By CHARLES TWEED
While still in the grips of winter, now is the right time to be planning for the 2011 crop. For some crops, such as canola, most of the seed has already been spoken for, but there is still a lot of information that has to be sifted through to get ready for the new crop year.
“The variety listings come out in late January as a guide to selecting new and, hopefully, improved varieties of crops to grow on your farm,” says Harry Brook, a crop specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.
Varieties are tested at various sites across the Prairies prior to registration. After registration, co-op trials are used to give a more extensive test in plots with other commonly used varieties. In 2010, the canola varieties were dropped from the co-op trials with a great deal of concern.
“Co-op trials are useful as they allow for many more station years of data on yield and other factors to be collected,” says Brook. “The more data you have on a variety, the greater the accuracy you have in predicting how a variety will yield under all conditions.
“Use the information on the coop trials with caution, however. The numbers are not guarantees that a particular variety will do well on your farm, but indications that it might. It is the disease resistance and other physical factors for which the new varieties are tested that are of greater importance. When picking a new variety, give it a trial on your farm. Split a field and compare it to your current variety. The real acid test is how it performs on your land under your particular management.”
Another consideration while crop planning is rotation. High canola prices make it tempting to shorten the crop rotation to maximize profit. However, shortening a rotation can lead to higher risks from disease, weeds or insects.
“A good crop rotation with sufficient breaks between similar crops can do wonders for the crop health and reducing the chance of costly disease or insect damage,” says Brook. “Growing a crop repeatedly or under a short two-year rotation, only speeds up the potential loss of resistance to diseases.
“Clubroot is a prime example of a disease that has rapidly spread and affected large acreages of canola due to short rotations. Once found in a field, most counties will not allow canola to be grown on that field for four to five years to try and slow down the spread of clubroot.”
Along with picking the varieties and sourcing seed, producers also have to get other crop inputs lined up. Fertilizer prices have been rising since last September, and many producers have locked in part of their fertilizer requirements for 2011. Your fertilizer plan should be dependent on moisture conditions going into the fall and winter snowfall as well as the marketing outlook for the particular crops.
“In central Alberta, subsoil moisture was fair to good and there has been significant snowfall so far this winter, so there should be adequate moisture for spring germination,” says Brook. “It is possible we may have a wetter than average crop year, and this might be an opportunity to apply a little more fertilizer in 2011 to take advantage of good soil moisture.”