Western Australia: Canola seed in strong demand for 2017

Canola seed is in strong demand for 2017 following favourable growing conditions and positive price trends.

Seed companies are experiencing strong demand for canola seed for the 2017 season on the back of exceptional yields and strong prices. Canola plantings are expected to be up by between 6-10 per cent on this year, with hybrid varieties already sold out or committed.

Grains Industry Association of Western Australia (GIWA) predicts WA to produce a 1.73 million tonne canola crop this season, which is up 12.2pc on 2015's harvest.

Australian Oilseed Federation executive officer Nick Goddard said the firm prices and the lack of a positive trend on the horizon for cereals meant that canola continued to be an attractive crop for Western Australia(WA) growers. "It is still early but key drivers such as the South American soybean plantings and palm oil prices are closely related to canola pricing," he said, "While they can't all be substituted for each other there is a substitutional effect between them."

Mr Goddard expected genetically modified (GM) canola plantings to continue to increase in WA. "WA GM plantings will continue to grow whereas on the east coast of Australia. GM canola plantings are still dependent on expected weed pressure. We are expecting there to be some next year and that tends to be the trigger for GM crops in the east, whereas herbicide resistant ryegrass in WA means growers will keep GM canola in the rotation."

Nuseed WA regional manager Andrew Suverjin said the demand was being driven by the performance of canola this season and the commodity prices compared to wheat. "Generally canola has been the solid performer and has been the most profitable this season," Mr Suverjin said, "We expect to see an upside swing of 10pc towards canola for 2017."

He said hybrid varieties had been the strongest with their Roundup Ready hybrid variety canola GT53 already sold out.

"Hybrids are the first to go and the one everyone is chasing, but we still have supplies of open pollinated (OP), triazine tolerant (TT) and Roundup Ready (RR) varieties available," he said, "OP and TT have done very well this year and we expect them to feature well next year. While RR varieties are available growers who have not locked in seed may not get the variety they wanted."

Pioneer Seeds WA sales and technical manager Peter Bostock said demand for canola was up across all types. "Ordering has been very strong, particularly where there is herbicide technology such as RR," he said, "This year has seen the biggest demand for 43Y23, which has done very well across all rainfall zones." Pioneer will also be releasing new TT variety 44T02 for 2017, as well as Clearfield varieties 44Y90 and 45Y91.

Pacific Seeds southern WA sales manager Mitch Tuffley said the company had sold out of its RR varieties. "Hybrids are also really showing their value with growers and there is growing interest in TT hybrids," He said while floods in the Eastern States had impacted on supply, seed shortages for canola had been driven more by increased demand.

While pulses plantings are expected to drop in favour of canola, Seednet territory manager David Clegg said there was good availability across lupins, field peas and faba beans for 2017. New lupin variety Jurien had good availability and was providing significantly higher yields than older varieties in the northern agricultural region and there was good availability for Wharton field peas and Samira faba beans for 2017. He said the company was hoping to have a seed source available for Striker chick peas with lower yields than expected due to the cool spring conditions and lack of warm temperatures to initiate seed set.

Heritage Seeds territory manager Tim O'Dea said new oat variety Durack was experiencing strong forward sales following a strong planting of oats this season. Durack, which was released at GIWA's oat spring forum in September, is an early maturing oat variety for the low rainfall zones.

AGT Seeds WA marketing and production manager Josh Johnson said despite a pull towards canola, cereal plantings were expected to remain stable. He said Sceptre planting expected to significantly increase due to the favourable conditions this season in bulking up the variety and how it performed against current mainstay Mace. "We expect Sceptre to supercede Mace in WA in the next two to three years," he said.