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The ideal swath timing is when 60% of seeds on the main stem are showing some colour change from green to brown. Colour change is considered any amount of yellowing or browning on the seed. To determine ideal swath timing, fields need to be walked and pods need to be cracked – remember you are looking for seed colour change,…
Harvest management
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Swathing canola when temperatures are hot can cause two potential problems for the crop: 1. Rapid dry down due to hot conditions does not give the green-clearing enzymes enough time to reduce chlorophyll levels in the seed, and green counts can be elevated. 2. Very dry pods can shatter if swathed on a hot day… -
The ideal canola crop for straight combining is thick and well-knitted with even maturity. However, a case can be made for straight combining very thin crops with uneven maturity… -
Cutting canola after 50% seed colour change will increase crop yields because side branches have longer to fill and average seed size for the whole plant is larger… -
Specialty headers designed to straight combine canola seem to provide an improvement over standard straight cut headers. These specialty headers have the cutterbar out in front of the reel to catch seed that drops on impact from the reel bats…