Every year, Ontario seed companies continue to focus on improving their seed lineups to increase yields and offer more management options for growers.
Farmtario reached out to seed companies in the province and asked them to provide an overview of what is new for the 2023 growing season.
Corteva
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Corteva will be launching a wide option of new varieties amongst their corn and soybean lineup with Pioneer Seeds.
Dave Harwood, Corteva technical services manager, said there are 16 new corn hybrids ranging between 73 and 109 comparative relative maturity (CRM), with P9466AML boasting AcreMax Leptra technology against ear-feeding insects.
“It represents the largest maturity range in the eastern Canadian (95-day) market, said Harwood. “This hybrid has really good adaptation, disease resistance, and yield potential.”
There are several Enlist soybean varieties with glyphosate, glufosinate and 2,4-D chemistry resistance in Corteva’s offerings.
“We’ve got varieties from the 00 maturity through to the late group two varieties,” he said.
“We have 10 new Enlist soybean varieties in the Pioneer lineup across that maturity range.”
Most notable is the P17A87E variety, which features excellent defensive traits against white mould, soybean cyst nematodes (SCN), and sudden death syndrome (SDS) and fits across various production acres in Ontario.
Harwood summarized it as “a typical Pioneer soybean with high yield, combined with good defensive traits.”
Brevant is offering up nine new varieties in their 2023 soybean line up including B158DE, with excellent defensive characteristics, the new herbicide system and high yield potential.
Choice Seeds Inc.
MastersChoice and Kingfisher/RedTail corn continue to offer hybrids specific to the livestock industry, including a longer “stay-green” harvest window.
“This year, we are excited about the complete lineup of corn hybrids,” said Dwayne Weber, Choice Seeds owner. “There is lots of seed corn for all.”
Choice Seeds’ new N Cover mixture is formulated specifically for adding fertilizer to the soil for next year’s corn crop.
“If planted in mid-August, after wheat harvest, it gives a cut of green feed in the Fall and adds nitrogen, and other fertilizer components, to the soil,” said Weber. “This cover crop increases microbiological activity in the soil, especially for corn.”
De Dell Seeds
De Dell Seeds has two new hybrids for the 2023 growing season, Dessert and DL6090.
Dessert is a silage variety, a tall leafy plant that according to the company has high-yielding potential, good feed analysis with a planting recommendation of below 30,000 seeds per acre to allow for higher tonnage per acre.
The DL6090 late-grain hybrid offers excellent drought tolerance.
“We are hoping it will take the place of a few of our other hybrids in that maturity,” said Will Trudell, De Dell Seeds vice-president.
De Dell Seeds 3146 corn hybrid continues to be successful as a very consistent variety.
“You can take it anywhere, especially here in Ontario,” he said. “You can grow it basically from just North of London right through to eastern Ontario, and it will do well across all that area.”
Dekalb
Dekalb is continuing to transition their soybean lineup to a Roundup Ready XTend Crop system with seven new soybean varieties.
Five are within the Roundup Ready 2 Xtend ranging from 00.5 relative maturity to 2.4 relative maturity, and two are with XtendFlex with 2.5 and 3.2 relative maturities.
“The reason we are so excited is we’re seeing excellent performance yield-wise,” said Kate Hyatt, DEKALB eastern Canada campaign marketing manager.
“And the triple-herbicide tolerance of XtendFlex brings more flexibility in terms of weed management.”
Dekalb continues to offer new genetics for the 2023 season, with 13 new corn varieties ranging from 2050 to 3275 CHUs.
“2023 is a continuation of the excitement around the performance we’re seeing with our new corn hybrids and soybean varieties,” Hyatt said.
DLF Canada Inc.
DLF Canada Inc. has many new corn hybrids they are offering for the 2023 growing season.
The PS 2571 GSX RIB, a SmartStax RIB complete hybrid, is 2600 CHU, offering root protection.
“We are excited about this. We’re now offering this hybrid in both Double Pro and SmartStax technology,” said Sylvia Megens, product development for DLF Canada Inc.
“There are not a lot of hybrids on the market with that protection at that heat unit.”
The PS 2767 VT2P RIB is a Double Pro, RIB Complete at 2700 CHU.
“It has great yield potential, it’s widely adapted to many soil types and has very good stay green,” Megens said.
DLF’s new full leafy floury hybrid, a 2625 CHUs, PS ExAmine LFF RR, “gives us a great advantage in our silage market,” she said, adding they launched one last year with later maturity.
“To launch a full leafy floury at this earlier maturity provides growers the opportunity to maximize their starch digestibility in that hybrid,” explained Megens.
“We are a forage seed company, [but] I know that we can supply our growers with corn hybrids that maximize their starch digestibility and tonnage with these tall leafy hybrids.
Horizon Seeds
Horizon Seeds is hitting the market with new soybean E3 varieties for growers, Summit E3 and Caliper E3, with a 1.1 and 0.7 relative maturity, respectively.
“We’re excited about both of [them]. They’ve been doing really well in past months and broadening and deepening our product line on the soybean front,” said Rick Van Laecke, Horizon Seeds Canada Inc. president.
Horizon continues to focus on corn hybrids with two new silage-specific varieties, HZ 3858 and HZ 4122, with high-quality feed and the Duracade trait.
Additionally, Horizon launched two new short-day hybrids for their Eastern market, HZ 1970 and HZ 1831.
“Horizon is really focusing on making every acre of our customer’s farm profitable,” said Van Laecke. “And that’s by increasing our investment and research and better knowing our positioning of hybrids.”
PRIDE Seeds continues to expand its corn and soybean lineups.
PRIDE Seeds
On offer for the 2023 growing season is A6929G4 RIB, a 3000 CHU, dual-purpose corn hybrid with Trecepta traits.
“This important hybrid gives insect trait protection for western bean cutworm while having very high yield potential,” said Dave Den Boer, PRIDE Seeds manager of product development.
A6566G8 RIB is a new SmartStax corn hybrid with above and below pest protection at 2850 CHUs, which has “consistently dominated” the PRIDE Seeds test plots.
PRIDE Seeds is also advancing its soybean lineup to provide continued genetic diversity and platforms with herbicide flexibility for weed resistance management.
The new PS 2521XFN with Xtendflex traits provided growers with SCN resistance, SDS tolerance, and flexibility to use dicamba, glufosinate and glyphosate active ingredients for weed control.
Several new soybean varieties with Enlist E3 traits are available with maturity groups (MG) between 0.3 and 2.7.
“These Enlist E3 traited varieties bring a combination of consistent strong yield and key defensive characteristics,” Den Boer said.
Sevita
Utica, Navan, Matilda and Rowan are four new food-grade soybeans offered by Sevita for the 2023 growing season.
All offer high yield and solid standability for growers, but Rowan and Navan have soybean cyst nematode protection and Phytophthora resistance, providing a solid defence for growers.
Alinova, a food-grade variety, is the first conventional high-oleic variety developed and registered in Canada.
“This variety is showing excellent performance and SCN protection, exceeding yield expectations in testing over the past three years,” said John Van Herk, Sevita agronomy manager.
SI 1222E3N, SI 1422XTN, and SI 2322E3N are three new herbicide-tolerant varieties and complement the new varieties offered in 2022.
Sevita continues to elevate soybean performance, and a maturity range of soybeans varieties on the Roundup Ready 2 Xtend and Enlist E3 weed control platforms.
Syngenta
Syngenta is adding several products to its lineup, and NK corn simplified its trait nomenclature replacing the numbering system with the hybrid names with traits they contain, highlighting Viptera (V) and Duracade (D).
NK9174-DV is a 91-day, 2750 CHU variety with broad adaptability and high yield potential for growers in western and eastern Ontario.
The NK0243-D hybrid offers broad adaptability and high-yield potential and does well in southern Ontario.
NK is expanding Enlist and XtendFlex trait packages within the soybean lineup.
“We’re trying to diversify,” said Matt Rundle, NK agronomist. “We’re really working on building a portfolio of both.”
S09-H7E3 and S22A2E3 are two varieties that provide good standability, white mould tolerance, SCN protection and the E3 traits to improve weed management.
Syngenta is excited about a new brand of seed, Enogen.
It’s “a new breed for feed” dual-purpose corn hybrid – silage and grain – with alpha-amylase enzyme for high starch digestibility and increased ruminant feed efficiency.
“It’s exciting technology; it’s brand new,” said Rundle.
There are six new, broadly adapted hybrids based on their corn maturity: 80, 86, 92, 95, 100 and 107-day corn. Each has the Duracade trait for excellent protection against below and above-ground pests.
Winfield United
For 2023, CROPLAN is launching five new corn hybrids: three with SmartStax technology and two with VTDoublePro.
CP2585VT2P is an 85-day relative maturity corn hybrid at 2625 CHU.
“This hybrid is a great fit for your high-yield environments. It has high yield potential with excellent disease tolerance,” said Darren McColm, Winfield United’s Eastern agronomy lead.
CP2972SS with SmartStax technology is an 89-day RM at 2725 CHU.
“This new launch is our earliest above-and-below insect protection hybrid for those corn-on-corn acres in this maturity,” McColm said. “It has strong yield with excellent test weight.”
CROPLAN launched two new WinPak soybean varieties, CP0922WPX and CP1222WPE, with 0.9 and 1.2 relative maturities, respectively.
CP0922WPX has a robust disease package, protecting against SCN, Phytophthora, and excellent white mould resistance.
CP1222WPE provides excellent yield potential and will excel in all soil types, with superior early season vigour for early planting success.
This article includes seed companies that provided requested information by press time.
