Agronomy for October

Late fall is a great time to take soil samples. Photo credit: John Heard, MAFRD
Late fall is a great time to take soil samples. Photo credit: John Heard, MAFRD

Green blues. By October, getting crop off becomes the priority. Green seed is unlikely to turn anymore unless a lot of moisture (snow?) comes, in which case harvest may be delayed until spring.

Cool days, but hot bins. Canola binned hot will retain that heat for weeks and likely months, with the risk of storage losses rising with each passing day.

Good time for weed control, but… You still want to apply herbicides on sunny and warm days for best results.

ProtectioN. Fall banding of nitrogen fertilizer is best done later to retain more of it for next spring.

But soil test first. Late fall soil tests give growers time to process samples and get results and recommendations in plenty of time for winter planning and purchases.

Pathotype shift = mind shift. Plan longer rotations for fields with the different clubroot pathotype.