Diversity is a defense against surprises in markets, weather and pests. Tom Osborn thinks Wisconsin farmers will soon be making room for canola. He sees it as an alternative to soybeans. Both crops are used for cooking oil and meal, a livestock feed. Both bring about the same price per bushel.
Yield is where the two crops have parted ways.
In Wisconsin canola has yielded much less than soybeans, which have averaged around 40 bushels per acre the past three years. But Osborn, a geneticist and plant breeder, aims to create a canola variety for Wisconsin that consistently yields over 50 bushels per acre. Over three years his experimental hybrids have averaged 45 bushels per acre in southern Wisconsin. His ability to locate genes that control key traits propels his search. 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.