Issues of the week

Precipitation in many regions stopped seeding progress. While growers wait to get seeding again, check fields for emerging weeds and apply a pre-seed burnoff where necessary and when possible.

By taking steps to increase canola seed survival, growers may be able to get away with seeding large seed at 5 lb./ac. While abiotic stresses such as frost and cool soils are hard to control — short of waiting until the risk is lower — many other factors for seedling survival are within your control. These include seeding into warm soils, seeding shallow and using seed treatment.

There is a lot of competition for your input dollars. Be critical where you spend your money, and start with the tried and true. Nitrogen, weed control and good seed still provide the biggest returns on investment.