Project Summary
Purpose
The project is looking at the canola yield effect of seeding rates, hybrid maturity and harvest method.
Objectives
- Understand how manipulations to seeding density, hybrid maturity rating and swath/straight-cut timing alter crop yield and quality.
- Refine best practices in relation to the determination of optimal swath/straight-cut timing as plant density changes and as subsequent changes to canopy architecture, whole plant moisture, seed colour and moisture changes occur
- Determine how the integration of seeding density, cultivar selection and harvest management system influence canola canopy architecture (pods and branches per plant and per unit area, for example).
- Provide an economic analysis for low versus high seeding density systems, and straight-cut versus swathing scenarios.
Progress
The trial was suspended for the 2020 growing season, but results from 2018 and 2019 indicate a connection between a cultivar’s maturity and its ideal harvest method. Based on these results, early- or medium-maturing hybrids could produce higher yields when straight combined while later-maturing hybrids could produce greater yield stability if swathed. The study used hybrids with the pod-shatter reduction trait and observed no seed losses, irrespective of harvest method.