Canola TV
Canola TV-PCOM Agronomist Counsels Careful Assessment, Patience with Current Canola Crop
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 22:46:47 CST
Compared with last year, farmers are looking at their canola fields and seeing a vast difference. Last year’s fields were full and green where this year’s are looking flat and dry. Agronomist Heath Sanders with Producers Cooperative Oil Mill has been out surveying fields across the state and says while fields don’t look as good as they did last year, the crop is not as bad off as it might look. Sanders spoke recently with Radio Oklahoma Network’s Farm Director Ron Hays on Canola TV. (You can watch the interview on Canola TV by clicking in the video box at the bottom of this story.)
“We’ve been getting a lot of calls this year from farmers, either first time growers or maybe a second-year grower. Where last year our canola stayed green throughout the fall, winter, and spring, it went into dormancy, but it didn’t look like it did. This year when you go out and look at a canola field, it looks really brown, the leaves are crunchy, it’s shrunk down a lot flatter to the soil. That’s typically what we see with winter canola. So, I’ve been getting a lot of calls from farmers asking me ‘Is this stuff going to make it? Is it alive?’ Yes. If it’s got good size on it going into fall, and as long as that crown is still green, that canola plant is still alive.”
Sanders said appearances can be deceiving and producers need to get out into their fields and take a close look at the plants.
“From the road it’s hard to see, but when you walk across the field and your getting down and looking at those plants, if there’s one leaf that’s still green on the inside of that crown, then that canola plant is still alive.”
Sanders said the little bit of rain we received recently has been helpful, but the crop could now use a little warmer weather.
“The rain that we received a week or so ago was a huge rain for this time of the year. It will help us. We have got really small canola. We’ve got really small wheat out there. But when we got that rain, a few days later it got extremely cold. And, so, everything really shrunk down then. We need some warmer days. We need to, hopefully, be able to get some more moisture. This moisture will help as our days continue to warm up and get longer then this crop is going to green up and farmers are going to be able to evaluate exactly what they have out there in the field.
“Canola can not look very good this time of the year and come back in the spring and it’s just like unbelievable. We didn’t think nothing was there. So, canola has the ability to compensate for a lot of space.”
Where wheat has a tendency to fill in the rows somewhat, canola is not as quick to do that, Sanders says. Over time, however, the plants will eventually grow bigger and spread out to fill in those gaps.
“Never give up on it. I’ve been fooled many times by thinking nothing was going to make and it was pretty good for what it had been through.”
Sanders said winter hardiness has improved year by year as canola varieties have developed.
If we start getting more moisture in the next 30 to 60 days, Sanders says there are a number of things producers need to watch for.
“The things that pop into my mind are adding that additional nitrogen top dressing, making those applications throughout the field, possibly looking at insects, but most importantly looking at their weed situation and assessing that. I like to see a two-pass system with a herbicide that way whatever weeds they didn’t get killed in the fall they can get in the spring. Granted, we have been dry, but we will get some escapes and get some up throughout the winter, regardless.”
If farmers don’t get some rain soon, however, Sanders said they should begin looking at alternate plans.
“I think farmers need to be looking ahead to assessing their fields, seeing what they’ve got, possibly looking at planting summer crops, spring crops. There’s a lot of late-planted wheat in southwest Oklahoma and I think if those farmers don’t get the rain to make a wheat crop would have to seriously be looking at planting some cotton this spring just because if we don’t get the rain then they’re going to be looking for other crops to plant.”
For now, however, Sanders advises patience.
“In agriculture we’ve got to be a little patient. I know it’s hard to be that way. Let’s see what we have to work with and, hopefully, we’ll get some more moisture and, hopefully, it will make our decision-making a lot easier.”
You can see today's conversation with Heath Sanders on CanolaTV by clicking on the play button in the video box below. CanolaTV is a service of PCOM, Producers Cooperative Oil Mill- click here to learn more about how they serve cotton and canola producers across the south.
Our YouTube channel has several dozen past episodes of CanolaTV, with a lot of great information about producing and marketing winter canola in the southern plains- click here to jump there.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
