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Canola growers have agronomy practices to help them improve canola profits at little to no added cost. Here are nine of them.
1. Review the appropriate target plant stand
The recommended target stand of five to eight plants per square foot is based on meta-analysis of canola hybrid studies from Western Canada. University of Saskatchewan professor and researcher Steve Shirtliffe conducted the meta-analysis, and concluded that it is more profitable to target the lower end of the range when seed costs are high and the crop selling price and crop yield are low. But don’t go too low. Yield potential drops with plant populations lower than five per square foot, and thin stands increase the risk from flea beetles and weed competition. More on that below.
2. Achieve uniform seed emergence
Uniformity in terms of plant population across the field and crop staging is an important start for a competitive, high-yielding crop. Consistent seed placement into the top half-inch to inch of topsoil greatly improves seed survival, as does somewhat warmer soils. These steps to increase seed survival and improve the return on investment may require a well-maintained seed tool and perhaps slowing seeding speed, which take time but not excessive out-of-pocket cost.
Uniform, rapid emergence also improves crop competition against weeds and flea beetles. Fungicide and harvest timing improve with all plants at equal maturity.
3. Choose seed with disease resistance to match threats
In fields with yield-robbing levels of blackleg, use cultivars with a blackleg resistance group (RG) that works against the common blackleg races in that field. A stubble test will identify the dominant blackleg races in a field and provide tips for RG selection. Visit blackleg.ca and go to “Identifying blackleg” to find labs that test stubble for blackleg races. See the table here for a list of cultivars with blackleg R genes identified. Consider an improved blackleg seed treatment with tight rotations and limited information on blackleg races in a field. Cultivars with clubroot resistance and increased sclerotinia stem rot tolerance can also reduce yield loss with relatively little additional cost. Growers could also ask seed companies about cultivar differences in verticillium stripe performance.
4. Cost-effective approaches to flea beetle management
If farms pencil in one or more flea beetle sprays, starting off with more plants per square foot and an improved seed treatment may offset the need to spray. The question is which practice provides the most economical balance – more seed, better seed treatment or extra foliar sprays?
5. Meet crop needs for fertilizer
Cutting fertilizer rates will reduce upfront costs, but this is rarely the path to improved profitability. Fertilizing for a 50 bu./ac. target yield is usually more profitable than fertilizing for a 40 bu./ac. target yield, as long as weather allows crops to get close to those targets. (Read more in the January Canola Digest article, “Calculate an appropriate target yield.”)
Fertilizer application at the time of seeding is ideal as it avoids the losses often associated with fall application and it eliminates the need for an in-crop top dress. Big rates at seeding will slow the seeding operation, so farms may have some logistical trade-offs. Whatever the trade-offs, note that fertilizer in the seed row, except for the starter rate of phosphorus, can undo the seed survival and uniformity benefits described earlier.
6. Control weeds early
Weeds compete for soil nutrients, moisture and sunlight, and that early competition can be particularly damaging to canola yield potential. Growers want crops emerging in a clean field so it can get ahead of the weed competition. If a farmer budgets for two sprays, early applications cost the same as late applications, but early applications can increase yield and profit. For perennials and winter annuals that have overwintered and for competitive annuals like kochia, a pre-seed tank-mixed burnoff is often the most economical first application.
7. Cut when all seeds are firm to roll
If swathing canola, swathing after 60 per cent seed colour change (SCC) will yield more than swathing before that stage. A Canola Council of Canada multi-location study from the early 2000s found that canola swathed at 50-60 per cent SCC on the main stem yielded at least eight per cent more than fields swathed at 30-40 per cent SCC. Canola swathed at 60-70 per cent SCC yielded 11 per cent more than fields swathed at 30-40 per cent.
Newer research has confirmed these results. Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation (IHARF) in 2013 concluded that “swathing at 20-30 per cent SCC resulted in the lowest seed yield, and postponing the operation by less than a week during this critical period increased canola yields by nearly nine per cent.”
The yield benefit from waiting is even greater in fields with fewer plants. With fewer, bigger plants, more yield is coming from side branches, and delayed swathing gives these seeds more time to fill.
8. Minimize combine loss
Canola harvest losses can exceed 10 per cent of yield in challenging harvest conditions or when going too fast with a poorly-set combine. The whole profit margin can easily blow out the back of the combine. Accurate measurement of loss requires a drop pan. And the right settings will require some trial and error, especially when learning the ropes with a new combine. Growers can reduce losses to one or two per cent with attention to detail and adjustment to changing harvest conditions.
9. Rotate crops to improve yield
Two- or three-year breaks between canola crops is a well-supported recommendation to reduce disease severity and increase yield. While adding a third crop to a wheat-canola rotation sounds easy, it may have logistical challenges that do increase costs in the short term. However, the overall long-term benefit, for farms that adopt the practice, can improve canola profitability.