The main concern going into the 2023 canola growing season was extremely low soil moisture levels. Dry conditions during the 2022 growing season depleted soil moisture reserves across most of Western Canada. The moisture deficits were most acute in Saskatchewan and Alberta, which were rated as very dry and contained nearly zero moisture below six […] Read more
Guides — page 3
Spraying in dry times can be tricky
Heat waves and dry weather added to the headaches faced by canola producers during spraying season. “The main concern with the heat is just the evaporation of water from the droplets, and that causes two main problems,” said Tom Wolf, owner of Agrimetrics Research and Training based in Saskatoon. Other stories in the 2023 Canola […] Read more
Flying the fields
Researchers are increasingly augmenting the time-honoured practice of walking the fields to check for pest and disease pressure, germination or performance with eyes in the sky such as orbital satellites, drone-mounted cameras and combinations of both. For example, free online tools such as the SKSIS Mapper developed through the University of Saskatchewan’s soil science department […] Read more
Hormone imbalance suspected for malformed racemes
Researchers are trying to figure out what caused some canola crops to abort flowers and pods, and develop malformed racemes or stems during the last two years. “It’s not an obvious symptomology that you would spot from the road, or that it’d be easy to pick up,” said Keith Gabert, an agronomy specialist with the […] Read more
Incorporating resistant traits weighs on yields
Canadian canola breeding programs are shifting to a focus on boosting yields rather than protecting them, says an industry official. Yield growth has been disappointing. In 2014, the Canola Council of Canada established a target of achieving a national average yield of 52 bushels per acre by 2025. That isn’t going so well. Other stories […] Read more
Production briefs
New Holland reveals CR11 New Holland’s CR11 combine has a 775 horsepower C16 engine mounted lengthwise so that it spins in the same direction as the rotors. Geert Nerinckx of New Holland said the combine is bigger than what’s currently on the market. “Our goal with this new combine was to bring down the total […] Read more
Pest roundup: Canola pests kept in check by dry conditions
Pests of canola including flea beetles, green worms of multiple types, cut worm, alfalfa loopers, blister beetles, lygus bugs, diamondback moths and more were present last summer. However, there wasn’t a massive pest event in 2023 that dramatically affected canola plants across multiple growing regions, other than grasshoppers in drier areas. Other stories in the […] Read more
Disease roundup: Verticillium has breakout year
Plant pathologists are still sorting through the data, but 2023 may become the year that verticillium stripe emerged a major problem for canola growers in Western Canada. In 2022, Saskatchewan Agriculture staff discovered verticillium is a common disease in the eastern part of the province. In the fall of 2023, producers in other parts of […] Read more
Canola news briefs
Mexico departs science-based decision-making for GM crops Canada is deeply concerned about Mexico’s recent departure from its longstanding approach to regulating genetically modified crops. The slide began in 2018 with the election of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also known as AMLO, as president of Mexico. Other stories in the 2023 Canola Yearbook: Decent yields in […] Read more
Canola growers scramble to address federal policy issues
Another day, another issue for canola growers to tackle. From the federal government’s musing on reducing emissions from fertilizer use to trade matters to carbon pricing, policy dominates much of the work carried out by farmer organizations. The most recent concern surrounds amendments made in the Senate to Bill C-234 that removed barns and greenhouses […] Read more
