DEKALB® canola hybrids have made a believer out of Brady Ferris. Ferris, who farms 2,000 acres out of Fielding SK, grew DK400TL in 2024 and had the opportunity to try the newest hybrid—DK401TL. He was more than impressed with the hybrids’ all-around performance. “I’m excited about DK400TL and DK401TL. I think they’re very strong.”

“There are lots of things I look for when I'm selecting my canola,” Ferris says. “The first and most important is yield. Field trials back up Brady’s belief that these new DEKALB hybrids have the yield potential he’s looking for. In Bayer’s grower-led Market Development trials in 2023, DK401TL averaged a 7.8%* yield advantage over InVigor® L340PC in 17 trials. DK400TL beat that same InVigor® hybrid by 2%** over 62 trials.

Ferris was also impressed by the standability these mid-maturity DEKALB hybrids demonstrated in a challenging year. Brady Ferris explains: “Something that's come in handy this year is Straight Cut Plus pod shatter technology from DEKALB. Basically, we had a hailstorm over our whole farm this year,” he recalls. “Some of our barley and peas were damaged as much as 40 to 60%. On our DK400TL and DK401TL fields, hail damage was limited to 10% to 20% so it seems like pod shatter technology helped out quite a bit.”

Bayer Customer Solutions Agronomist Ken Saretzky walked those DEKALB canola fields at harvest. He was impressed by the condition of the crop, especially considering the wet, windy environment in the area in early October. Both DK400TL and DK401TL were standing tall and disease-free, care of their strong blackleg and clubroot resistance disease packages.

“Weed control was also excellent,” Saretzky notes. “It's all about flexibility. Both hybrids have TruFlex® LibertyLink® canola trait technology, which gives growers the flexibility to use, for instance, a Liberty® herbicide application first and a Roundup® brand herbicide 10-14 days later to keep fields really, really clean.”

Brady Ferris says that dual trait technology helped him out of a timing jam in 2024. “This year I took an extra day off to go to the lake when I probably shouldn't have,” he recalls. “By the time I got back my canola was out of stage for Liberty® but it was still in stage for Roundup, so I was able to go in there and clean up the weeds regardless.”

“That extra flexibility of timing was nice,” Ferris adds. “Time's very important to us.”

Of course, time is especially critical during harvest, when late season weather can complicate matters. “Every hour counts,” Ferris emphasizes. “And for DEKALB hybrids especially, I find that harvestability is pretty good on them. I don't find them to be too tall and bushy so they're easier to put through the combine.” DK400TL and DK401TL include the Straight Cut Plus trait for improved pod integrity and enhanced shatter pod protection. Combined with their early maturity and quick drydown, DEKALB hybrids help growers have an earlier, faster and smoother harvest.

As it turns out, harvesting those DEKALB hybrids was a breeze, Ferris confirms. “I've got a 30-foot header on my swather, and I was going about 3½ mph with no problem.” He had similar success with his straight-cut fields. “I've got a 36-foot header for straight cutting and I was going 3½ mph so I was getting the extra 6 ft and going the same speed. That’s pretty nice.” Canola growers across the West are reporting similar, positive results with their DEKALB hybrids. DEKALB has unveiled several financial offers to provide extra incentives for growers to make the switch to DEKALB hybrids in 2025. For full details, go to: DEKALBRewards.ca

*Based on average yield differences from 17 Bayer Market Development 2023 trials: moisture-adjusted, before dockage, non-replicated, large-scale trials

**Based on average yield differences from 62 Bayer Market Development 2023 trials: moisture-adjusted, before dockage, non-replicated, large-scale trials