Digest-Sep2011_Aug22.pdf

SEED COMPANIES PREPARE FOR STRAIGHT COMBINING In the Canola Council of Canada’s 2009 grower agronomy survey, 14.6 percent of growers said they straight combined canola. Another 4.3 percent said they “sometimes” straight combined. Of the same growers surveyed, 13.8 percent planned to increase the number of acres they straight combined and another 17 percent were undecided. Canola seed companies see this trend increasing and are working on varieties with improved shattering tolerance, a key characteristic to minimize losses before and during harvest. Pioneer Hi-Bred is working on varieties with improved shattering tolerance and has screened existing products for shatter sensitivity. Pioneer Hi-Bred encourages growers to talk to their seed reps about varieties better suited to this practice. Bayer CropScience plans to launch an InVigor hybrid with seed pod shatter tolerance in 2013. Dave Kelner, Monsanto’s technology development lead for Western Canada, says Monsanto has been evaluating the straight cut potential of its germplasm for the past couple of years, and has identified hybrids that show promise. But he acknow- ledges that variety alone isn’t enough. “There is risk associated with the practice and each field should be evaluated on a case by case basis to assess the potential for straight cutting,” he says. s

“For us, the time and effort of swathing make straight combining worthwhile.” – Riese

weeks later. “I wouldn’t straight combine canola without glyphosate,” he says. His losses to shelling are “negligible,” he says. The worst year was in 2009 when he had to delay combining while waiting for the field to dry out. He figures he lost two to four bushels per acre to shelling, but so did growers with ripe swaths blowing in the wind – they couldn’t get their combines on the field either. Fall hail also presents a higher risk to standing canola. Riese lost 90 percent of a field to hail one year, estimating that neighbours who had canola in windrows lost 75 to 80 percent. “I don’t deny that we’re more exposed to risk,” Riese says, “but we’ve been happy with how well canola stands up to the wind. Here in the Red River Valley, we apply a lot of nitrogen and generally produce thick, well-knitted canola crops that are well suited to straight combining.” His advice to first time straight combiners: Start with one field. Swath half and straight combine half and compare results. If you plan to straight combine canola, prepare to drop everything when conditions are right for harvest. “When the canola’s ready, you have to go.”

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of getting all the canola swathed on time – “We were swathing 24 hours a day and I wasn’t getting any sleep,” Riese says – they straight combined 30 to 40 percent of the crop. Then in 2007 they straight combined 100 percent and have never looked back. “I won’t jump up and down and say there’s a yield benefit. There might be a slight benefit, but I don’t do it for yield and quality,” he says. “For us, the time and effort of swathing make straight combining worthwhile.” He runs a John Deere combine and has tried all the headers – rigid, draper and f lex. He prefers the f lex header for the extra space between the knife and auger to catch canola seed if it shells out. He likes the “positive feed” that the auger provides. “With the draper, I could never combine as fast as I can with the f lex header,” he says. Riese grows InVigor canola because he likes to spray pre-harvest glyphosate to even out the crop and shorten the days to harvest. He sprays about the time everyone else is swathing and hopes to start combining about two

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CANOLA DIGEST SEPTEMBER 2011