Work for the growing season doesn’t end with seeding. Soon after, it’s important to be out doing early season scouting in order to mitigate potential issues.
There are two main things that a producer is looking for when early season scouting: one is to measure the success of the seeding operation, including how many plants are coming out of the ground versus how many were seeded. The second is to start looking for potential problems, such as insect pests, weeds, and seedling diseases, says Clint Jurke with the Canola Council of Canada in this Canola School with RealAgriculture’s Amber Bell.
Plant counts play an important role in understanding how successful seeding was. They also help in making management decisions for the current growing season, as well as subsequent years. Where five to seven plants per square foot provide the best opportunity for maximizing yield, two plants per square foot make for a difficult-to-manage crop, so farmers may want to consider going in and reseeding at that point, says Jurke.
By quantifying how many plants are actually out in the field, a grower can have an accurate idea of how many plants didn’t make it when compared to how many seeds were seeded. From there it becomes a lot easier to figure out how to improve that, which can be impacted by many factors, says Jurke.
Early season scouting makes sense from an economic perspective, as good record keeping and the early observance of issues can make for better management decisions.
Watch the full video for more information on when and why to go for a walk in your field early in the season.
Catch more Canola School episodes here!
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