadian invention and a success storey that's based on innovation. And that innovation has happened in lots of different ways. I mean, if we go back before canola, we can go to, obviously, rapeseed was first grown in Canada in the 30s. You had the first Prairie crushing facility in the mid-40s. You had the first double low variety in the mid-70s. You can spring forward from there. We had canola auctions that started trading in the early 90s, the first GM canola varieties in mid 95, first hyolaic varieties, early 2000s, pod shatter technology, et cetera, et cetera. The list goes on and on. And it is up and down the value chain, whether you're talking food, feed and increasingly, going forward, fuel uses. So I think everyone has the same importance attached to innovation, but innovation happens in different ways across the value chain. And that's the beauty of the success of Canadian canola. It's almost sometimes where I think the Canadian invention of canola has gone, you know, relatively so well. It's always used on the mantle as, like, you know, we did Canola, we should be able to just replicate it again. Just got to put our heads together and scratch some moat. Chris, it's. It really. I think the success of it is really understated in so many ways. So do I. And it's got a unique innovation ecosystem. It's got, you know, which starts with a research model and all kinds of other things attached to it. And, you know, we talk about Canola, we need to talk about it more as a strategic asset for the country. And if you're going to nurture strategic assets, you need to make sure you've got that right. Innovation ecosystem that's going to allow to continue to grow, add value to the economy. And that's what we want to see with Canola. So we can't take our foot off the gas. We have to double down, quite frankly. Yeah. And Shaun Bayer is working in a number of different crops. I was in Iowa last week and we were talking about ag policy and we talked about how soybeans and corn suck up all the oxygen in the room, but canola is a very important crop to bear. So how do we talk about innovation for canola inside of a company like Bayer when we're up against, like, the acre monsters like soybeans and corn? Yeah, that's a great question, Shaun. I think, I mean, a couple things come to mind. I think the first thing is, you know, looking forward within our own organisation, but even across the industry, I think it really ladders onto what both what Chris and Daryl have said. I think a big part of that inside the business is that we continue to attract investment, we're bringing dollars in to advance, not just the crop that we're able to take out into the field, but really contributing in a significant way to that progress and that success storey that's been talked through. If I think about an announcement that we made here very recently on the Canola Innovation Centre in Winnipeg, so over 45 million going to go in to help build that out. To me, that's where those, those big crops, the big crops, the capabilities that we've got globally, you know, certainly here in North America, so much of what we've learned and that we're doing in them, especially the hybrid crops like corn, we're able to pull a lot of that technology into the things that. That we want to try to do from a Canola perspective. So. So, Shaun, from your perspective, like, from your, like, as you strategize around that, what are some of those things that you think the future of Canola has to deliver on from an innovation perspective? Yeah, I think, I mean, I think the first and foremost areas like advanced breeding, areas like biotech, innovation, you know, certainly moving into the space of Gene Edit, but pulling that technology that we've been able to incorporate and really making that a part of the canola crop. So that not only is the continued quality, the foundation of Canola really and the quality of oil, just an absolute core healthy oil for our food chain, but also helping to deliver against the needs in this growing biofuel and bio based diesel sort of space. I think what happens in terms of the work that we're doing at a place like that, that innovation centre, when it's fully operational, it should and it will directly show up in the product that customers like Darrell are able to put out on their operations. Darrel, does that match what, what you think? Like, is Shaun on the right track there? Yeah, no, course. Correct him if he's not. No, I feel he is to a large extent. You know, we always need more yield per acre. We're looking for products that are resilient to drought. We have some new diseases that are coming on. So plant breeding plays a huge role in innovation. You know, my question would be, he mentioned biofuels and whatnot. What is next for Canola? You know, you look at a crop like soybeans obviously on a different level, but they've over the years they've found new needs for it or new products for it. What is next for canola? Shaun, what do you mean? I think what's next for Canola is we take the strength that we've got already from an oil profile perspective, not just, you know, the percent oil that sits in every seed, but just from a, from a, The makeup, the suitability for it, the resilience that, that you talked about as well, Darrell, in terms of that field performance that you want. Yeah, we have such a significant opportunity in that space to, to have this crop truly serve both of those markets. I mean, certainly from a council perspective and you know, Chris could speak to that, this is an area of significant focus for the crop and looking forward, making room for canola at scale as a, as a component of that lower carbon energy or lower carbon intensity energy footprint. I think this is a big part of what it has to be. You know, it's got to continue to provide that foundation of healthy oil and then having that alternate market. Lots of conversation about diversification of markets, but in this case, diversification and continued diversification of uses is critical. Okay, we're going to take a break and we're going to continue this conversation. And what are some of the future end uses for a crop like canola as it provides so much opportunity across the prairies and beyond? We're talking to Shaun Corneli from Bayer. We've got Chris Davidson from the Canola Council of Canada and Darrell Franz, you, farmer from Saskatchewan. We're in part one of our Future of Canola series brought to you by Bayer Crop Science Canada. Back right after this. Peter Johnson at wheatpeatrealagriculture.com I'm the host of the Word and I love doing the Word. I love the questions, I love the challenges. I love having to apply agronomics to all over the globe and areas outside of my normal jurisdiction. Also, I love the feedback the most. Where growers challenge me, tell me about their plot results, help me to learn the word. Absolutely the best part of my day. Since 2009, the Canola School on RealAgriculture.com has been providing relevant and timely agronomic advice to anyone involved in canola production. With over 15 years of video content on YouTube, the Canola School has been producers go to source for canola agronomy, research, marketing and more. The Canola School is brought to you by BASF and Invigor Hybrid Canola. Cheque us out on YouTube [email protected]. As you look ahead to the next growing season, there's a lot to consider when it comes to your crop. You need every possible advantage available to you. The Pulse School on RealAgriculture.com has everything you need to make the best choice for you and your farm on demand videos with leading industry experts available anywhere, anytime. Go into the season confident and ready with the Pulse School on RealAgriculture.com. And welcome back to Re Lag Radio, the future of Canola brought to you by Bear Crop Science Canada. And we've got a great panel here talking about, you know, from really a hundred thousand feet, what is going on with canola and more importantly, where does this crop go in the future? We're joined by Shaun Corneli. He is with Bear Crop Science. He is their North American canola and cereal lead. We've also got Chris Davidson from the Canola Council of Canada and Darrel Franzua with wheat growers and also farmer from Glaslyn, Saskatchewan. Chris, we were talking last, last segment a little bit about Darrell brought up biofuels, renewable diesel. One of the questions I get a lot from the audience as of late is this has been more of a topic is okay, we don't have a lot of room for acre expansion like we're at, you know, we're busted between 20 and 22 million acres of canola. Agronomically we're kind of tapped for the most part. Unless Northern Ontario goes wild. Why do we need to continue to find other markets or uses for the crop? That is a question I get from some of the audience. Don't we have enough markets already? Isn't there already enough demand? What do you say to that, Chris? Well, I think that's a great question. There's a couple of comments there. First of all, I think we've all experienced over the last while that markets are in a state of of volatility like we've never seen before. Whether that's existing markets or markets that we're trying to develop. And so while all of us crave predictability and stability in markets as it relates to our businesses, that's not the era that we're living in. And so taps are getting turned on, they're getting turned off. And so we can never sort of rest on our laurels, I guess, so to speak in that regard. Shaun is one thing I would sort of say. And I think there's other drivers as well as we move into some of these new markets and new uses, obviously changing the mix of canola and canola products and the volumes associated with them and their uses and biofuels is a really good example. And so of course we've got with canola oil obviously our anchor in terms of the food uses for canola oil historically and still obviously leading and very significant and will be well into the future. But when we move into new end uses for products such as biofuels, obviously those can be game changers in terms of the volumes and the demands that that we're looking at. And so we've got volume side of the equation that we've got to look at and we need science backed crop innovation to be able to do that. Because you talked about limited acres, is there room for some incremental gains there? Yes, we believe there is but really I think what we're talking more about is sustainable intensification. How do we continue to increase productivity largely, though not exclusively on the acres that we've got. And if you just look back though, we've got a tremendous track record with canola. If you look at charts going back 20 years and again these are average yields but we were around 32 bushels 32 and a half bushels per acre. 20 years ago, this past year we set a record, we were 44.7. So again that's an average. But if you graph that out, that's a pretty nice upward directed line left to right there. And so with continued innovation going forward, with new technologies and new platforms coming on stream, there's no reason why we can't continue to be more productive from a volume basis going forward. Do we have challenges along the way? Is climate volatility a bigger issue? Yes it is. But we know when the conditions are right and farmers like Darrell have the tools that they need. We've got, we don't have a ceiling today. We have significant room to grow. So we need to continue to drive that volume science driven innovation that's going to help us on the productivity and the volume side. The other side that was alluded to is obviously relates to how do we continue to grow economic value, how do we continue to develop and profile innovative new end use products. So we need both volume and value to continue to see growth in Canola and that's why we need the innovation. Darrell, do you have, do you feel you have the tools? Yeah, that's a good question, Shaun. I feel we have the tools for sure. You know, as long as we keep, as long as the companies keep, keep up to the challenge, we always have new things in farming. Right. Like I said, verticillium is a big one that's touching a lot of farmers right now. But you know, to touch on biofuels, it's almost a no brainer to me as a farmer. Why wouldn't I want that domestic market? And it's unfortunately, and I don't know if we really want to go this way but it's unfortunate that it's, that it's such a partisan issue in Canada right now because it's a, it's a no brainer, it protects against shocks like China, et cetera and it just, it puts more money in farmers pockets. I don't know why we can't, can't make it a nonpartisan issue. Shaun, what is Bayer's position on the opportunity for renewable diesel related to Canolas? Is this a big push from Bayer or are you more looking at being focused on the more traditional food side of the equation? It's both. So from a true biofuels perspective, or I'll call it a true biofuels perspective, we've actually just recently launched our, our new gold brand which is going to focus on really I would say Maybe underutilised areas in terms of new crop opportunities, including things like winter canola into some, some specific geographies in the us, some Camelina work that we're going to be doing, both here in Canada as well as in the US that that's kicked off here now. But I come back to your question on Canola as the core of really the things that we're doing. First and foremost the effort is on genetic gain, which Darrell mentioned and Chris talked about as well, really pushing sort of that maximum yield out of the products that get put into the ground and then coupling that up with things like sort of what are those next generation of native traits. There was a mention previously of things, you know, reduced pod shatter and the ability to direct harvest and those step change innovations that have helped not only from a yield standpoint, but from a management and an ROI perspective. That's the place that we're leaning on the hardest. We're trying to do as much as we can on the acres we have and then for the opportunity for maybe slight growth and expansion, we just want to carry that over onto those acres and produce the biggest pile possible. One of the other questions I've had from the RealAg audience over the last six months, when we talk about things like this in terms of canola developing. Well, we used to talk about oil and meal and of course the seed, but now we're talking a little bit more about the different uses for the crop, especially for that oil. Now with wheat, we have different classes of wheat depending on what that crop is used for. Shaun, does canola go down this track where you have like a renewable diesel hybrid and this is, you know, this is a food hybrid or do we, are we able to stick with the efficiency of Canola? I'm growing canola and here's some potential different uses for it. My thought, I think the core of the market remains as a whole. I can certainly see places where we start to have, and we have today, like Hyalaic, you have the Hyarusic, you have some of those sort of smaller component parts today that are connected to the larger commodity, Canola, that's growing. But I can see us continuing to go down that road where we start to have some more specialisation again, whether it's through specific programming, specific creation of closed loop systems, but really that help to provide, I'd say alternative or additional streams of opportunity for organisations, most importantly for farm customers. But I can see that sort of ecosystem, if you will, becoming more complex as we continue to progress this crop Now, Darrell, Shaun mentioned pod chatter and it's an example that comes to mind where, I don't know, some of the research as breeders looked at incorporating these kinds of traits and characteristics in the hybrids. When you first heard about this kind of stuff, Darrel, did you know you needed that innovation? Like, the adoption has been huge and the value created has been unbelievable. But a part of what happens with innovation and the future of a crop, you're trying to meet the farmer, what they need. But sometimes I think we don't even know what we need. And so it makes the innovation piece really, really challenge. We don't know until we know. How do you view some of this stuff? I hear you on that one. The pod chatter resistance has. It's been a game changer and, you know, all the companies have stepped up to the plate and everyone has a good product. Did I know I needed it? Probably not. You know, up in the north, we do still swath a lot of our stuff, but you know what, even hopes in that circumstance. But we need the companies and, you know, we see Bayer with a big investment here in the last couple weeks. We need companies to keep pouring money into this crop because it is the one crop. Even on a year like this where things don't look good, Canola, if it keeps inching up, there's a few dollars to be made there. So, you know, we need some work when it comes to genetics for stress tolerance, crop vigour and establishment stuff like that. So I hope the money keeps coming in and we're lucky that we have good news. Storey, here in Canada, where companies actually want to invest in one of our crops. Yeah, I think you brought up a really good point. The money does need to keep flowing. But, Kris, it's not just about the total dollars, it's really about how that's invested and the efficiency of the investment and the execution to get the outcomes that we're desiring. Because you can have a big pot of money and the four of us could spend it in an afternoon rubbing our brains together. But it's a little bit more complicated than that. We need results. We do. And I think that speaks to the bigger picture of we need to continue to make sure we're creating the conditions. I call it the innovation ecosystem. We've used that term a couple of times now. That's going to support, enable industry's continuous ability to innovate and make these investments. Right. Companies like Bayer are always looking at, you know, where are we going to? Where are we going to place bets? Where Are we going to allocate capital? Canada has to be competitive in that regard. We're fortunate we've got a leadership position in Canola for all the reasons that we've talked about earlier. But that's not something we can take for granted. We need to make sure that the prerequisites around, you know, a risk based regulatory system, intellectual property protection, market access, pathways for alternative products, all these kind of things, predictability and stability in that regulatory system, for example, timeliness to meet market needs. And that's where the Council, on behalf of our members, together with other stakeholders come in, because that's where the advocacy, the policy, the regulation, our role in working with stakeholders in the industry to identify and support research priorities and partnerships, those are all things that kind of are required to keep that innovation ecosystem in place. And I would argue it needs to get stronger. We need even more urgency. We need to be able to do things with even more speed than we're doing them today, so that companies like Bayer and others can make decisions about these investments. They need to know that there's confidence in placing these bets, that there's going to be an roi, the research is going to get done, we're able to commercialise these innovations and then we're able to deploy them to people like Darrell to use in the field. Those are all really critical things. And so you're right, it is more complex than just saying this or that innovation or this or that research project. Yeah, very well put. We are today talking about the future of Canola, brought to you by Bayer. Shaun Cornelli from Bayer, Chris Davidson from the Canola Council of Canada, and Darrell Franzu, farmer from Glass Lake, Saskatchewan. We're back right after this. Until you've used via TUDE fungicide, you'll never know what your canola crop is capable of. Engineered excellence in every jug via Tude combines two powerful actives, Group 11 and 3 for best in class Sclerotinia protection and superior resistance management by penetrating the plant and protecting against infection. Treat your canola crop to a healthy and productive season with Viate to ask your local retailer for more information. Before you get back in the field this year, spend some time with the corn school on RealAgriculture.com. get all the information you need on hybrid selection, platting, depth, crop inputs and more from a wide range of industry experts. A massive library of video content is available on demand when you need it most. Spend your time outside of the field, inside the classroom with the corn school on realagriculture.com. And welcome back to RealAg Radio, brought to you today by Bayer. And we are talking about the future of Canola. We got a great panel, we're covered in a lot of ground, a lot of topics. Trying to fit all of this into one hour programme. We got Shaun Corneli from Bear Crop Science Canada. We've got Chris Davidson from the Canola Council of Canada and farmer from Glassland, Saskatchewan. It is Darrell Franzeu. Shaun, earlier you mentioned winter canola and this is something that we really haven't seen a lot of. Well, really none on the western Canadian prairies. There's a little bit in Ontario, a lot more say in the PNW in the us, Southern United States as well. Is winter canola the key to acre growth in some of these other geographies outside of the western Canadian prairies? Yeah, I mean I, and I think, we think it is, I think driven by a couple of things. I mean, first of all, just thinking about rotationally, what some options are to add an oilseed crop like a winter canola into the mix. I think not only does it have a great fit agronomically, but it really does provide sort of an alternative, a new revenue source, if you will, or a new revenue source again for some of those geographies you mentioned, places like the pnw, south central Great Plains, get down into Kansas, Oklahoma, northern Texas. There's a fit there for sure. And it's a crop that's been there for years. It just really, I think was there was an opportunity for some investment in that geography, especially just to improve the crop. You know, we've talked a bit about pod shatter and pulling pod shatter technology in and sort of new generation herbicide tolerance to give, you know, some more robust weed control options for people. And so you start to bring some of that technology, bring that innovation that we've really enjoyed in the spring canola space and then you, you plug it into the market like that. And, and you know, that's one of the bets that we're making, that that's a spot that we think there's a great opportunity for the crop. Well, I asked the question for Darrell, Darrell's sitting there and he's probably thinking, well, wait a minute, why not winter canola in the western Canadian prairies? This would be fit great into my, to my crop rotation. Right? You're asking, I know you're Darrell's nodding head. He's. Yeah, absolutely. He wants that. It's minus 15, he's got tonnes of snow cover. What's the problem, Shaun? That's part of it. That's part of it. I mean, certainly we need to find the balance, right. You need something that's winter hardy enough that's going to be able to survive -15, -30 Celsius. Anything south of zero Fahrenheit starts to get pretty hard on a crop. You need that consistent snow cover, which I think right now Darrell did say he's got a couple feet on the ground, so that might not be the biggest issue. I think what's holding us back there is if the opportunity from a customer demand perspective and the fit, I guess evolution from a climate perspective carries on here and we start to see that there's a real need for that winter type technology, I think it's fair to say that we'll continue to start exploring. You mentioned, Shaun, like in Ontario there's a sort of a, I would say a resurgence, if you will, in terms of winter canola there. That a winter crop like that fits really well in that space given the environment they operate in. The biggest thing holding us back in western Canada today is just the climate in terms of that survivability. That's the part that we would have to find to really lean in on and fix to make it, I would think, a viable option for farm customers in western Canada. Well, Shaun, if you, if you can't give me winter canola, maybe take care of the flea beetles. Give me something here. Give you something. Give me something. Yeah, yeah. Agronomically, Darrell, is that one. Is, is that like you've mentioned a few things like you, you mentioned Blackleg inverticillium flea beetles. Of course there's, there's a whole spectrum of pests. They're trying to rob us of yield inside the canopy. Is flea beetles like the challenge, getting that process at start. Yeah. One of the bigger challenges up where we are, we, you know, we're going into spring cold and we don't have the vigorous growth that maybe some other areas do. But you know, and I've seen it come a long ways, especially in different companies varieties is tolerances to different environmental stresses. I think we've come a long ways on that one. So that's something I want to see them keep working towards. But flea beetles is definitely, it's just such a pain in the butt. Right. You're seeding, you're tired, you're thinking of spraying herbicides and all of a sudden you got to spray for these little buggers. So I would love to see an actual solution on that. Shaun, I think there's Lots of growers that would be cheerleading on that statement for sure. Darrell, I was thinking about. We're worried about how winter canola survives the Canadian winter. I think the. Some of us people are wondering that too, with the kind of winter conditions that we have had. Chris, as you meet with our customers around the world and of all shapes and sizes, of all different types, from China to the us Obviously, Pakistan is a new market or one that we're excited about. What questions are they asking about Canadian canola production? Is it about traceability? Is it about quality? Is it about, you know, being able to deliver when ordered? And related to some of our transportation issues? What. What are those. What are those customers asking you about? Chris? You know what? It's actually all of the above and, and. And different customers tend to emphasise different things. So actually, every one of those topics that you mentioned comes up in different capacities. But I'd certainly say the last few years, particularly coming out of COVID and moving forward and the severe challenge we had to production going back to 2021, it became a question of, you know, it's one thing to, you know, both reliable supply and reliable supplier, right? And it's the two sides of the equation. And so we took a big hit in production, almost 40%, if you go back to 2021, and we've been climbing our way back up since then, again to what I mentioned earlier in terms of a record year we had this past year. So that's an important half of the equation. And the other half is, can Canada get the product where it needs to go, when it needs to go in an efficient manner, without challenges on transportation or logistics front? So we get both of those questions, for sure. I think the events of the last few years have put greater emphasis on things like food security for countries in particular that are dependent on imports, and look to Canadian canola as a critical part of that. So we get questions about that. There are certain markets that are obviously more reliant on imports than others. And so that becomes a really, really key question for them. They also certainly ask and want to make sure they're aware of our crush expansion that's happened here. They're aware of the nascent but growing biofuels markets that we've got in North America. Are there implications from that? And again, you know, you referred to diversification earlier from a Canadian perspective, but all of those markets are diversifying, too. And so where does Canada fit into the mix? We need to make sure that the markets we have are functioning as well as possible. There's a lot of talk about diversification to other markets. When we talk about diversification, we talk about it more holistically and we don't talk about, talk about it in terms of substitutability. We're not looking to replace another market, we're trying to complement another market. And there's risks that come with developing new markets as well. And it takes quite a bit of time. So first and foremost, we need to make sure our existing markets are functioning absolutely as well as they can. Secondly, we can look to complement that through work that we're doing on the ground in certain areas for new end uses, different meal uses in certain countries in the South, Southeast Asia, for example, other things like that. But we also talk about not just, as I said, geographic diversity, but end use diversity. And biofuels is a good example of that as well. So we get questions in all these areas and I will also say we also get questions about in some markets around the sustainability of our product. We have an awesome storey to tell with Canadian Canola, and we tell that all the time. And some markets are paying more or less attention to that these days, but again, that remains a topic of interest as well. So, Chris, before we take a break, I just want to hit on something you said there, just so we understand, because what customers want, it can change and evolve, right? And so I'll just give a dairy example. There was so much focus on, hey, what are we going to do with all these skin proteins? Everybody wants fat. And with some of the changes in diets and drugs like GLP1s, we've seen a switch where all of a sudden protein is what everybody wants. And we're at, you know, it sort of flipped very, very quickly. In Canola, we always talked about, you know, it's, it's. We focused on, you know, shipping the oil or the seed. And now because of the increase in domestic crush capacity, probably a lot more of the discussion is, what are we doing with all the meal? Is that fair, Chris? Yeah, look, both are, it is absolutely fair where with the increased crush capacity, we have more meal that we, we need to move as well. That's just comes with crushing more seed and producing more oil. Right? So, you know, most valuable part of the crop is oil. For sure. We've got these food and fuel uses that we've got. But you're absolutely right, we've got more meal as a result of crush expansion. There's a lot of work that's going on in that front in addition to traditional markets, whether they're domestically or internationally, but new uses for meal. Some of that is animal and livestock specific, different species of fish. Where does, where does canola meal fit in salmon diets, for example, going forward? But I'll also point out there's other new end uses too. There's work going on in terms of meal and bioplastics and things like that as well. So I think it presents us with a challenge, but it also presents us with new opportunities. So a lot of work going on in that space right now as well. Future Canola is pretty exciting. We've got more coming up. We've got one more segment. We've got to take a break before we get to it. You're listening to RealAg Radio. It's the Future of Canola, brought to you by Bayer. I'm Lindsay Smith from RealAgriculture.com Join me Monday nights for the Agronomists, a one hour live and interactive show broadcast across YouTube, Facebook and X. Monday nights at 8pm Eastern, I host expert agronomists from all over the country to give you answers to some of the toughest agronomic questions. Join us live or catch the replay Tuesday morning. That's the Agronomist with me, Lindsay Smith, Monday nights live at 8pm Eastern. Hi, I'm Bernard Tobin, host of the Soybean School on RealAgriculture.com throughout the year on the Soybean School, we'll bring you timely agronomic video content from planting to harvest, from the latest agronomic research to the latest in production technology. Cheque out our massive video library on YouTube realagriculture.com or download the audio podcast versions wherever you get your podcasts. The Soybean School is brought to you by Mazec Seeds and Lalamom Plant Care. And welcome back to RealAg Radio. Today we are talking about the future of Canola and if you've been with us here for the past hour, it's a pretty exciting future. There's a lot happening for the the crop of Canola. Joining us here today on the panel, we've got Shaun Cornelli. He is with Bear Crop Science Canada. Chris Davison is with the Canola Council of Canada and with the Wheat Growers and a farmer from Glassland, Saskatchewan, it is Darrell Franzu. Darrell, what from your and I'll let you you can speak for all farmers here as the farmer representative. What role do farmers need to play in like this collaboration on providing input and insights in terms of what's important to you as the grower the purchaser of a canola hybrid and growing it and then selling it to a grain company or a crusher and it gets to market as that role in the value chain. What does collaboration and input look like to you to make sure that farmers voices are heard? Yeah, that's definitely an interesting one and I'd love to hear from the other Shaun on this one, but I think farmers in general, I feel this way anyways. Farmers in general are ready to collaborate and we're ready to put our. I guess we're always willing to put our input in. I think the players of the world know that. But when it's collaboration on innovation, I think it'd be prudent for the companies to actually listen to us and listen to what we want. Right. I think it's a two way street. Obviously with pot chatter, like we talked about earlier was kind of something we didn't know we needed, but we know we needed. But they brought it and it's worked. But is there, is there some stuff that, from the farmer perspective that we could definitely tell these, these companies, this is what we need, this is what we need and let's listen to each other. Right, Right. I don't know if that. Yeah. Shaun, what do you. How do you, how do you incorporate feedback from the customer into how you deploy your innovation capital? Yeah, so a couple things kind of jumped to mind and as we've been talking through Darrell's mentioned flea beetles, he's mentioned we just now again pod shatter verticillium as an example of a trending upward disease of challenge. And I would say those are all areas that we are spending time and energy on improving. And that feedback is coming directly from that direct contact with the customers, the people that are investing the money in the crop, investing money in our organisation in that crop. So I think there's a couple of ways that it happens. One, it happens literally at the farm gate. So end of the lane, edge of the field on the approach. There's that direct human to human contact and that direct human to human interaction. We need that. Please continue to bring it in. Engaging at the industry level. Things like the Canola Council, Chris is here representing. It can bubble up there and it can come through that as well. It's active. It's something that we want to be better at. It's something that from, you know, aspirationally we think what can help us be, you know, the, a real sort of significant player in this space for the long term. So that you talked at the start, Shaun, about The, you know, the air in the room getting sort of sucked out by the big crops. Canola is a big crop here in Western Canada. It's a big crop in places. And so the only way that you really evolve, I think, significantly, a crop like Canola, when you don't have the sheer mass of acres and customers that support it at scale from a global perspective, you need to be really, really tuned into the folks that are supporting you at the local level, like we have here in Western Canada, so. Oh, go ahead, Chris. Yeah, just maybe pick up on what both Daryl and Shaun have said. And one area where I think the Canola Council, we convene the value chain. And one of the areas of focus for us that I mentioned very briefly earlier is around research priorities and partnerships. And so, you know, we talk about, obviously research is a critical component of that innovation ecosystem, but maybe just a couple of examples and we've, we talked about, and we've got this super strong private sector investment. We've also had roots in an ongoing critical role, I think, for public research as part of that as well, in certain areas. And, you know, two examples where I think these come together. One is around. So we've got the SCAP and the Science Cluster, which is a government grower industry partnership. We've got 15 projects currently underway as part of the current Science Cluster, which will be renewed in 2028. We've got the Canola Agronomic Research Programme. That's a programme where the provincial commissions and other funders are coming together. Just announced funding of almost $4 million for, I think it's 11 projects this year. And those are kind of exclusively focused on advancing Canola productivity and mitigating production risks. Some of the issues that Darrell was talking about earlier. And so we've got these different places where these things come together and collaborate with one another. So I don't want to lose sight of that because a lot of this starts at the research stage and before that and the feedback that the Darrells of the world are providing to the Shawns of the world to inform Bayer's work and then the work that is supported by the provincial grower commissions. And then we have these grower industry partnerships as well, and they're really critical. They've been a key part of Canola's success over many, many years. And I'll just add one last comment to that. We were sort of talking offline previously. We've got, you know, we get these massive innovation breakthroughs every 10, 15, 20 years, whether it's GM herbicide tolerance. We'll see where we go with gene editing. But a lot of the work is what we talk about, these incremental innovations and improvements. It's about continuous improvement over time. And we don't always talk about all those projects, but they've added up and contributed to what I was talking about earlier, where those, for example, those yield gains from an average of 32 bushels an acre to up to 44 over a 20 year period. And that's come from all those sources. And so we need those blockbuster innovations every so often to get us to another plateau. But there's a tonne of ongoing continuous improvement innovation that's really, really critical when you're talking about productivity and risk mitigation. So I don't want to lose sight of that as well. No, I think that's very well put. And because those incremental improvements, whether it be agronomically or more output focus, like yield, if that's happening at a small percentage year after year, after about eight years, you look back, you're like, whoa, we've really come a long way. We look at wheat yield, for example, that would be more how we would look at that crop historically from a yield standpoint. Shaun, for the audience, I'm going to ask the question for them because I know, I think I know farmers pretty good and this is swirling in their heads here. How does, how does the industry, a company like Bayer Insurance build? It's not building, you know, over engineered or you know, this like tonnes of like all these stacked traits and you know, this over engineered potentially solution depending on where you farm for the average farmer. And all sudden it's like, Ben, my canola seed is such a huge cost, it doesn't actually work out for me from a P and L standpoint. How do you deal with that? Because research dollars are one thing, but you got to get a return on your research and that ends up being in the cost of the seed. Yeah, I think first, the last discussion on listening, that's where it starts. So we've got to be really, really purposeful about the places that we're putting the bulk of our dollars in in terms of improvement. And so again I mentioned like genetic gain. So like just straight up yield, yield improvement, sort of material yield improvement from one class to the next in terms of how we advance products. That has to be at the core, that's the foundation of breeding. But then we need to start to think about those others. So, you know, we need to ensure that we're addressing the most Critical components from a return on investment perspective for, for again for the farm base, the farm customers that are, are stepping up and investing in our crop. So whether it's shatter reduction, whether it is club root resistance, whether it's, you know, multigenic blackleg, these component parts that build a resilient crop, that build in risk mitigation on an annual basis for someone that's going to step up and invest significant cash into a high powered hybrid. We need to come back to that last point you raised about the mill. How does that listening work? How do we ensure that we're doing the right things in terms of the risk of overbuilding? I think that could always be there. But again, it comes back to that very active consultation, that collaboration looking down the line, what's next? Maybe it's a disease like verticillium, maybe it's something sort of a little further afield, but trying to be as close to where the market is in terms of that immediate need or that next need. Five years away, 10 years away because of the length of time that it's going to take to be able to deliver those solutions to people. Yeah. And from a solution standpoint, before we wrap up here, like from a solution standpoint, Darrell, if all of a sudden next year's hybrid from Bayer comes out and flea beetles can't, you know, won't attack that plant, it's worth something to you? Yeah, no, absolutely. And you know, I have to give companies like Bayer credit. They, they have really listened to farmers on what we want with Canola. I think I feel that way personally. Anyways, when a new trait comes out, we're like, yeah, that's kind of what we've been asking for, for the last three years or five years or 10 years. So in that respect, I don't see them overbuilt. I see that corn and soy, I don't know, corn and soybeans, I won't even try. But man, they got a list of traits on their seed bags. Right. So I don't see that in Canola. I think we're getting the things that we need and we gotta continue down that path. Guys, this has been a lot of fun. I really do appreciate it. We talk about the future of Canola, there is a lot of excitement, there's a lot of oper opportunity. There's also a lot of different threads to pull on and we could have probably had a three hour show here today. But this is why we are doing a six part series on this future of Canola series here. With Bayer Crop Science Canada. Darrell, thanks a lot for participating today. Really appreciate it. And hopefully that snow melts soon and you can get out there and get some seed in the field. Yeah. Thank you. Hey Chris, great to have you here. Really appreciate your perspectives and keep up the great work. The Canola Council of Canada. Thanks Shaun. Pleasure to be here. And Shaun, I'm sure this won't be the last time we chat in this series, so thanks for joining us. You bet. Appreciate it. Be safe out there. Travel well. Travel indeed. On the on the road for sure. Road Warrior if you have any feedback on today's show, we want to hear from you. And not just your feedback on what you heard here today, but also your perspectives on the future of Canola. And maybe there's different places you want us to go in this series as we release a new episode every six weeks or so. So we want to hear from you. Send me an email shaneyaalagriculture.com or you can call or text the Real Life feedback line 855-776-6147. Big thanks to Bear Crop Science Canada for being today's show's sponsor. Thanks so much for getting real and getting connected with Reel Ag Radio. Cheers everybody. Thank you for downloading this RealAg Radio podcast brought to you by Corrigen Max Insecticide from fmc. When you need to put protect your crops from damaging insects origin Max Insecticide delivers fast, selective extended control of grasshoppers, Rutha armyworms, diamondback moth cutworms and more. Ask your retailer today.