The 5000-odd hectares of genetically modified (GM) canola crops planted in NSW this year following the lifting of the embargo on commercial production are reportedly performing well for the growers involved.
“Everybody is really impressed,” said Coonabarabran-based agricultural consultant, Bob Freebairn, who has looked at crops in the Cowra district.
“My understanding is there will be a rapid expansion in sowings next year.”
Central NSW sales manager for Pioneer Hi-Bred, John De Lyall, said grower feedback on the company’s GM canola hybrid, 46Y20, was that it was “absolutely fantastic”.
“It’s going so well, not because it’s GM, but because it’s a hybrid.
“The comments I am getting are ‘have you got enough seed for next year?’”, he said.
Jim Watson, “Oakleigh”, at Parkes, who is growing 100 hectares of the Pioneer variety out of a total of 650ha of canola, said he was “quite happy” with the variety so far.
Mr Watson, who switched completely to hybrid canolas in the past three years, said the GM variety was performing at least as well as non-GM canolas, such as some Clearfield lines.
He said he had moved away from triazine-tolerant lines because he was using the residual herbicide in the pulse phase of his rotation, and was concerned about resistance to the herbicide developing in weeds.
“That’s where Roundup Ready canola fits into our program. We can back up next year with any crop we like.”
The lifting of the embargo on commercial production of GM canola in NSW and Victoria has split the farming community and States, with Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia maintaining their embargoes.
Last week the anti-GM Gene Ethics network released a map of NSW purporting to show where GM canola was being grown but the move raised only a ripple of concern.
The map is a token affair, listing the names and localities – but not property names – of just five growers out of about 50 believed to have sown GM canola in NSW this year, as well as GM receival sites.
Executive director of Gene Ethics, Bob Phelps, said the map was intended to protect GM-free grain growers, beekeepers and harvesters from GM contamination.
“Only one in a thousand farmers is growing GM canola this year, but they pose an unacceptable risk of GM contamination to all other farmers, rural industries, local government and shoppers.”
Mr Phelps accused Monsanto – the company that owns the Roundup Ready gene the GM varieties contain – of grossly inflating the scale of GM canola plantings in NSW and Victoria this year.
But a Monsanto spokeswoman dismissed Mr Phelp’s claim the company had inflated the area of canola sown.
“We have 110 growers evenly spread across NSW and Victoria with approximately 9500ha across both States,” she said.