Harvest is always stressful as producers fine tune strategies to make work more efficient while striving for the best quality and highest yields.
For Garth George, who farms near Marwayne, Saskatchewan, this also means sticking with what works, in this case, the canola hybrids that have proven themselves in his fields.
“Time can get short pretty quick at harvest, and I like DEKALB® canola because I know the pods aren’t going to shatter,” George says. “I can wait for a week or so and if I know the weather is going to be good, I can pull the trigger on my harvest procedures when it suits me.”
George must balance his harvest work with his commitments as a commercial and crop duster pilot. He started doing DEKALB trials on his family farm five years ago and now grows the early-maturing DEKALB 900 series of canola hybrids (DK900TF, DK901TF, DK902TF) on the vast majority of his canola fields. These hybrids offer very low pod shatter and make threshing easier.
“You don’t have to have your combine spooled up so high, which means more losses,” George says. “You also obviously get some nice fuel savings too.”
HIGH-PERFORMANCE HYBRIDS CAN CUT DAYS OFF HARVEST
Bayer Market Development Agronomist Ken Saretzky explains that if canola growers need to run their combine at very low speeds because stems are still green, harvest is going to take hours, or even days, more than it should. When the clock is ticking on good weather, this adds unneeded pressure and puts quality – and ultimately farm gate dollars – at risk.
For Saretzky, it’s exciting to see growers choose Straight Cut Plus hybrids from DEKALB to help ease these harvest pressures. More and more growers are choosing DEKALB for these benefits, on top of high yield potential.
“Over the past two years, we’ve gotten a growing number of calls from customers, complimenting us on harvestability (of their DEKALB canola),” says Natasha Keith, Saskatchewan Territory Sales Manager at Bayer. “They tell us they’re confident they’re going to be able to get into their crops quickly, even if the weather isn’t cooperating or there are other challenging conditions. It’s really fantastic to hear and we pass every comment to our amazing breeding team.
Typically, when the phone rings, it’s growers seeking advice or needing a solution, so it’s great to get calls and texts during harvest where the customer just wants to say how happy they are that they went with DEKALB.”
BREEDING FOR OUTSTANDING HARVESTABILITY
DEKALB canola hybrids are selected for their early maturity and therefore have quick natural dry down, allowing farmers to get in the field sooner and out quicker without sacrificing yield potential. Given their earlier maturation, DEKALB canola shouldn’t require a desiccant, a more common practice with later-maturing hybrids.
“For growers not to have to spray a desiccant is huge!” says Saretzky. “It’s time savings, it’s cost savings, it’s equipment wear and tear savings.”
At harvest, DEKALB canola also allows growers to either straight-cut or delay swathing, but Saretzky says many growers in Canada still swath because of the higher risk of early frosts and fall precipitation.
“Our breeding team is super-aware of what growers face every year, and continually work to find the right balance between minimizing pod shatter risk to growers, while maintaining good harvestability,” he explains. “The ultimate goal is to maximize yield potential, and give our farmers the peace of mind and confidence that their yield is protected across a range of variable Prairie weather conditions. Being able to trust that your canola seed is giving you the most harvest management flexibility possible is so valuable.”
TRACKING ALL THE BENEFITS
Producers like George also track the harvestability benefits of their DEKALB canola using FieldView™, like lower combine speed and fuel use, due to natural dry down and enhanced harvestability.
“I also use FieldView to track my herbicide and fertilizer use data with yield data at the end of the year,” George says.
He also loves the high level of flexibility with the TruFlex® canola system, featured in the DEKALB 900 series canola lineup, in terms of herbicide rate and timing.
“It gives me better control and I have the peace of mind that in the event I have to go really hard after a certain weed, I can do that.”
Find the best solution for your farm at www.DEKALBcanola.ca
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ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. TruFlex® canola contains Roundup Ready® Technology. Roundup Ready® Technology contains genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate. LibertyLink® Technology contains genes that confer tolerance to glufosinate. Glyphosate will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate. Glufosinate will kill crops that are not tolerant to glufosinate. Bayer, DEKALB®, Roundup Ready® and TruFlex® are registered trademarks of Bayer Group. Used under license. Liberty®, LibertyLink® and LibertyLink logo® are registered trademarks of BASF. Used under license Bayer CropScience Inc. is a member of CropLife Canada. ©2024 Bayer Group. All rights reserved.
