An overflowing canola crop turned out to be fit for a king.
Krywy Farms of Danbury, Sask., has won Hudye Soil Services’ second annual King of Canola Challenge with yields of 67.1 bushels per acre.
Third-generation farmers Don, Lyndon and Sheldon Krywy, who farm 4,000 acres, grew Invigor 8440 canola for the contest.
“We just won by a tweak of it, not (by)very much, but it’s still a win,” Sheldon said.
Second place harvested 66.8 bu. per acre.
His brother Don said their win was a surprise.
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“We knew we had a good run, but there’s always somebody who’s got better land. Maybe they used more fertilizer, whatever. You don’t know until you harvest.”
The contest was open only to customers who bought their crop inputs from one of Hudye Soil Services’ three retail locations, so while it wasn’t a province or prairie wide contest, it was still competitive.
Nine producers took up the challenge, planting their contest entries on predetermined 80-acre fields.
Entrants were permitted to employ any management strategy, including enhanced fertility programs, micronutrients, foliar feeding, seed inoculants and fungicide application in the form of foliar-seed treatment.
A Hudye Soil Services representative judged one acre of straight swath from each entry, measuring the plot, swath length, width, amount of dockage and moisture to determine yield.
The Krywy brothers think they know the reasons for their success.
“We’ve been soil testing for at least seven years now,” Sheldon said.
“Every year our soil has been building and we’ve seen a big improvement.”
Moisture was also a factor.
“If you don’t have good submoisture before you start planting and if you don’t get the rainfall, you’re not going to get a yield like that,” he said.
“It was just ideal growing conditions.”
“When the canola was in blossom we had some of that cooler weather come by. It was not so hot to burn off the blossoms. So cooler, drizzly weather will help you.”
Insect control was also important.
“Those worms are a big killer. They can take yield away like you wouldn’t believe,” Sheldon said.
He also credited their equipment.
“We upgraded our combines. First year this was on we were running older machines; maybe we were throwing out more.”
Added Don: “And we slowed down a lot on our seeding … . A lot of guys say they’re seeding at seven to eight mph. Well, I’m going at maybe four. We’re not racing across that land. They say speed kills, so we slow down and it seems to help quite a bit.”
The Krywys plant with a Volmar applicator and pack with a pea land roller.
“We found previously the stand is not there if we don’t pack it with a pea roller,” Sheldon said.
“It firms the soil up so nice and puts the seed so far in and it starts off to good germination.”
Added Don: “When I was seeding this field, the wind was blowing so hard it was moving the dirt. I had to shut it off and for two days, I didn’t seed.”
The brothers, who say they learned a lot from their recently deceased father, said their farming methods are often considered old-fashioned.
“You talk to a lot of dealers and they want you to get out of that system because that’s the old-fashioned system,” Sheldon said.
Added Don: “They want to sell the high-tech … (but) you can still use the old piece of equipment and come out on top yet.”
Sheldon said he wished their father could see their success.
“He was kind of old school, so for him to put all these goodies into it, he probably wouldn’t have wanted us to do it, but to see the award he would have been very happy.”
Krywy Farms also received the award for best-in-class wheat through the Syngenta Cereal Challenge conducted by Hudye Soil Services and distributors in Yorkton, Sask.
“We kind of cleaned up,” Don said with a chuckle.
