Reading Time: 4 minutes Publicly funded canola genetics research is producing results in Canada. I recently heard presentations from the following scientists and was impressed with the potential for each project to increase yield or lower input and management costs for Canadian canola farmers. A new way to produce pure seed Tim Sharbel, a molecular evolutionary biologist at the […] Read more
Real results from public canola research
Potential benefits include genetic resistance to sclerotinia and clubroot
Is strip tillage a residue solution?
We don’t want to see a step backward in reduced-tillage practices. So how can canola growers improve seed survival and crop uniformity in challenging residue situations?
Reading Time: 5 minutes The fall objectives: Make sure the chopper can spread the width of the cut. Have a chaff spreader to avoid the thick harrow-immoveable mat of chaff right behind the combine. Cut higher so more of the residue is standing stubble. If necessary, harrow the crop on a hot windy day. This is the no-till approach […] Read more
Cure canola longer, harvest more
When canola swaths are cured and dry, combines put a lot more canola in the tank and a lot less on the ground
Reading Time: 4 minutes Kristen Phillips already knew that combines capture more available yield when canola is cured and dry, but she was still surprised when she was harvesting one set of Ultimate Canola Challenge (UCC) plots this fall. The Canola Council of Canada’s UCC program for 2016 aimed to help identify agronomically and economically optimal nitrogen (N) rates […] Read more
Blackleg and canola can get along… until
Keys to restoring a healthy relationship between blackleg and canola include wider rotations of both crops and canola varieties with different resistance genes
Reading Time: 4 minutes After hearing many presentations on blackleg in canola, I was confused. I heard that disease pathogens usually harm their host plant, but blackleg doesn’t necessarily. In fact, blackleg and brassica species such as canola usually get along. On the other hand, we know that blackleg is now a major problem. Why? University of Manitoba professor […] Read more
Is stored canola at bigger risk than ever?
Huge bins, straight combining and delivery contracts for June and July have all potentially increased the storage risk for canola. But the basics for safe storage — eight per cent moisture, 15 C or less and regular monitoring — still apply
Reading Time: 4 minutes We don’t really know whether canola in a 25,000-bushel bin stores differently from canola in a 2,000-bushel bin. We don’t know if straight combining reduces or increases canola storage risk. And we don’t know the best way to store canola for 11 months through fall, winter, spring and summer weather changes. Given that many canola […] Read more
Where crop spray chemical goes, clean those
When it comes to cleaning sprayers, the tank is just one target. Here are a few tips for better, faster clean-outs
Reading Time: 5 minutes Ken Munro’s sprayer clean-out strategy is to send tank cleaner wherever the chemical goes. “We start at the chemical inductor and go from there,” says Munro, who farms and works at Central Alberta Co-op’s Green Way Agro Centre in Innisfail. Just cleaning the tank isn’t good enough. Sprayer specialist Tom Wolf — @nozzle_guy — echoed […] Read more
10 steps to better on-farm experiments
Do you have a nagging agronomy question you want answered? Follow these steps to set up an on-farm trial and put that question to the test
Reading Time: 6 minutes Adam Gurr wanted to know if he could cut his canola-seeding rate and not sacrifice yield or extend maturity. So the Brandon, Man. farmer set up a three-year trial to answer the question. Gurr compared his usual seeding rate to one that was 20 per cent less and one that was 50 per cent less. […] Read more
Help the insects eat each other
Insecticides don’t just kill the bad bugs — they also kill their enemies
Reading Time: 4 minutes Terry Young has never sprayed for insects. “I’ve had the odd bertha and lygus in my canola and wheat midge in my wheat, but they haven’t been an issue for as long as I’ve been farming, which is 30-plus years now,” he says. Young farms at Lacombe, which is one of the most productive agricultural […] Read more
The great canola yield rebound of 2015
Canola yield outlook went from sub 30 bu./ac. in June and July to an average in the high 30s by harvest. How did that happen?
Reading Time: 5 minutes It was Shawn Senko, CCC agronomy specialist for northwest Saskatchewan, who said on our June 9 Canola Watch conference call, “Canola crops are knee-high, but that’s only because we’re down on our knees praying for rain.” Agronomists at the time talked of thin canola. Crops looked so pathetic, Canola Watch ran an article June 10 […] Read more
Canola disease highlights from 2015
Dry conditions, especially early in the season, reduced disease severity in general in 2015. Noteworthy events are the rise of blackleg in Saskatchewan and clubroot in Manitoba
Reading Time: 6 minutes Blackleg is on the uptick in Saskatchewan. The disease survey went 10 years with blackleg bumping along the bottom of the graph at low levels. But then prevalence — the percentage of fields with some level of blackleg infestation — rose from the 10-year average of 25 per cent up to 54 per cent in […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
