Canola crop staging remains variable

Manitoba's canola crop remains quite variable in terms of staging.

Justine Cornelsen is Agronomic & Regulatory Services Manager with Brett Young.

"When we get into certain areas, it's still in full flower and others are into full pod now. It is going to make for an interesting fall. We're going to be seeing canola come off at varying stages and hopefully the bulk of that crop can actually mature in the end. Down in the south, I was actually out disease surveying the other day. A little too soon for that. We haven't really hit that ideal swath timing yet. There's some that will be close to that 60 per cent seed colour change, so I imagine we'll start to, within the next week or so, see some canola come down in swaths."

Cornelsen commented further on swath timing.

"The crops are extremely stagy, so when you're out there assessing, assess where the bulk of your yield is at. When you're looking at that field. Look at the percentages that are most uniform and try to base your decision on that because you're not going to be able to time everything perfectly. If you do have the opportunity to go in and swath sections, I do recommend that because hitting that 60 per cent seed colour change is so extremely important in securing yield. Bulk of producers still are swathing before that timing and just throwing away yield. Getting in at that appropriate timing is just so extremely important and if you are leaving crops to straight cut, we are going to be a little longer yet before we actually hit that."

She talked about what to look for when assessing seed colour change.