Maximizing canola yield from pre-seed to harvest
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Forget “planting a seed and watching it grow.” Today’s farmers know that producing a high-yielding canola crop requires a season-long commitment. A whole-acre approach, where you invest in the best seed technology and then protect your investment with the industry’s most advanced crop protection solutions.
Corteva Agriscience™ is committed to helping Canadian farmers overcome challenges at each step of the growing season, providing you with the right tools and advice at the right time.
Covering you from pre-seed to harvest, here are some agronomic tips, management practices and solutions to help you boost your profits and achieve new levels of success in canola.
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Step 1: Select the Right Canola Hybrid
Start by selecting a canola hybrid that has been bred and tested in your local area so you have the knowledge and confidence it will perform on your farm. Both Pioneer Protector® brand canola hybrids bring high yields and consistent agronomic performance in all herbicide tolerant systems.
Choose from high-yielding canola hybrids with built-in disease protection against yield-robbing diseases such as:
- Clubroot (including new sources of resistance)
- Sclerotinia
- Blackleg
Plus, hybrids are available with harvesting options to fit the needs of your farm.
Step 2: Your Seed Investment is Protected
Your canola is protected from key insects and diseases with the industry leading LumiGEN® canola package that contains Lumiderm™ insecticide seed treatment and NEW Lumiscend™ fungicide seed treatment. The package delivers four effective active ingredients for broad spectrum protection, plus increased protection of rhizoctonia and pythium.
Lumiderm provides:
- Enhanced crucifer and striped flea beetle protection
- Excellent control of early season cutworms
- Group 28 chemistry provides an additional mode of effective action for flea beetle and cutworm control
- Outstanding early season seedling stand establishment, vigor and biomass
- Up to 35 days of protection through the critical stages of seedling growth
Lumiscend provides:
- A unique, new active ingredient for powerful airborne blackleg protection
- Blackleg growth inhibition to protect your crop from emergence through the critical infection period, reducing risk of canker development and yield loss
Prepare your seed bed and control weeds prior to seeding. Don’t use glyphosate alone. Mix it with another mode of action herbicide for a pre-seed application on early emerging weeds to minimize weed pressure on the developing canola plants.
Prospect™ pre-seed herbicide will give your canola the best start possible. Tank mixed with glyphosate, Prospect provides consistent control across a wide range of weed stages, including over-wintered weeds such as cleavers (Group 2 and 9 resistant biotypes). It is designed to safeguard your canola from the ground up, providing more complete control than you’d get using glyphosate alone. It is also a critical tool in delaying development of glyphosate resistant broadleaf weeds, providing multi-effective-mode-of-action control of many broadleaf species.
Step 3: Maximize Canola Emergence
After selecting your high-yielding canola hybrid and protecting it with a seed treatment and a pre-seed herbicide, the next step is to maximize your canola’s emergence. Remember, this is a very small seed going into a harsh environment and the quicker the plant can germinate and emerge, the better your canola stand will be. Here are some critical factors to consider:
- Soil Temperature – the ideal temperature for maximum emergence is 10°C.
- Seeding Rate – seeding rate varies with Thousand Kernel Weight (TSW), however, if the TSW is 5.0, the ideal seeding rate is 5 lbs/acre. Please consult your local agronomist to determine the best target seeding rate basis for the specific TSW of the seed you purchased.
- Seed Depth – target ½ inch to 1 inch below the press wheel furrow. Be sure to check your depth in each field you are in, as each field can have different soil conditions.
- Slow Down – there is no “correct” seeding speed, but your goal should be to consistently plant the seed at the ideal seeding depth. Slowing down allows for the openers to establish a seed shelf as well as maintain fertilizer and seed separation.
- Fertility with the seed – Phosphorous (P) is critical for early seedling growth. Place a small amount of starter P with the seed (5-7 lb./ac actual) to encourage early seedling growth and place the remaining in the fertilizer row. Minimize nitrogen and avoid potassium in the seed row as too much salt can cause toxicity and inhibit germination.
- Scout early and often for insects such as flea beetles and cutworms.
Good Emergence
- Consistent 6-8 plants/sq ft throughout the field
- Majority of the canola is at the same stage
- Roots are white, healthy and growing
- Ability to grow through insect pressure and disease is high (a shorter time from seeding to emergence helps keep seed treatment viable and defending the seedling)
- Good soil moisture and seed to soil contact
- No to very little seed on top of the soil surface
Poor emergence
- 0-4 plants/sq ft have emerged from the ground
- Inconsistent stand and stage
- Easily spot seed on soil surface
- Digging through seed row and find seeds that have germinated but fizzled out - brown or black on root shoots
- Can be caused by: variable moisture conditions in the seed row, shallow seeding, deep seeding, cold soil and temperatures causing canola to be slow out of the ground, disease and insect pressure, herbicide carryover, fertilizer burn, frost, soil compaction, equipment issues
- Reseeding the field, or a portion of it, may be considered if conditions persist. Consult your Pioneer Rep or agronomist to help with this decision
Average emergence
- 4-5 plants/sq ft
- Uneven or patchy emergence through the field
- Canola emerging at different stages
- Keeping the stand is often more profitable than reseeding at this stand count as canola compensates extremely well through branching, but consult your Pioneer Rep or agronomist to help with this decision
Step 4: Choose the Right Solution for Your Weed Control System
Having a sound weed management plan is critical to protecting your hybrid’s yield potential and locking in long-term profitability. Here are some recommended herbicides for whichever canola system you are growing:
Canola Weed Control System |
Recommended Herbicides |
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Lontrel™ XC is a great tank-mix for both Ares SN and Amity WDG to increase control of wild buckwheat and Canada thistle for total weed control. |
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A new herbicide–tolerant trait technology designed to deliver top yield potential and agronomic trait performance through:
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Roundup Ready® Canola Roundup Ready® canola gives you unsurpassed versatility and outstanding yield potential. It can even help tackle tough weeds – like cleavers and wild buckwheat. |
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LibertyLink® Canola The LibertyLink® trait provides yield and performance with an alternative mode of action for weed resistance management. |
Interline® herbicide
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*Subject to regulatory approval.
Step 5: Improve Nitrogen Availability Throughout the Growing Season
Utrisha™ N nutrient efficiency biostimulant provides crops with a unique way to capture nitrogen throughout the season, helping plants reach their yield potential. It uses the natural bacteria, Methylobacterium symbioticum, to fix nitrogen from the air and convert it into a usable form for the plant, providing a sustainable, alternative source of nitrogen that reduces dependency of nitrogen uptake from the soil and ensures the plant has access to nitrogen all season long, without the risk of leaching into water tables or releasing additional greenhouse gases.
How Utrisha N works:
- Utrisha N enters the plant through the stomata and colonizes in the leaf cells.
- It then converts N2 from the air into ammonium, resulting in a constant supply of nitrogen to the plant.
No plant energy is required for this process.
Registered for use on many crops including canola, corn and wheat, Utrisha N has tank-mix flexibility and is easy to integrate into your farm system – spray it using your standard equipment.
Step 6: Be Proactive Against Disease
Sclerotinia stem rot is widespread in canola across much of Western Canada. The risk of developing this disease increases when conditions are cool and moist and if your plant canopy is dense.
Since sclerotinia can cause a significant yield reduction in canola, it is vital that farmers take a proactive approach to managing the disease. We recommend making a preventative fungicide application at 20 to 50 per cent flower prior to disease development, because once you see symptoms in your field, the damage is irreversible.
Acapela™ is a Group 11 fungicide that controls sclerotinia, allowing Group rotations and the ability to save Group 3 fungicides for fusarium treatments on cereals. Acapela’s four movement properties ensure great coverage and the confidence to spray at ten gallons per acre to get proven sclerotinia control that contributes greatly to maximizing yield. These agronomic attributes, combined with excellent savings from the Corteva Flex+ Rewards Program, make Acapela the right choice to protect your canola from sclerotinia.
To achieve the highest level of protection against sclerotinia, grow sclerotinia-resistant canola and spray a preventative in-crop application of Acapela fungicide.
Step 7: Choose Your Harvest Timing
When it comes to maximizing your canola yields, you’re making a season-long commitment with minimal exceptions - especially during harvest. Proper harvest management is key to realizing the yield you’ve worked hard to protect but, when balancing heavy workloads with weather and field conditions, it isn’t always easy or straightforward.
It’s important to assess your canola crop not at planting but as it nears harvest (prior to 60% seed colour change) to decide on the best harvest method to maximize yield. This is based on stand establishment, insect damage, weed control, uniformity and knitting of stand, crop canopy, maturity disease, frost and other environmental risks.
Here are some factors to consider when deciding whether to normal swath, delay swathing or straight cut:
Swathing may be an option if:
- Crop canopy is upright and not well knit together
- Uneven crop staging from uneven emergence, disease, weedy patches or early season frost
- Risk of early fall frost
- Thin, short or lodged plant stand
- The optimum stage to swath for both yield and quality is 60% seed colour change
Delayed swathing may be an option if:
- You grew a hybrid with reduced risk of shatter
- You need more time to help spread out workload (waiting until 80% seed colour change could help, for instance)
- Adverse weather conditions are in the forecast at 60% seed colour change when one would normally swath
- The crop is well knitted with minimal disease or insect damage
- Risk of early fall frost is low
Straight cutting may be an option if:
- You grew a hybrid with reduced risk of shatter
- Plants are well-knitted with a slight lean to protect against severe wind events
- Even, uniform crop maturation
- Limited disease, hail or insect damage to plants or pods
- There is need to balance weather, crop conditions and maturity with your farm’s time efficiency (manpower and machinery)
- Seed moisture is <10% with minimal green seed (ideally >2%)
The one thing that’s certain is the more options you have as a grower, the easier it is to optimize your harvest - and maximize your yields.
If you have any questions about how to maximize your canola crop at any stage of the growing season, please reach out to your Pioneer Sales Representative or Pioneer Territory Manager.
Roundup Ready is a registered trademark used under license from Monsanto Company
LibertyLink is a registered trademark of BASF.