b'SEED OF THE YEAR 2021If I kind of had that wow moment when your facecut. By 2020, close to half of the canola in Western looks like a little kid, it was probably the first time weCanada was straight cut thanks to this technology.straight cut InVigor L233P. You look in the hopper, andStocker notes the benefits of pod shatter reduction you really see the difference in the colour and the size oftechnology go beyond just harvest.the canola seeds with straight cut canola versus swathedIts led to savings in fuel, emissions and resources, canola. Theyre just a darker black or purple colour andand as the market shifts from swathing to straight cut-really big. They almost look like BBs. That wow momentting canola it has helped growers manage their time and is probably the best part of using a new technology inlabour, he says. agriculture and being impressed with it. When InVigor L233P was launched, the associated marketing campaign made use of a social media hashtag, Taking a Crop to the Next Level #SellTheSwather, which Stocker says represented a InVigor L233P was developed and selected on the learn- change in the way BASF used social media and how ings from a previous Pod Shatter Reduction hybrid calledhybrid canola is marketed.InVigor L140P. We started with really focusing on a product that had to be robust, had good strength and yield performance, and broad geographic stability. It couldnt just perform in one geographic region, but had to perform across Western Canada, Mansiere says. Maturity and lodging resistance were a couple targetsAS A BREEDER, YOU CAN ONLY HOPE ONE OF that we were trying to improve. We wanted to make it a little bit more user friendly, giving growers flexibility inYOUR HYBRIDS WILL HAVE JUST SOME OF how they approach their harvest.InVigor L233P ended up fitting the bill, but at first theyTHE IMPACT THAT THIS ONE HAS.didnt know just how well. Jeff MansiereInVigor L140P really set the bar. It gave us commer-cially acceptable shatter tolerance, so in creating what became InVigor L233P we really paid a lot of attention also to selecting for improved parental lines. On the male side of development, we had already started to begin doing forward breeding and started focusing on yield enhancement, improved combining ability and betterObviously, not everyone ran out and sold their lodging tolerance, Brandt adds.swather just because of InVigor pod shatter reduction We were pretty confident wed be able to make antechnology, but that wasnt the point. The point was to improvement over InVigor L140P in some important areas,have a fun conversation and get engagement from grow-but at the time we just didnt know how much betterers and in the industry, and we definitely did that.InVigor L233P would actually end up being. Its wideFor Mansiere, who grew up on a mixed farm in north-acceptance surprised many of us. east Saskatchewan, its been surreal to see InVigor L233P The end of 2021 will mark five years that InVigortake off like it has.L233P hybrid canola has been on the market. By thenIts been very, very humbling to see it be this success-it will have been grown on more than 21 million acresful on an acreage basis. As a breeder you can only hope in Canada, notes BASF Canada Canola Seeds and Traitsone of your hybrids will have just some of the impact that Manager Wade Stocker. this one has, he says.To put that in perspective, over the last two years,Brandt, whose family owns a Centennial farm in this one hybrid has comprised more than 30 per centsouthern Saskatchewan, says the quest to develop the of the entire canola acres in Western Canada. That isperfect product still goes on. pretty much unparalleled. It puts into perspective howYou hope that the next product you come out with quickly and how significantly this hybrid has penetratedbrings value to your customers and delivers solutions. the Canadian marketplace, the canola marketplace, andThats what every breeder focuses on and thats what I what its meant to canola growers and how they harvest,would expect the next products that come out of our Stocker says. program will deliver. We have to deliver that as breeders In 2014, prior to the introduction of the InVigor Pod its our job. Its a big challenge, but its what we all sign Shatter Reduction hybrids, very little canola was straightup for when we get into this. 10GERMINATION.CAMARCH 2021'