Agricultural News
Canola TV--Making 2013 Canola Plans-Oklahoma Grower Jeff Scott
Thu, 09 Aug 2012 16:54:21 CDT
For Oklahoma canola growers, 2012 was a very good year. Producer Jeff Scott who farms near the Kansas border in central Oklahoma said his experience was no different despite a couple of twists tossed his way by Mother Nature.
Timely rains did finally come after Scott and his neighbors had dusted in their crop, but they had to contend with severe weather including a tornado right before harvest time
"I had a neighbor's barn land on top of my field and various other pieces of equipment from around his farm blew down across us. Mother Nature pushed canola for us. Unfortunately, it was all in one direction. So we got to cut some half-sections in one direction and dead-head back and make another cut. So, it was challenging, but the yield was still there. There were very good yields coming off those fields so it was worth the hassle."
The summer has, once again, turned off hot and dry, much like last year. Rather that make any changes, though, Scott said he's going to follow his original plan.
"I'm going to stick with my rotation. I'm in it for the long haul. This crop is resilient. It's been able to handle the droughts, the late freezes, wet weather, dry weather, everything we've thrown at it. I keep trying to come up with an excuse to maybe cut back on acreage, I can't find one. So, we're going to stay in our 50-50 rotation. We're going to have 1500 to 1800 acres out and I hope we have a crop like we did this year."
Scott said while he hopes for some rains before planting time, he'll dust in another crop if he has to.
"That's something we don't normally like to do, but it was very successful. I would like to say we've started fertilizing our canola ground, what was in canola production for '12. We've still got moisture there. The ground is not hard. We're getting our applicator in the ground. We've got moisture. That creates such a healthy tilth and a moisture reserve with that deep taproot-planted crop that we're having no trouble now going out and putting on our anhydrous ammonia that we will use for our wheat planting this fall."
Scott said as far as his operation is concerned, canola has lived up to its billing to improve farm ground. He said he he has actually dug pits and found canola roots that go down four and five feet deep.
"It really opens up the soil. It helps with air and water infiltration exchange through your soil. It helps percolate and take on the rains that we get, so that when we do get moisture we can conserve that and put it into our soil bank instead of having it run off in the ditch."
Canola TV is a service of Producers Cooperative Oilmill. Click here for their website where you can learn more about their efforts to serve farmers growing cotton as well as winter canola.
You can click here for the CanolaTV Youtube channel, where you can see previous episodes- which offer insight into producing winter canola here in Oklahoma and the southern plains.
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