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Canola Council of Canada

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Harvest

The following articles are categorized as 'Harvest'

• What are the risks of swathing too early?

  Some growers anxious about the calendar and the typical date of first killing frost are swathing canola early, at around 10-15% seed color change. At this stage, many seeds on the side branches may be watery and translucent. If this represents 30% of seeds, for example, growers must recognize that early swathing could mean sacrificing a large proportion of that yield — regardless whether the frost comes or not.

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• Swathing when hot can lock in green

  Cutting canola in hot conditions will lead to rapid dry down and desiccation. Chlorophyll may not have time to clear from immature seed, which locks in high green counts. If growers feel they must swath, wait until temperatures cool down in the evening and then swath at night to take advantage of those cooler temperatures and any moisture from dew.

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• Combining in high temperatures

  Combining has begun in some areas and high temperatures are predicted across the west in the coming days. It is important to remember that canola storage can be a concern even at seed moisture levels considered dry when the canola is binned at high temperatures. The high temperatures can make canola volatile for the first [...]

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• Help for volunteer canola management

  Growers can significantly reduce their volunteer canola seedbank by reducing losses at harvest. Canola losses at harvest can be up to 5 bushels per acre, which is 50 times the typical seeding rate. The Combine Clinic July 18 and 19 (pick one day) in Westlock, Alta., will explain how to reduce harvest losses, putting more yield in the combine tank and reducing the volunteer canola seed bank. Click here to register.

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• How to determine when to swath

  Watch CCC agronomy specialist Jim Bessel explain how to do a seed-colour change assessment.

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• Tips for drying tough and damp canola

  All canola should be conditioned after it goes into the bin to ensure safe long-term storage — especially if it goes into the bin warm. For tough and damp canola, the spoilage risk without cooling and drying is much higher.

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• Companies that buy high-green canola

  Got canola with high green seed counts or that has heated? Here’s a list of companies bidding on lower grade canola.

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• Reduce costly harvest losses — tips

  Canola producers can lose up to five bushels or more per acre if the combine isn’t adjusted properly. Here are tips to measure combine losses and make adjustment to limit those losses, putting more canola in the bin and reducing the volunteer canola seedbank in your fields.

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• On-farm strip trials — tips

  Growers can use strip trials on their own farms to test how a particular practice or product performs in a local environment.

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• Four weeks in swath? Be patient

  With crop that’s been in the swath for 3, 4 or 5 weeks and is not drying down, growers are probably best to be patient and wait for better harvest conditions. It is still September and the risk of having to leave the crop to overwinter in the swath is still reasonably low. In most [...]

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