Posts by Shaan Tsai
Posted by Shaan Tsai on
Last week on Behind the Seeds, I talked about the two kinds of blackleg resistance and reviewed the Major Gene Labelling System that outlines major gene resistance. If you haven’t yet, take a few minutes to read our last post. Genetic resistance to blackleg is a complex, but important topic to help preserve yield and ROI in your canola crop.
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If you’re in a growing area with warm, humid conditions or even in a dry area that has just the right amount of timely rains, your canola is at risk for blackleg.
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There are several things to consider when deciding on the right canola variety for your farm. Some place higher priority on shatter tolerance whereas others look more closely at disease resistance, or herbicide tolerance, or contract premium options. The decisive factor for most is what trait, or combination thereof, will allow them to reach their yield aspirations and ultimately give them the best return on investment. Here are some things to consider when looking at each of these variety characteristics:
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When canola growers see the clubroot situation in central Alberta, a reasonable question that many likely ask themselves is how do I avoid that?
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All canola growers are aware of blackleg but its impact can sometimes be under-estimated. Although genetic resistance and general understanding of the disease has improved in recent years, there were still some significant gaps that made it difficult to manage the disease with any precision. ‘Grow an ‘R’ rated variety and you should be fine’ used to be the best standard recommendation when it came to variety selection. Fortunately, now there are more tools that are available to growers that are better at keeping the disease in check, to realize even bigger gains.
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Canola harvest will be happening soon, and farmers are looking for ways to get as much of their crop in the bin as possible. The traditional approach to accomplish this has been to swath at 60% seed colour change (SCC). Any earlier, and you could lose yield, any later and you can also lose yield – seems like a pretty narrow window! But as many growers can attest, this 60% rule is more art than science.
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It’s that time of year again where growers are brushing up on their agronomy to help increase yield, minimize costs and maximize ROI. One topic that many like to refresh on around this time is seeding rate.
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The recent Indian pea tariff is a source of deep consternation for some, and yet it is not surprising for others. Folks with the latter view point to the recent softening of demand for peas from India. For example, in 2015, 67.4% of India’s pea imports were of Canadian origin. In 2016, this number had dropped to 52.4%. Many point to recent favourable growing conditions in India that created larger domestic supply as the main cause for the tariff that has left many world sellers, especially those in Canada, shell-shocked.
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What are the Canola Performance Trials? The CPT or Canola Performance Trials are a grower-funded, third-party testing initiative that’s regarded as one of the best sources for unbiased data on the most popular canola varieties on the market. The CPTs have been published for many years, and growers have made it known that they value this type of data and would like it to continue. In a 2015 survey, 90% of respondents said data from an independent third-party source was either somewhat or very important to them.
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The Canola Performance Trials (CPT) are run by the Canola Council of Canada, with support funding from the three provinical canola grower groups. They aim to provide unbiased performance data that reflects actual production practices, and comparative data on leading varieties and newly introduced varieties. What do the 2017 CPT results say?
