Canada is the world's largest mustard exporter but is facing increased competition from the United States, Ukraine, and Russia.

Dr. Bifang Cheng and her team at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Saskatoon have developed a newly registered brown mustard hybrid (AAC Brown 18) that shows a lot of potential.

The new mustard hybrid has a twenty percent yield advantage over open-pollinated varieties in small-plot trials.

AAC Brown 18 should be more responsive to fertilizer and more vigorously compete with weeds.

Pete Desai with Mustard 21 says the industry continues to work on making mustard more profitable for growers.

“I don’t think you’re going to see a huge run to grow mustard.  What we are hoping is that those folks, who are in the mustard business for the last twenty plus years, now have another tool in their toolbox to say this helps me and my profitability on my farm.” 

This year twenty-five farmers in southern and central Saskatchewan will plant eighty acres of the new mustard hybrid (AAC Brown 18) and compare the results with the standard varieties.