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The intense heat we've been dealing with over the last couple of weeks has resulted in signs of heat stress starting to show up in some crops.
There's a real concern about the potential impact on canola crops at the flowering stage.
Curtis Rempel, vice president of crop production and innovation with the Canola Council of Canada says when the temperatures are in the 30's, it's especially hard on flowering canola plants.
"The crop at flowering is when the pollen is produced, the canola gets pollinated and seeds start forming. When you have high heat levels, like we're currently experiencing, when the crop is starting to flower or is in flower, you get the pollen dying because of the heat. Then the flower does not get pollinated and it gets blasted or falls off, and the farmer loses that yield potential they would have otherwise had."
The heat can also impact oil quality if the temperatures continue after pollination, when the seed starts forming in the pod.
He says that when you keep having higher temperatures, the level of the oil content will ultimately go down.
"Your levels of seed protein typically are higher. If temperatures continue hot, seed development stops, and much lower levels of oil are formed in the seed."
Rempel says we've seen changes in the impact of temperatures, noting that studies done in the early 2000's showed that if the temperature went above 27 or 28 degrees Celsius, you started seeing some significant yield loss.
"I think with all of the breeding gains we've had, it seems like the temperature threshold is now a little higher. It's probably about 30 to 31 degrees Celsius before you start seeing significant yield losses. Also, nighttime temperatures have a really huge impact as well. If you have nighttime temperatures, let's say drop back below 24°C again, the plant can recover, it will produce another round of pollen overnight. As you know, canola flowers over a relatively long period of time, so the plant can recover. If the nighttime temperatures stay above, 28° or 27°C as well, then the plant just starts shutting down completely."
Canola crops across the majority of the prairies were looking good, but as temperatures move back into the 30's there's concern producers could see significant yield loss.
Rempel adds that there's not much farmers can do in the way of products to protect the plant from the heat.
"All we can do is hope that the heat bubble doesn't last as long as predicted, a cooler front moves in, and we get some excellent yield potential."
To hear Glenda-Lee's conversation with Curtis Rempel click on the link below.