What costs the canola crop the most in yield each year? Lack of fertility? Harvest losses? Spoilage in storage? Swath timing?
The question isn’t actually entirely fair, as we can’t necessarily answer this question precisely, but we can most certainly start to stack up the evidence to support or refute each of these management areas’ impact on the eventual crop yield. In a past discussion on canola harvest management, Chris Holzapfel, with the Indian Head Agriculture Research Foundation, ventured that swathing too early was where farmers were losing the most yield. (See that clip here). He makes a great argument, and it’s undeniably a source of yield loss. But is it the BIGGEST source of yield loss?
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In this edition of the Agronomy Geeks podcast, I’m joined by Gregory Sekulic, agronomy specialist for the Canola Council of Canada in the Peace region of Alberta, bee enthusiast and bearded man, to talk about where he believes farmers are leaving most of the yield behind. His take? Most aren’t even getting to the maximum yield potential to swath because they already lost a boat load (technical term) of potential back at seeding. In this podcast we talk optimal plant stands, (click here to see two ways to determine if you got there), the ideal time to determine optimal stand establishment and why you shouldn’t be smoking, but should be taking many, many breaks from the tractor seat at seeding.
The Agronomy Geeks podcast is brought to you by Cargill. Visit AskTheExpertNetwork.Ca to learn more.
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