Potential yield benefits from increased vernalisation requirement of canola in Southern Australia

Abstract

Long season, winter-type canola cultivars have the potential for significantly higher yields than short-season, spring-type canola, yet until recently, breeding of new canola cultivars in Australia has focussed on spring-type canola. This has been to accommodate the typically drier, warmer conditions across the Australian cropping belt where long-season varieties do not perform well due to delayed flowering and risk of water-stress during grain fill. However, as cropping continues to expand into the Australian High Rainfall Zone (500–900 mm, HRZ), breeders have become increasingly interested in developing winter-spring crosses (not yet commercially available) which have an intermediate pheno..