How to reach 52 bushels per acre of canola in 2023

Last year, the national average canola yield in Canada came in at 38 bushels per acre, according to Statistics Canada. It’s an improvement on 25 bushels per acre in 2021, when drought conditions drove yields down across Western Canada, but it’s still well short of the 52-bushel-per-acre yield target the Canola Council of Canada (CCC) has set for 2025.

Clint Jurke, the CCC’s agronomy director, says one yield-limiting factor in 2022 was the weather — while some parts of the Prairies experienced more normal growing conditions, drought persisted in much of the Brown soil zone in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Jurke says the region generally has a good snowpack this year, “so hopefully this will be the end of the drought for them.”

Jurke says the snowpack isn’t the only reason for optimism. In his eyes, the Canadian canola industry has a lot to feel encouraged about.

Jurke says he believes having an aspirational goal such as 52 bushels per acre is a great way to get everyone in the industry to pitch in and work together — and that Canadian farmers have all of the technology and tools they need to accomplish that objective.

“I am confident we will get to that yield target. It just might not be in two years’ time,” he says. “We believe we can do this. It’s just a matter of understanding which of the tools are going to do most of the heavy lifting.”

The CCC has identified those tools through five agronomy priorities it maintains will boost farm profitability, sustainability and productivity for canola growers. The list of science-based agronomic actions was devised by the CCC’s team of agronomy specialists and released in late 2021.

Agronomy priorities

The key agronomic actions identified by the CCC include the following:

• Use 4R nutrient management practices (right rate, right source, right place and right time).
• Choose the best seed traits for each field.
• Achieve a uniform five to eight plants per square foot.
• Identify and manage the top yield robbers.
• Harvest all seeds and deliver them at No. 1 grade.

“There are a thousand things that a farmer needs to do to grow canola or any crop and to do well … but we know if farmers can execute on these five things really well, their overall profitability and yields will go up,” says Jurke.

“Changing farmers’ practices does take time, and we know that. I’m still a believer we have the tools necessary to do that.

“Packaging all of our agronomic information into these five categories, now we have something that’s hopefully a little simpler, a little more succinct, that can be communicated to farmers, that if you just pay more attention to these five things, you will have more success going forward.”

Jurke says there are encouraging signs the message about the agronomy priorities is getting out.

This includes CCC grower surveys indicating farmer production practices are moving in the right direction. Jurke says one example from the surveys is more canola producers are paying closer attention to pests and other yield-limiting factors by scouting fields and utilizing resources from agronomists.

Jurke says there’s also data from the CCC’s online tool set for canola producers that suggests plant stand establishment has been generally good the past couple of years, indicating “farmers have been in that five- to eight-plants-per-acre threshold, which is a good thing.”

Help from agronomists

Since the list came out, the CCC has been working with ag retail, life science and independent agronomists to help communicate the five agronomy priorities to farmers.

“We have established some really good relationships with all of the major agronomist networks out there,” Jurke says. “We did an agronomist survey this last fall (that shows) there is high buy-in with all of our messaging.”

Jurke says one area where it may be a little harder for agronomists to help guide farmers is delivering every canola seed to an elevator at the No. 1 grade. He explains that’s because “most agronomists are involved on the input side of the business and not as much on the harvest management or storage side.”

The CCC is addressing this through a training program developed for agronomists it plans to roll out this summer.

The goal is to boost agronomists’ knowledge and understanding of harvest and storage operations. This way, “they can have more meaningful conversations with farmers to help them understand where they might be losing grain during the harvest operation or factors that influence spoilage within the bin,” Jurke says.

Use 4R nutrient management

The agronomic action at the top of the list — applying the right fertilizer products at the right rate, right time and right place — has been shown to improve yields, reduce losses and increase profits for farmers.

“Our No. 1 priority has been to get farmers following the 4R fertilizer practices,” says Jurke. “If growers can do a better job with their fertility decisions and their practices, then we know they will get better yields.”

Jurke says the Canola 4R Advantage program, which the CCC launched in 2022 to provide financial assistance to canola producers transitioning to or improving on their 4R nutrient management practices, is helping to bring more farmers and agronomists on board the 4R train.

“That program has helped get more farmers engaged with 4R practices, and the number of agronomists that have signed up to become 4R certified has increased quite a bit too,” he says.

“This will be our first full year of (Canola 4R Advantage), so we’ll be spending a lot more time talking to farmers around 4R principles and encouraging them to sign up for the program as well.”

Jurke notes applying a balanced crop nutrition plan for each field or each zone within fields can improve nutrient use efficiency and the return on investment from fertilizer.

“Farmers really need to make sure they’re getting dollar value out of every granule of fertilizer they put into the ground,” he says. “This is where following the 4R nutrient program is going to help make sure that fertilizer is maximized, that none of it goes to waste.”

The CCC agronomy specialists recommend farmers use soil tests and set fertilizer rates based on soil test recommendations for their target yields. The CCC has more 4R information available at canolacouncil.org/4R.

Choose the best seed traits

Jurke says many Prairie producers choose to rely on one or two canola varieties that promise high yields, but often don’t get the desired result. Frequently, that’s because they’re not selecting the right traits for their fields.

The CCC agronomy specialists encourage farmers to make seed decisions based on the best fit for each field. This can include disease resistance, weed control, days to maturity, pod shatter resistance and other considerations.

Choosing cultivars that provide consistent high-yield performance in various conditions and pest scenarios can also help producers weatherproof their canola. The CCC has a tool for agronomists and farmers to compare cultivars at canolaperformancetrials.ca.

Jurke notes with dozens of canola varieties commercially available, it can be a difficult decision to choose the right one. He maintains producers who systematically select traits that address limitations within each field first, before selecting based on yield, will have the best results.

Jurke also urges canola producers to try new cultivars all of the time. He says seed companies provide excellent genetic solutions to many of the disease and harvest challenges in canola production, but those traits need proper stewardship to protect them.

For Jurke, this means scouting and rotating genetic sources of resistance to help protect valuable traits, including clubroot and blackleg resistance, from pathotype/race shifts within field populations.

Aim for five to eight plants per square foot

For a canola crop to reach its maximum yield potential, a consistent and uniform plant stand across the entire field is required. This also leads to consistent growth stage timing, which in turn helps with pesticide application timing.

Jurke says meta-analyses based on newer canola studies in Western Canada confirm a uniform plant stand of five to eight plants per square foot will maintain the yield potential of canola. Sparser plant stands indicate farmers are either planting too few seeds or spending too little time checking that they’re planted correctly.

Jurke points out farmers need to factor in the risk potential of their fields when determining plant stand targets. For help with setting seeding rates that achieve their target stands, producers can use the CCC’s online calculators at www.canolacalculator.ca.

Tackle the top yield robbers

There are all kinds of things that can affect canola yields: pests, weeds, soil types and mechanical issues, to name a few.

Jurke says the key to curbing yield loss is to identity the largest limiting factors and then focus your time as well as your inputs on addressing those problems. It’s a big reason why scouting fields regularly is so important.

“The intent behind this is to encourage farmers to spend more time in the field looking at their crops and trying to understand where the limitations are and what’s causing issues for them. But it is difficult, especially as farms are getting larger and farmers are covering more and more acres all of the time,” says Jurke.

“Oftentimes we find that those who are most successful at managing the yield robbers will employ an agronomist to help them out.”

Jurke says for yield robber priorities in 2023, there’ll be an increased focus on flea beetles, verticillium stripe and herbicide-resistant weeds. “These all increased in the last year, so we want to try heading that off at the pass as much as possible,” he says.

Jurke says those who participated in the CCC’s grower survey in 2022 listed flea beetles as the pest posing the highest economic risk to canola production. Farmers listed sclerotinia stem rot as the second-highest economic risk, followed by herbicide-resistant weeds, blackleg, clubroot, bertha army worms, verticillium stripe and volunteer canola.

The CCC has scouting and management tips for all major pests in the Diseases, Weeds and Insects chapters at canolaencyclopedia.ca.

Harvest all seed

The idea behind this principle is to deliver every seed at No. 1 grade and leave none behind. Jurke says to do this, producers must:

1. Give all seeds time to mature
2. Harvest with minimal losses
3. Store canola without spoilage

The Harvest and Storage at chapters at www.canolaencyclopedia.ca have tips for these objectives.

“We do know that most years most farmers are losing a couple of bushels at the back end of the combine,” says Jurke. “If a farmer can spend more time with setting up the combine for each field and measuring the actual loss coming out the back end of the combine, then I think they can minimize that loss quite significantly.”

Jurke adds checking bins weekly for signs of spoilage, especially in the late fall and during winter, can also help ensure every seed gets to the elevator in good condition.

Jurke notes several years ago there were indications farmers who chose to swath rather than straight cut their canola were often swathing too early to maximize their yield potentials.

“A message that we’ve been talking about in the industry for 20 years is swath at 60 per cent seed colour change or later. Especially now that we have shatter-resistant varieties, swathing at 80 to 90 per cent seed colour change is totally doable nowadays. You won’t lose very much seed with those modern cultivars or varieties,” says Jurke.

“If the grower waits for that 80 to 90 per cent, the likelihood is going to be (they’ll see) a five per cent additional yield gain. So, the later you can wait, then the better the yields.”

Jurke says it appears more canola producers are getting that message. “Survey data on this from last year indicated there were fewer of those farmers who were swathing on the really early side, so it looks like the things are trending in the right direction and we are actually doing not a bad job on getting those priorities out there.”