Update: The Canola Council of Canada has developed online calculators to determine your target plant density based on your individual field conditions, abilities and appetite for risk, as well as optimum seeding rate. You can find them at CanolaCalculator.ca. While the official industry recommendation for an optimal canola plant stand remains 7 to 10 plants per square… Read More
Tag: Murray Hartman
As canola seed prices have risen, farmers across the prairies have cut back on the amount of seed they’re putting in the ground. The Canola Council of Canada still recommends aiming for 7 to 10 plants per square foot with uniform emergence and spacing, but many farms have been targeting lower plant stands — in the… Read More
With maps of moisture extremes popping up across the prairies, and predictions of another dry year, it’s hard to know what to make of seeding. But, as Murray Hartman, oilseed specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry points out in this episode of the Canola School, there isn’t much sense in panicking. Not yet. Moisture Extremes… Read More
We’ve focused a lot of attention on the site over this year’s unusual growing conditions, and we’ve heard a lot of producers comment on surprising yields at harvest. “We went through May and June with record drought in many parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan,” says Alberta Agriculture and Forestry Murray Hartman in the following video,… Read More
Crop rotation remains the most powerful tool in the fight against clubroot disease in Western Canadian canola fields, even with new resistant varieties being brought to market. As part of this episode of the Agronomy Geeks West podcast, host Lyndsey Smith caught up with Dr. Stephen Strelkov of the University of Alberta. His work documenting… Read More
Canola seed size has climbed in recent years from a once-common 4 grams per 1,000 kernel weight to north of 7 grams per 1,000 seeds. What does that mean to you, the farmer? It means that if you’ve stuck with your typical four pounds per acre seeding rate (and there are good reasons to do… Read More
Alberta’s CanoLAB kicked off this week in Olds, Alberta. The event was jam-packed with hands-on sessions involving disease, frost, insects, inputs and Olympics coverage — oh, that last bit was over lunch: totally legit. If you missed CanoLAB this year, following are some photos for your perusal (plus Saskatchewan and Manitoba have yet to host… Read More
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 2012 canola crop is not just smaller than expected, it’s also light on oil content. According to the Canadian Grain Commission, this year’s crop is averaging a mean oil content of 43.5% (on a 8.5% moisture basis, No. 1 grade). That’s down quite a bit from last year when it was 45.2%. The 10-year… Read More
“How do I figure out when to swath my canola?” is one of those questions that comes up every year without fail. It’s a question that doesn’t have a broad, simple answer, which is why it’s restated every year. Even though there are over 20 million acres of canola in Western Canada producers still struggle… Read More
Stopping the spread of clubroot takes diligence. If you’re in an area where there is a clubroot presence, it’s important to get out and scout your fields regularly looking for signs of infection. If you don’t know you have it, you may unknowingly spread it through soil transfer from equipment moving field to field. If… Read More
Clubroot is gaining traction in Alberta and continues to spread each year. The first line of defense against the spread of clubroot is awareness. That has to include information on identification and prevention in order to be truly effective. That’s why events like the Canola Galla are important. The event was all about getting producers… Read More
The economic sway of canola is visibly obvious across the West. A flyover of the prairies in the summer would show you what looks to be a sea of yellow. That sea of yellow shows you just how profitable canola is. The fact that aerial view doesn’t change much from year to year reinforces just… Read More
Recent reports from the Canola Council of Canada have shown the slow movement of clubroot into previously uninfected areas of Alberta. That information, while concerning, should not really come as a surprise to farmers in the province. Conditions have been optimal for the speed of clubroot in Alberta this year based on the very wet… Read More
For a lot of farmers across the west, figuring out when to swath their canola fields may be as stressful as trying to get it in the ground was. The overabundance of moisture and the cool temperatures that producers had to deal with at the beginning of the season have caused varied staging in areas… Read More