Journey to 100 Canola Bushels
Growers face many adversities when growing crops in Western Canada. Have you ever wondered what happens when crop nutrition isn’t one of them? We are going to try and find out.
Working with a dedicated farm and involving a motivated, progressive retail and multiple Agronomists, we are setting out to try and see exactly that. Our goal is to help making informed decisions around the crop nutrition of canola to try and achieve the best yields we can. This will be a glimpse into what it is like to be a part of the Agri-Trend Canola 100 Challenge to grow 100 bushels of canola without irrigation. We will follow along as we attempt to grow over 100 bushels profitably on a farm in Alberta.
So what are the steps we are taking in this journey?
THE PLAN
It all starts with a plan. Planning for these fields has been happening for over a year. Understanding soil tests and preparing during previous crop plans to understand what can be done to help provide the nutrients that a 100 bushel canola crop will demand. These plans involve YaraVita® products extensively throughout the year, starting with YaraVita PROCOTE Cu, YaraVita PROCOTE B and YaraVera AMIDAS. The YaraVita PROCOTE products provide a coating to existing granular fertilizer that allows for even distribution and easy access for the roots to the nutrient. This allows for better efficiency of the plants. The homogenous granule of YaraVera AMIDAS allows for even distribution of the nitrogen and sulphur in the fertilizer row. There is no segregation between the nutrients and at a 7:1 N to S ratio, there is balanced nitrogen and sulphur nutrition. Plans have been made, now it’s a matter of executing and adapting as we journey through the season.
IN-CROP
Conditions have been quite good for crop growth. We have had a very good spring with soil moisture starting off excellent and getting about 3 weeks of warm weather to help farmers get their crops seeded. Moisture has come at much needed times and plant stands are excellent. We are setting up for a great start to this canola challenge. Tissues samples were taken late in the week of June 11th and results were reviewed the week after. Our initial plan will remain on course as we look to apply P, K, B and Mo to this crop to ensure sufficiency of nutrients as the plants begin to growth rapidly through their vegetative stages. To do so plans include multiple YaraVita foliar products this week alone.
WHAT’S NEXT
Overall the opportunity for big yields and excellent quality is there for the taking. It is exciting to see the potential of the crop and how the addition of nutrients to relieve any hidden stresses can achieve higher yielding, more efficient plants. The plans have called for a very strong granular fertility package, that most would consider enough, however we are continuing to use foliar nutrition as a means to ensure the plants are well within the sufficiency range. We want to do our best to eliminate any crop nutrition stresses and allow this crop to reach its’ yield potential.
