Fall seeded canola has been a hot topic for innovative farmers in the last two years. This past spring, fall seeded fields have faced many challenges and failures. Two long term direct seeders, David Newhouse and Herb Bartel, had some disappointments this spring but are still optimistic that dormant or fall seeded canola can have a place on their farms.
David Newhouse has been direct seeding at Birch Hills for eight years. He seeded two quarters of Extender coated Roundup Ready canola Oct. 30, 1999 into cereal stubble. He used Bourgault's mid-row disc banders to place NH3 and a set of prototype knives from Bourgault to place the seed. He says the crop was establishing great even though he seeded a little too deep. He had most of the seeds in at 1.25 - 1.5 inches and ideal seed depth should be 0.5 - 1 inch. Plant counts ranged from 25 to 40 plants/m2.
Fall seeding has been promoted heavily by Grow Tec the company that has the Extender coating. They have worked closely with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers at the Scott Research Farm. Eric Johnson, one of these researchers says the minimum plant counts for fall seeded canola is 15 plants/m2 as long as the plants are uniformly distributed.
One of the reasons fall seeding has been so strongly promoted is that these researchers working with fall seeded canola have been amazed at young canola plants' ability to survive frost even up to -8° C. Of course we know the variability and severity of Saskatchewan's weather. Dr. Randy Kutcher, plant pathologist at Melfort Research Station, says that his plots in 1999 experienced some very cold nights but only had frost for 1 - 2 hours and then relatively warm temperatures in the day and they survived. This year however, they had long stretches of very cool highs and freezing lows. One night in particular, in the second week of May, temperatures at ground level fell below freezing at 9 PM and reached lows of -8 or -9 ° C and did not rise above freezing until 7 AM. During this week, most of the days were also cool and cloudy. Plants in his fall seeded canola plots could not survive such a long duration of low temperatures. However, Randy points out that he has been at the station for 4 years and this is the only year that they have lost the fall seeded plots. Another option that he is very positive about is early spring seeded canola.
Newhouse also lost both fields of canola and with the kind of frosts that they had, there was basically no plants left. He isn't ready yet to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water. If canola prices increase and there is still a buck in farming, he may try some more fall seeded canola. For someone who has just re-seeded all of his 280 acres of fall seeded canola that sounds quite optimistic. The advantages of fall seeded crops for his farming operation is having some acres that can be harvested early. He also says the promise of higher yields is another reason to try to make the concept work. Being able to avoid disease cycles like sclerotina are also a definite asset. He feels that heavy harrowing the cereal stubble before seeding is a good idea. Weed control should consist of seeding on a pre-harvested field or after a post harvest application of 0.5 L of Roundup. He is also very interested in the early spring seeded concept and feels it may be safer for his area while still providing a lot of the advantages he is looking for in fall seeded canola.
Herb Bartel has also been direct seeding for eight years now just north of Lanigan. He seeded two quarters of Extender coated canola the last two days of October and another two quarters November 6 & 7. They were all seeded on cereal stubble except one, which was seeded on canola stubble. Of course this field seeded on canola stubble broke a lot of the rules and this was the only field that had to be re-seeded. The low residue on this field allowed more warming too early and germination probably occurred on some warm days in March. The plants then froze before they even made it out of the ground. Herb says the highest plant counts on this field were 15 plants/m2 with the lowest falling to 1 or 2 per m2. The Grow Tec representative that came out also pointed out that there was a lot of damping off in the plants that were left on this field. Kevin Zachuk, Research Manager with Grow Tec, confirms that he has seen a lot of damping off this spring in the fall seeded canola because of the cool, wet conditions and slow plant growth.
Herb's other fields have plant counts that range from 29 to 54 plants/m2. The severest frost he reports was -4° C for two nights in a row. At the beginning of June, Herb is complaining that these fields look quite ragged with some plants starting to flower and others the frost set back quite small. Kevin Zachuk also pointed out that it is important to see this crop through to the end. Things can look ragged and thin now, but in fields he has been in, branching is starting to happen and he is confident that a lot of these poor looking fields still have great potential.
There are several advantages that prompt Herb to try to make fall seeded canola work on his farm. One is the reduced workload in the spring. Another advantage is that they farm some very light land and he feels that the extra yield potential, with early flowering before the hottest part of the summer, might be especially beneficial to them. Spreading out the work load at harvest is also a consideration, though one that is not as important. If these three fields he has left pan out, he hopes to seed 50% of his canola acreage in the fall. He is very optimistic that fall seeding is going to be a part of his farm operation. Improvements he would make on this year's trial are seeding earlier and paying a little closer attention to weed control. This would mean paying attention to the need for a 0.5 L burnoff with Roundup in the fall and/or being out there early with the first application of Roundup in the spring. On this trial, Herb seeded the canola putting down only a dry blend of P & S at seeding time. Early this spring he dribble banded N. Herb now has a set of Morris prototype mid-row disc banders that he is confident are applying NH3 the way he wants and he will be able to seed and fertilize with one pass.
Eric Johnson says they are certainly hearing of more failures with fall seeded canola than they anticipated. They have had such good success, losing plots at Scott only 1 year in the nine years that they have been experimenting with the concept. He prefaces this statement by saying that the reason they lost these plots were because they were seeded on summerfallow and crusting was too severe for the canola to establish. Direct seeding into good residue cover almost eliminates the crusting problem. He is suggesting there may be more geographical differences than anticipated as he is hearing more complaints from the east side of Sask. and Manitoba. It is probable that the eastern side of the prairies has more severe springs and farmers will have to decide what the risks are that any spring they will experience this severe cold weather and frosts.
There are some great advantages to fall seeding canola and even in these potentially higher risk areas, some growers may decide to take that risk on a smaller portion of their acres.