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CANOLA DIGEST SEPTEMBER 2011
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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
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.”
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