Benefits include time efficiency and higher yields, but not all varieties are well suited to the practice
More farmers are straight cutting their canola, according to a survey commissioned by BASF.
Nineteen percent of the 400 surveyed growers straight cut some of their canola last year, up from 12 percent in 2013.
Danielle Eastman, western herbicide brand manager with BASF, estimated three million acres, or 16 percent, of the canola crop will be straight cut this year.
She believes half of the crop will be harvested that way by 2020 as more pod shatter resistant varieties hit the market.
“There is a significant amount of growers that are really interested in straight cutting,” she said.
Read Also
Increasing farmland prices blamed on investors
a major tax and financial services firm says investors are driving up the value of farmland, preventing young farmers from entering the business. Robert Andjelic said that is bullshit.
According to the survey, which was conducted by FarmShift, two-thirds of growers are interested in straight cutting their crop and 82 percent of those who have adopted the practice intend to expand the number of acres they straight cut.
Eastman said there are a number of benefits associated with the practice, but the biggest is saving time.
“Growers are becoming larger and looking for efficiencies at this busy time of year, and swathing is a really slow harvest management practice,” she said.
Another benefit is higher yields because the crop is standing in the field longer than if it was swathed.
“Growers will tell you that they’re noticing the kernels are larger and they are getting more bushels per acre,” said Eastman.
She said straight cutting is a good option for growers in a year like this when some farmers are faced with thin crops.
“We have been hearing that a lot of guys with these uneven fields and thin stands that they’re seeing this year are trying straight cutting canola because they see it as a way to even out the field,” she said.
The Canola Council of Canada was contacted to provide its perspective on straight cutting but declined to comment.
However, in the Aug. 26 edition of its CanolaWatch publication, the council said there are a number of instances when swathing is the better choice:
- Heavily lodged canola may not dry down enough for straight combining.
- Some varieties are not well suited to the practice.
- It is not the best choice for late, uneven, weedy or heavily diseased crops.
- Swathing is the better option if there is going to be hail, snow, heavy rain, wind or frost at harvest.
- It is also a better choice for farmers who have older, low horsepower combines because straight cut canola does not dry down as much as swathed canola, and green material requires higher horsepower to harvest.
BASF sells Heat LQ, a pre-harvest treatment that when tank mixed with glyphosate helps dry down canola so that it can be straight cut.
“The glyphosate helps the Heat really get into the plant and provide that systemic activity to dry down not just the pods but the stocks themselves,” Eastman said.
The combination of the two active ingredients provides growers with perennial weed control and a way to control “gap weeds” that can’t be killed by glyphosate alone, such as Roundup Ready canola volunteers.
Eastman estimates Heat was applied on 500,000 and one million acres of canola this fall.
sean.pratt@producer.com
