Canola and planters

[Misterjade9]

Anybody still planting canola? A few years ago planters were all the rage and people seemed to have good luck seeding canola with them and now you hear nothing. Was it a fad, are people still using them,were they cost prohibited just to have one machine to sow canola?

[FarmJunkie]

Neighbour uses one on most his crop. Comes up perfect at a low seeding rate. Only thing I noticed is that if u aren’t on the weed control patrol the spacing can cause u some grief. Wet years where timing doesn’t allow it it can get out of hand. Other than that u can’t beat it. Oh ya and possible maintenance costs on planter. Like any machine.

[furrowtickler]

Ya we are in our 4th year . So far we are happy with it
We Needed either a much bigger drill , that would require a bigger tractor and more hydraulics .... well that would of cost us way over double the planter . Every farm will be different situation.
We pull it with a old 9270 case . Very cheap to run
We seed canola , peas , Blackbeans and have seeded soybeans with it . And do some custom corn planting
The only issue is getting the N down ahead or after .
40ft at 7-8 mph covers a lot of ground in a hurry with very fast fills . 850 gal liquid phos and your Rollin again .

[furrowtickler]

Now we just run the bourgault in cereals , but still do canola or peas if we have too

[tubs]

Furrow how is the maestro for trash clearence

[furrowtickler]

Furrow how is the maestro for trash clearence

It’s better to go into standing stubble , we pre worked some this year with the turbo till and it’s not ideal when trash lays flat .
Stubble when put NH3 last fall then lightly harrowed this spring was good .
They are not the best dealing with heavy trash , nature of the beast .
But it still has very good emergence either way

[furrowtickler]

Peas seeded with planter into wheat stubble harrowed once last fall ...


Will see how they turn out , was good last year

[Misterjade9]

So how do you approach your N and sulphur for the canola if you don't get it down in the fall? Float fines and ESN ahead of the planter?

[Misterjade9]

When you mean heavy trash are you talking 150bu oat stubble?

[furrowtickler]

Using bio sul now for most acres
I have also used liquid S with round up as per burn or stream it on either before or after the crop is up .
I haves streamed N on before seeding and after with Contain N stabilizer . It works well too .
Last year we went ahead on some with our bourgault drill and band on 120 lbs N , harrowed it the planted . That worked well too but only if time allows . If not I will stream it on with sprayer.
Ideally I want to set up a 15in space liquid banding outfit and get it done in fall, also maybe add dry phos if needed then just follow same runs in spring with planter . That would leave 50-60% stubble stand , give us a black seed row and all fertility where it needs to be .
We did a test a few years ago with NH3 , dry floated on and liquid streamed on in the fall . All were very similar in tissue tests and yield at the end of the day .
Actually it’s fairly flexible that way , but more work at times .
But planting canola goes very fast when you need to

[furrowtickler]

When you mean heavy trash are you talking 150bu oat stubble?

No , we don’t grow that here much lately on 4-5 in rain lol .
Hopefully this year is different, or more normal than the past 4 .

You can also add row cleaners to any planter to help trash management.
We have not yet . They are very expensive and our thoughts just more moving parts we don’t want to deal with at seeding .

[furrowtickler]

Peas into standing wheat stubble , harrowed once last fall . Planted at 2 bus / ac



Canola at 2 lbs / ac seeded into wheat stubble that was NH3 last fall , harrowed this spring

So far looks ok . Very low flea beetle pressure and we missed the frost . A few days of heat is needed throughout this whole NW
One thing that will also be noticed, no tire tracks or compaction issues behind planter even in the wettest areas . It will be an issue in some areas this year . Has not been much of an issue here the past 4-5 years being on the dry side during canola seeding time . Although most big carts now do have huge rubber for floatation it will be interesting to watch the next two weeks . May not show , depending on weather ahead but a lot of very wet ground just got seeded here the past 4-5 days . Hopefully all is good