Yield studies in Manitoba show soybeans weather wet conditions better than canola in many parts of the province
If yields in the last five years are an indicator, soybeans may be a safer crop to grow than canola in Manitoba.
A large part of the province, including central and eastern Manitoba, suffered through frequent and heavy rains this summer, soaking crops and swamping fields. As well, cold, dry conditions in May delayed crop emergence.
Canola plants struggled with the challenging weather, and yield took a hit. A number of farmers reported yields lower than 30 bu. per acre. In its final crop report of the year, Manitoba Agriculture said the average canola yield in central and eastern Manitoba was 35 to 40 bu. an acre, a relatively low number in an area with the best agricultural land in the province.
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Meanwhile, soybean yields were strong in the same conditions. Manitoba Agriculture reported yields of 40 to 45 bu. per acre across the region and in most of the province.
Reg Dyck, a retired farmer from Starbuck, has heard of much higher bean yields.
“All the way up to 65 (bu.), let’s say 40 to 65,” he said. “I don’t think canola is anywhere near that.”
Agronomists might explain this year as an aberration because growing conditions were better for soybeans than canola.
However, yield data from the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp., along with yield estimates for 2016, suggest that soybean yields are more stable than canola.
It’s only five years of data, but growing conditions in the period were highly variable: 2012 was extremely hot and dry, 2013 was nearly ideal, 2014 was very wet and 2016 was wet again.
The provincial yields from 2014, with soybeans at 33 bu. and canola at 36 bu., don’t tell the entire story because southwestern Manitoba was the wettest part of the province that year.
In the Rural Municipality of Brenda-Waskada in southwestern Manitoba, soybeans stood up to the excess moisture and averaged 38.1 bu. per acre. Canola in the RM yielded 31 bu.
Dyck, who grew soybeans for 19 years, learned early that soybeans are resilient. In his first year with beans, he grew canola and soybeans side by side and both suffered through a wet summer. The beans yielded 28 bu. per acre and the canola yielded 14 bu.
“Farmers are seeing a lot less risk in soybeans,” Dyck said.
“There’s a benefit to growing soybeans (because) there is less production risk than canola…. With canola you have the risk of a field (swaths) blowing before harvest. You have flea beetles, you have sclerotinia.”
However, Dyck said an early frost is a massive risk for soybeans and a “wreck” is overdue in Manitoba.
A frost severely damaged his crop once in 19 years of growing beans.
Frost may be a threat to beans, but too much rain or excessive heat are huge weather risks for canola — and hot and wet has become the norm in Manitoba.
“The excess moisture we did have this year, the soybeans in a lot of fields did do better than canola,” said Anastasia Kubinec, Manitoba Agriculture’s oilseed specialist.
“I think a lot has to do with the growing conditions…. It was really an ideal year, especially towards the end of the season, for soybean yields.”
However, it seems like every year has been ideal for soybeans in Manitoba recently, regardless of conditions early in the season.
“August rains make beans,” said Dale Cowan, senior agronomist with AGRIS Cooperative in Ontario.
“I don’t care what beans look like in June and July, as long as it rains in August during pod fill.”
Soybeans may be outperforming canola, but Kubinec wonders if factors other than weather are influencing yields.
“Where are they (farmers) putting a lot of those crops?” she said.
”Are they putting the soybeans only on their best land? Is the canola going on poorer land, or vice versa?”
Kubinec said it’s a glass half empty or glass half full situation. There might be more risk with canola but there is also the opportunity to achieve yields of 60 to 70 bu. per acre.
However, Dyck didn’t see that on his farm.
“In all my years of farming, I hit 54 bu. canola once,” he said.
“(But) I also had two years of six bu. canola.”
The Canola Council of Canada is hosting an agronomy conference in Winnipeg this week that is focusing on maximizing canola yields.
