Canola Fertility

[Klause]

Next to none would be lost all spring applied at seeding 2-2.5 inches deep sideband with shank not mrb disc. Yeah I agree all soild are different. And I would not expect all areas will be able to grow 60 canola. I will say we hit 50 in the early 2000s with canolas that by the numbers had 30% lower yield potential than current varieties and we were using roughly 2/3 the fert we are now.

I'll only say on the first part of your post... You need to understand the N cycle a lot more.

Have a read.

[bgmb]

Klause I understand the nitrogen cycle. I dont consider applied nitrogen fertilizer that enters the nitrogen cycle "lost"

[bgmb]

Fyi Klause we have gone from 5 ish organic matter to 7% ish organic matter over the last 20 years. Min/zero till, lots of nitrogen fert, a good rotation contributed to that increase.

[Klause]

Klause I understand the nitrogen cycle. I dont consider applied nitrogen fertilizer that enters the nitrogen cycle "lost"

No one said it's a waste. I'm also not advocating the end of using nitrogen. I'm saying become more efficient with it. You're putting on about 140 lbs the plant will use about 48% of that. The rest is lost to denitrification, volatization, chealation, etc.

[bgmb]

No one said it's a waste. I'm also not advocating the end of using nitrogen. I'm saying become more efficient with it. You're putting on about 140 lbs the plant will use about 48% of that. The rest is lost to denitrification, volatization, chealation, etc.

We will have to agree to disagree on this one Klause. 60bu *2lb/bu =120 lb maybe I am a little light on the p and k overall goal on our farm is to fertilize for a 50 bu crop removal. Maybe will up them on some fields next year and see if that works along with normal n rates.

[seabass]

Depends on mother nature. Best laid out plans can be blown to hell when she shows up.

[furrowtickler]

Amen seabass , you can put 150 lbs N on and it don't rain ... ?? Or the crop is still in the field in November with snow and it feed garbage what does that do for you ??

[dykercaseih]

Yielded very well isn't really good enough for this type of discussion.. You need an actual yield to base discussions off. Someone's 40 or 50 bushels might be very well but to others that might be average or below...
In regards to putting on those types of Phos levels that better be your own land otherwise your basically growing a crop for the next renter. Trust me I have done this and I am sure people still laughing at me! lol
That crop stand in pic is uniform and average looking... If I drove past that crop I would not double glance at it and say "wow". Now if you say that average looking Cinderella gave you 75-80 bushels then people would have all ears out and listening...

So in my opinion when your giving advice out or ideas we need an actual yield whether its wheat, barley, canola or whatever... Otherwise we just talking to hear ourselves talk as end goal is yield as that is how the farmer gets paid....

[HappyFarmer]

This field was 50-100-100-50.


We have another at 30-50-50-30.


Actually rolling land... But you'll see in the pics of the hill field the other trial is on... Drill seeds the same all the time.


Actually we've gotten to the point where some guys were in Sask are using more fertiliser than they do in Europe... But only growing half or a little less than half the crop.


Potash is the big one nobody wants to use here... Pouring on a bunch of N without potassium is silly. And just because we have it a mile down in the ground doesn't mean the plants have it... Soil tests lie a lot about K.


I'm not sure it's the potassium the micros with it, the salt index balancing the pH ot a bit of each, tbh

I completely agree with you....i'm not convinced either that N is the answer in bumping are canola yields higher. I have seen some data that suggest that V.R'ing Phos at rates up to 120 lbs of actual per acre is giving 20 % bumps to canola yeilds

I also feel we need to be having more discussions around balancing our PH levels using elemental sulfur.

[seldomseen]

Interesting topic Klause but can I ask how you applied the 50-100-100-50? I like to band nh3 in the fall and I can apply any amount I want but at seeding time my drill is single shoot so always limited by seed safety. I was always told that banding p was very inefficient.

[Klause]

Interesting topic Klause but can I ask how you applied the 50-100-100-50? I like to band nh3 in the fall and I can apply any amount I want but at seeding time my drill is single shoot so always limited by seed safety. I was always told that banding p was very inefficient.

All the fert went down at seeding. We seed with shovels and have a really wide spacing... So we can get away with it... It maxes out our air system at 2.8 mph though.


Net clean delivered to elevator bushels was 64.75


Bushel weight 54.6
Oil Content 49.3%
Moisture 10.7%
Greens 1.2%

Variety was L233P seeded at 4.8 lbs with a tkw of 4.2

Seeded June 2.

2.6" of rain from seeding to harvest.

Soil test showed 21-11-231-44 in spring. Micros we're all in the ok range except for cu being slightly deficient.

Organic matter was 6.3%


pH was 7.6



The comment about it being ordinary looking... Yes... The lushness comes from N... Pretty grass doesn't equate yield as we've all had canola that looks like 50 and runs 25.

This isn't groundbreaking... It's reading research from other parts of the world where they have more expertise and experience than we do...


We have access to global information but many choose to listen to the people working at the local fertilizer plant...

[poorboy]

Did you do any strips trying high N and high P and K?

Perhaps 100-75-50-25 would have yielded 75 bus/ac. With dryness this year the roots went much deeper and extracted a lot of nutrients that have been in deep storage.

Will be interesting to see a 3-4 year comparison. You might be on to something or you just might have got lucky. I really think you need a portion of your field with high N and P for a good comparison.

Thanks for posting about your trials and practices. Good food for thought.