The average oil content, from more than 2,000 canola samples collected by the commission, is around 42 percent. That’s well below the 10-year average of 44.4 percent and the lowest level since 2003.
“Some of the samples were very low. Thirty-three percent in oil content…. We haven’t seen that in a very long time,” said Veronique Barthet, program manager of oilseeds monitoring and research with the CGC.
“But that’s the result of the growing conditions.”
Barthet reported on the oil content and the quality of the 2021 crop during Canola Week — a Canola Council of Canada event in early December. She explained during a video presentation, that hot weather is detrimental to oil formation in canola seeds.
“There are quite a bit of papers showing if you have high temperatures before flowering, it’s going to affect oil content,” she said.
That definitely happened this year. Most of the Prairies, from Winnipeg to Edmonton, had a week of temperatures around 30-34 C, in late June and early July.
That hot weather arrived before the bloom, or just as canola was flowering.
In a more typical year, the oil content of Alberta canola is higher than Manitoba and Saskatchewan because part of the crop is grown in cooler climates like the Peace country.
That didn’t happen this year, Barthet said.
“The north part of Alberta (is)always cooler than the rest of the Prairies. Because of that you (usually) have higher oil content in this area.”
This year, the oil content of Alberta canola was the same as the other provinces. That’s because the entire growing region of Western Canada had hot and dry weather, including the Peace country and the region around Edmonton.
Low oil content is detrimental to canola crushers, as the 2021 crop will produce less canola oil than usual.
“Grim is the right way to describe the situation overall this year,” said Chris Vervaet, executive director of the Canadian Oilseed Processors Association, in October.
“It’s a double whammy. We have scarcity of seed this year and a lot of what is available does have that lower oil content.”
That means crushers need to buy more canola than usual to get the same amount of oil, and seed prices are at record levels.
“There’s no doubt about it, there are going to be higher costs for crush this year,” said Vervaet.
But the crushers might recoup some of those costs from sales of canola meal.
“When we have low oil content we have higher protein content,” Barthet said. “We have about three percent higher in protein compared to last year and (about) three percent higher in protein, compared to the five- or 10-year average. Meaning the meal this year will be very good quality and (it) will be… as good as the soybean meal.”
The overall grade of canola samples is higher than previous years, such as 2018 and 2019, when fall frost, rain and snow damaged the crop. This year, about 90 percent of samples were No. 1 Canada. In 2018 and 2019, 75 percent of samples graded No. 1.
In some regions, like western Saskatchewan, more than 95 percent of samples were graded at Canola No. 1.
“Even if you have hot and dry conditions, your grade is going to be good,” Barthet said. “This year, hot and dry conditions not so much affecting the grade…. This year, quite a bit of No. 1.”
The grade may be No. 1, but there isn’t much canola around. The 2021 crop is the smallest in a decade.
Dane Froese, oilseed specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, estimated that the Prairies will produce 12.6 million tonnes this year — about a 37 percent reduction from 2020, when Canadian farmers grew 19.5 million tonnes of canola.
The heat and drought hammered the canola crop this summer, with yield almost cut in half in Saskatchewan.
“Manitoba (had) 32.6 bushels per acre. Alberta lower (at 28.7) and Saskatchewan having the lowest average, at 21.2,” Froese said during CanolaWeek.
The 21.2 bu. per acre for Saskatchewan is 49 percent lower than the five-year average, he added.
The average yield across the Prairies was 27.5 bu. per acre, 34 percent below the five-year average.
