Wisconsin farmers have tried planting the same open-pollinated canola varieties grown in northern Europe and Canada's prairie provinces, but these don't do particularly well in Wisconsin. Hybrid seed has done better. Osborn and graduate student David Butruille have created hundreds of experimental hybrids with Wisconsin in mind. The 40 experimental hybrids averaged 45 bushels per acre over the three years. Like wheat, canola comes in two types spring and winter.
Canadian farmers grow the spring type, planted and harvested during the same growing season.
In more moderate climates, including the Pacific Northwest, farmers grow the winter type, which is planted in fall and harvested the following summer. Osborn began with canola seed from all over the world, including both winter and spring types. After failing to find any winter types that could tolerate Wisconsin winters, he crossed spring with winter types. Osborn attributes the high yields of his current experimental hybrids to genes he and his co-workers transferred from winter types. Now the researchers have identified genetic markers in canola closely linked to key crop traits, such as cold hardiness, flowering time, disease resistance and seed quality.