Pushing canola for straight -cutting

[tirwin]

Can anyone help me with information about " pushing" canola in preparation for straight-cutting. any input would be appreciated but specifically; is it viable for Argentine varieties , timing in a crop which has had uneven germination in a field , effect on green seed count , and equipment. Thank-you in advance. tirwin.

[poorboy]

I researched canola pushers and talked to a lot of owners a couple of years ago, as I was also interested in purchasing one. What I found out was that they work well in a fairly good crop that has some height to it. I works in argentine canola, and probably would work very well in canola that has multiple stages of maturity, because all of the plants will be able to mature. Flat land is better than hilly fields.

There were only 2 downsides to the canola pusher, that I could see. In thinner stands the crop may not stay leaning over and could stand up and whip back and forth in the wind and shell out all the seed. Hillier fields often have thinner stands on the hill tops, so these places may shell out. The second drawback of the canola pusher is that you have to straight cut below the pushed canola level ( which is lower than you would windrow canola), so your combine speed is typically slower than picking up a windrow.

It looked like a very good machine if you have 30 bushels crops and flat land. In my situation I have too many hills and 25 bushel crops, where the canola may not get tangle enough by pushing and still shell out.

[nicolaas]

I've straight combined heavy polish canola in the past and it worked out very well, I am thinking about doing it with argentine this year. SO far, the crops look good, but still a couple months to go so who knows. How are other peoples experiences with this? Trying to save some time, as there probably won't be a hired hand this year. (I won't be pushing it either)

[crusher]

I've got some neighbours that prefer straight cutting Argentine. You need a heavy stand (35 bu/ac) and some lodging. Shorter varieties work better.

I had some high yielding (50 bu/ac), tall Invigor that we couldn't choke through the swather, plus it was heavy with sclerotinia. We decided to leave 20 acres to straight cut. What a nightmare! The plants were over 5 feet tall and were coming over the header auger. We ended up cutting one way; glad it was only 20 acres.

We did yield trials and results were similar between swathed and straight cut. If you plan on straight cutting, make sure you have a header with a long pan, otherwise the reel will shell the pods out front. JD flex headers work well, NH rigids don't. Be prepared to leave the canola to the end of harvest, because unless you get a killing frost, there will be lots of green material to choke through.