InVigor History
Celebrating Ten Groundbreaking Years
Just a decade ago, the Western Canadian canola industry was introduced to a breakthrough new hybrid seed technology that would bring unprecedented yield performance. Since 1997, InVigor® hybrid canola has become the market leader at the expense of much lower yielding open pollinated varieties and other lower yielding hybrids trying to enter the marketplace.
The InVigor Hybrid Vigor Advantage
What gave InVigor the power to blanket the marketplace? Two words – hybrid vigor. Hybrids hold the key to unlocking tremendous yield potential and InVigor canola hybrids lead the pack. InVigor breeders select genetically unique parents with a collection of complementary attributes so that when crossed, their offspring is a superior hybrid that consistently produces the highest yields when compared to what else a grower might choose, even under tough conditions.
Stewart Brandt, Bayer CropScience Plant Breeder and Manager of Breeding Operations located outside Saskatoon, Saskatchewan explains, “One of the reasons we‘ve been successful is that we were the first company to produce large quantities of high hybridity seed cost effectively.”
InVigor canola hybrids deliver vigorous early season growth, uniformity in height and maturity, superior genetic potential for yield and, most importantly, the ability to consistently out-perform other hybrids and canola varieties, even under stressful growing conditions. InVigor hybrids offer growers high profit potential with low risk.
The Makings of a Market Leader
Since their introduction, InVigor hybrids have dominated yield rankings in a multitude of trials, including Western Canada Canola/Rapeseed Recommending Committee (WCC/RRC) Trials, Prairie Canola Variety Trials (PCVT), Canola Council of Canada Trials and Demonstration Strip Trials (DST) which run all across the Prairies.
“Year after year, InVigor consistently out-yields competitive varieties and hybrids by a significant margin,” says Lionel Lamont, Bayer CropScience Manager of Canola Business Operations for North America based in Calgary. “And not only do they dominate in trials, but InVigor‘s performance is proven time and time again by farmers in their own fields.”
The InVigor 5000 series of hybrids consistently leads in the PCVT. Yield data from 2005 and 2006 show that InVigor 5030, 5070 and 5020 outperformed all other varieties and hybrids that were in the trials.
It‘s no surprise that new competitor hybrids are coming to the market with comparisons to InVigor 5020. Since its commercialization in 2004, InVigor 5020 has been planted on more acres than any other canola seed. And even in 2006 PCVT results, InVigor 5020 still outperformed the top YieldReady hybrids, including Pioneer 45H26 and Dekalb 71-45.
Bayer CropScience Turns 30 Years into 10
How has Bayer CropScience accomplished so much in just one short decade? Our progress can be credited to our people, many who have dedicated their entire careers to the development of high yielding InVigor hybrids. Additionally, our focused research, development and seed production programs in combination with “contra season” seed research in the southern hemisphere provide results similar to three seasons development in a single year.
“There are three main things that make InVigor superior,” says Brandt. “First, is our hybridization system which is very flexible and functional. Second, is our germplasm. We‘ve spent careers developing combinations to make the best InVigor hybrids. And the third component is the expertise of the people involved in the breeding program. We have a lot of long-term dedicated, professional staff who implement our focused breeding program."
No Rest for the Leader
Bayer CropScience is committed to remaining the industry‘s number-one canola seed brand for decades to come by working hard to add yield, performance and premium-earning traits to future generations of seed. “We are big believers in canola as a profit earning crop for western Canadian farmers,” says Lamont. “And we‘re working to make sure we stay significantly ahead of any other canola seed brand in the world.”