Agricultural News
Canola Swathing Underway in Northern Oklahoma, Areas Still Too Wet
Thu, 04 Jun 2015 19:59:47 CDT
Canola harvest is just getting underway in Oklahoma. Normally harvest would be on the homestretch by early June, but not this year. In having the wettest month on record in May that has harvest running behind. Great Plains Canola Association Field Specialist Heath Sanders said drier weather is allowing harvest to progress.
"There are swathers running in northern Oklahoma, even into southern Kansas right now trying to get the crop laid down and into the windrow and they will be able to hopefully get it out next week some time," Anderson said.
With the heavy rainfall across southern Oklahoma in May, many farmers weren't able to swath their crop due to the wet field conditions. Now the crop has become too mature for swathing. Sanders said some farmers will have to use a desiccate before direct harvesting the crop.
This year's crop looks to be highly variable in terms of maturity. Sanders said the crop north of Kingfisher showed much more drought stress than the crop did to the south. He said early indications show the canola crop looks to be decent.
"I think some of this is going to surprise us and then some of it may disappoint us," Sanders said. "I think this crop has been through a lot since it was planted back in September."
Sanders said at this point it's too early to know how this crop did overall in terms of yield, seed oil content and test weight. As harvest progress this next week, he said we will be better able to gauge how the 2015 canola crop handled drought stress as well as flooding in the same year.
Radio Oklahoma Network's Leslie Smith interviewed Sanders about canola harvest 2015. Click or tap on the LISTENBAR below to listen to the full interview.
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