Agricultural News
Heath Sanders Advises Canola Producers to Have Patience, Canola is Resilient
Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:29:31 CST
As this year's drought-stressed canola crop goes into winter dormancy, PCOM's Heath Sanders advices canola producers who saw a much hardier-looking crop at this time last year to avoid the temptation to throw in the towel. He spoke recently with Radio Oklahoma Network Farm Director Ron Hays in the latest edition of Canola TV. He says in his survey of fields across the state he's seeing a mixed bag.
"We've got some big canola. We've got some smaller canola. We've got canola still coming up. Very erratic rainfall that we received. We're still seeing those same conditions. And so wherever we've had a little bit of moisture, the canola looks really good. We've been very mild this fall and so we've had a lot of growing conditions and we just need that moisture to get our canola to a bigger size."
He said that lack of moisture is a big, big concern. What the crop really needs right now, he says, is rain-just a little bit. Even a small amount of rain would be enough to improve chances of getting it through the winter in good shape, he said.
"If you could get the canola up to a good stage, a good size right now, really, this is an OK time for it to be dry because we need the moisture in the spring in order for reproduction. When we have very small canola, it's extremely dry, and we get very cold, I'm a little concerned. But canola has that ability to thin itself out. The strongest survive. And we're just going to have to wait and see what we have."
He said he counsels producers to be patient. Canola is a resilient crop and can handle a lot. He said plants that have three to four leaves going into dormancy will likely make it through the winter in good shape.
When the weather is as dry as it is and the stand doesn't look as hardy as the producer would like it to, some are tempted to throw in the towel, Sanders said. He tells farmers like that to go ahead and spray for bugs and weeds as they had planned to give that portion of the crop that does survive the winter the greatest chance of producing a good yield.
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- http://www.youtube.com/user/WinterCanolaTV?feature=watch
http://www.producerscoop.net/
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