In a perfect world, all canola fields would have uniform maturity and one large, heavily podded main stem, making swath timing decisions easy peasy. The reality, of course, is that emergence problems, hail events and heat stress can all cause maturity variability, excessive branching or yield-heavy secondary stems that need to be included in the… Read More
Category: Canola School
Canola School is everything you need to stay informed on the latest Canola market developments. Real Agriculture brings you the most up to date Canola farming information to help increase your yields all season long.
Abiotic — or “nonliving” — stresses can cause significant yield loss in canola. And, unfortunately, symptoms like sterile and distorted pods, flower blast and pale petals are not unique to one stressor, making misdiagnosis very common. For example, extreme heat, nutrient deficiency and herbicide injury can all result in very similar damage in canola plants…. Read More
The decision to swath or straight-cut is one you will ultimately have to make on your own. It may depend on a multitude of factors: the number of people available to help, the plant stand, how many acres you have to harvest etc. etc. But, what if you gave it a shot? Would you commit… Read More
As the canola crop moves out of flower and into pod fill, farmers start to notice misshapen pods. Some curl from thrips damage, others may have insect feeding damage, but it’s the tell-tale bladder-like pods of aster yellows that will make many farmers — hit hard by last year’s infection — cringe when they see… Read More
Gerry Ritz was on hand at Richardson’s Kelburn Farms, just south of Winnipeg, today to announce a federal government commitment of $15 million to the canola industry. This funding, through Growing Forward 2, will be leveraged to bump that total to more than $20 million, says Patti Miller, president of the Canola Council of Canada… Read More
Two years ago if you had asked the average Saskatchewan canola grower what aster yellows was, they likely wouldn’t have been too concerned about it, if they had ever heard of it at all. That’s because aster yellows, a disease carried by the aster leafhopper insect that mangles the buds/pods of a plant, typically occurs… Read More
Unlike bertha armyworm, which is discussed here, diamondback moths are quite small and are carried on winds that come up from the south. This makes monitoring and scouting for the pest somewhat more difficult than others, as pests that overwinter have a more easily anticipated emergence timeline. Beyond monitoring, there are some very telling ways… Read More
By now you’re fully aware of the importance of monitoring insect pests in your canola. So, you’ve collected and assembled your sweep-net, now what? The standard technique for sweeping is one 180 degree sweep for every quick step through the canola field (accompanied by the odd fall, of course). Sounds simple (and perhaps slightly embarrassing), but… Read More
Have you been keeping an eye on the bertha armyworm monitoring trap numbers in your area? As we crawl closer to mid-July, it’s important to be aware of regional risks, and have a good understanding of proper scouting techniques and spray timing. “You’re going to have your best success spraying at night,” says John Gavloski, provincial entomologist with… Read More
Guessing per cent bloom of a canola field from the field margin is a fantastic game to play for fun, but when it comes to sclerotinia control, if you’re off even by 10% it could mean you miss the critical period for protecting petals. With warm to hot temps rolling across the Prairies, crops are… Read More
A cool start delayed corn planting in the U.S., so much so that there’s a rumoured 78 million acres of soybeans in the ground down south. A late start means the critical pollination period of the crop — a huge factor in determining yield — into the typically hot weeks of late July. While the… Read More
Last week Kristen Phillips, Manitoba’s agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, introduced us to the Ultimate Canola Challenge set up near Portage la Prairie, Man., and offered tips on counting plant stands. The UCC, a demo of three teams all vying for top canola yields, includes three different canola varieties, seeding with two… Read More
How well did the seeding pass go? How well is the crop establishing? The only way to know is to get on out there, get down low and count canola plants. Checking on and counting newly emerged plants is a great time to evaluate depth consistency, identify any skips or over-seeding by run and a… Read More
While seeding may be running a wee bit behind average for many, the long days and warmer soil can mean crops pop up quite quickly. In Manitoba, many canola fields are pushing through in about a week, which makes now a great time to start scouting for a number of things, like flea beetle feeding… Read More
Darling Mother Nature can really be tricky at times. It’s bad enough that nutrient deficiency symptoms can be subtle at best, but there are some symptoms that look like several different things. Group 2 drift injury of young plants, for example, can look very much like sulphur deficiency. Soil residual Group 2 injury may be… Read More