March 20, 2012

Last year, the rapeseed crop of Canada was of fairly high quality, according to the Canadian Grain Commission's (CGC) yearly harvest quality report released on March 15.

A copy of the full report is available at www.grainscanada.gc.ca.

Of the 1,749 samples we analysed, 87.8% were graded as No. 1, said Véronique Barthet, programme manager of oilseeds for the CGC's Grain Research Laboratory.

Researchers looked at several quality parameters including: oil content; protein content; chlorophyll content; glucosinolate content; and free fatty acid composition.

Harvest quality reports are used to market Canadian rapeseed to domestic and export customers.

Quality data describe to export customers how Canadian rapeseed will perform in various end-use products. For example, a crushing plant would be interested in the oil content of Canadian rapeseed. A tonne of rapeseed seed with higher oil content will be more profitable than a tonne of rapeseed seed with lower oil content because the crusher is able to extract more oil from the higher oil content seed for the same processing cost.