North Dakota farmer Andy Mau first tried Miller Chemical’s polymer coating for Brassica crops in 2006, applying it to 150 acres of canola.
It worked so well that he put it on his entire 900 acres of canola in 2007, which is when he discovered a major unexpected benefit – hail protection.
“Last year, a big hailstorm went through some of our canola,” Mau said.
“It beat the heck out of it. The ground was white with ice. But most of the pods hung on. The hailed out areas ran 1,200 pounds (24 bushels per acre.) This stuff is like a glue. It feels and smells like pine sap, like you took sap off a pine tree and sprayed it on your canola pods.”
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Because of the product’s sap-like characteristic, Mau said it’s important to avoid applying it in the heat of day. If the temperature is 30 C or higher, it dries too fast and doesn’t bond as well.
“I apply early in the morning or late in the evening when she’s cool,” he said.
“Another thing is don’t cheat on water. If you ground apply, you’ve got to use the full 20 gallons (of water).”
He said that although it behaves like tree sap, there’s no problem with plugging of sprayer nozzles as long as producers triple rinse immediately after application.
“Then, after you spray, you’ve got a 30 day window before you have to harvest. So you can just leave it standing to fill out and ripen up. The whole crop ripens up evenly.
“I was actually playing with moisture rather than greens (seeds) last year. I had zero green count at 14 percent (moisture) the first time I went out. I tried her again two days later, and she was down to eight percent and zero green count.
“I don’t even own a swather. A swather causes shattering. This way the pod goes directly into the combine header.”
Kurt Honeyman, the first North Dakota canola grower to try the Miller poly pod coating, has used aerial application since 2003.
In his field trials, he has documented yield increases of more than five bu. per acre, but only if it’s been windy during the ripening stage.
“In years when we see 30 mph plus winds while the canola’s in the ripe stage, we get an extra 150 to 270 lb. (per acre),” he said.
“If there’s no wind, we don’t see much difference.”
Honeyman said he usually gets the crop in early and it’s usually finished blooming in June. A typical yield is 24 to 40 bu. per acre.
“We apply the treatment five or six days before our normal swathing time. We like to go when it’s dark green, then it goes to a kind of pale green, then to a light brown. We go when we see just a little bit of light brown.
“Since we started (using the product), we’ve had no green count. Zero point zero. I haven’t heard of any users above 0.2. That’s max. As far as I know, nobody in North Dakota has had any green dockage with the polymer.”
