2006-06-18
Author: AM 1250/Mix 96 News
A professor from the University of Melbourne feels canola has a future in Australia.  Dr. Robert Norton is visiting our country, and is currently stationed at the University of Manitoba.  He says the crop went through a boom period in the late 90's, but in recent years, due to dry conditions, acreage has been cut back significantly.  Norton stresses in the dryer regions it's almost disappeared, and that's a real concern.  Number one, it's a relatively profitable crop, but more importantly it provides a disease break in a country which has a very high frequency of cereals in rotation.   Norton adds acreage sown to canola in 2005 neared 5 million acres, while this year approximately 3 million acres were planted.