Quality of western Canadian canola 2022

Oil content

In 2022, canola graded No.1 had an oil content of 42.1%. This is slightly higher than the 2021 mean of 41.3% but still much lower than the 5-year mean of 43.8% (Table 1). The 2022 mean oil content for No. 1 canola was the third lowest recorded since 2000, just ahead of 41.3% in 2021 and 41.8% in 2003 (Figure 9). In 2022, just over 32% of canola samples graded No. 1 had an oil content higher than the 5-year mean.

Canola graded No. 1 from the Alberta-Peace River region had a mean oil content of 42.6% (41.6% in 2021), higher than canola No. 1 from Manitoba (42.1%; 41.1% in 2021) and Saskatchewan (41.9%; 41.1% in 2021) (Table 2). The oil content of individual canola samples graded No. 1 ranged from 39.3% to 49.2% in Manitoba (36.2% to 47.2% in 2021), 34.9% to 48.2% in Saskatchewan (33.9% to 49.4% in 2021) and 35.5% to 48.7% in the Alberta-Peace River region (34.2% to 48.9% in 2021) (Table 2).

In 2022, the oil content of No. 2 canola (41.7%) was lower than that of No. 1 canola (42.1%). Oil content for canola, samples graded No. 2 from western Canada ranged from 35.4% to 47.2% compared to 34.2% to 48.9% in 2021 (Table 2). In 2022, the mean oil content for canola graded No. 3 and Sample was 42.3% and 42.1%, respectively.

Oil content is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. For any known canola variety, hot and dry growing conditions rather than cool conditions, will result in canola seeds with lower oil content. 2022 was another very dry season. Seeds were planted in fields suffering from extreme drought in Alberta and moderate to severe drought in most of Saskatchewan (Figure 4). Most fields in Manitoba received extreme rain falls (Figure 3). Temperatures were above normal in July, August and September in all 3 provinces. There were less days over 30°C than last year, but a significant number of days over 30°C (Figure 5) were still recorded post flowering, especially in Alberta and the western part of Saskatchewan. Combined with a lack of precipitation during the 2022 growing season (Figure 3), the warm weather was again responsible for an oil content lower than the 5-year mean. Precipitation was extremely localized in 2022, especially in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and this explains why some samples still had a high oil content.

The mean oil content of CC No.1 canola exports was 41.3% for December 2022 and 41.0% for August to November 2022 (Table 4). Compared to the oil content from harvest samples, the CC and the NCC exports of No.1 canola had a lower mean oil content due to dilution from dockage. Harvest samples are completely clean (0.00% dockage). Mean dockage for the CC exports was 1.31% for December 2022 and 1.41% for August to November 2022. Dockage for the 2021 to 2022 shipping season was 1.64% (Table 4). NCC exports had a mean dockage of 2.94% for August to December 2022 (Table 4). The exports from the beginning of this year’s shipping season showed an increase in oil content compared to last year, which corresponds to the increase in oil content found in the 2022 harvest samples.

Figure 9  Oil content of seed (%, 8.5% moisture) for Canola, No. 1 Canada