2010 Clearfield^® Canola Challenge winners

 Australia, Tuesday 1 February, 2011- The Clearfield^® Canola Yield Challenge invites growers from each canola‐growing state to put their farming skills to work in pursuit of championship honours and the chance of an overseas study tour.

Last year, about 30 canola growers from New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia grew Clearfield canola side‐by‐side in the same paddock as triazine‐tolerant (TT) canola.

Each crop was judged on such attributes as yield, oil, weed control, crop rotation, sustainability of herbicide use and gross margin difference between the systems.

On average, the Clearfield hybrids grown by the three state winners produced a lift in yield of nearly 30 per cent over TT varieties and, oil content was, on average, more than one per cent better.

Scott Mattiske, from Forbes, won the New South Wales division with Pioneer 44Y84, a new shorter season hybrid which impressed with a yield of 3.05 tonnes per hectare and an oil content of 44.1%, against the Cobbler TT’s 42%.

“It has unbelievable vigour,” Scott said. “Clearfield had it all over TT this year."

The WA Challenge was taken out by Tim Scott, of Munglinup, with his Pioneer hybrid 46Y83 yielding 2.36 tonnes per hectare, compared with 1.69 tonnes per hectare for the Barra.

Tim’s final gross margin per hectare of $1033 was $330 more than the figures returned for the TT crop.

Murray Witcombe, who runs a 1020ha family cropping enterprise at Inverleigh, near Geelong, won the Victorian section after sowing 11ha with Pioneer 45Y82 and the same amount of ground to Hyola 751TT.

Murray’s gross margin for the Clearfield was $1114.29, compared with $828.59 for the alternative.

Winners from the 2010 season will travel to Canada in August 2011 to study its canola industry.

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