Observations from a $#%*! Growing Season:  Notes on Small Grains, Flax, and Canola

By Jason Hanson
Certified Crop Advisor
jlhanson@agriliance.com

Forget rock and roll agronomy, this growing season was more like a slow waltz. Here are some notes and observations of a year in the Northern Plains that never warmed up.  I’ll focus on early season crops this time, and cover late-season crops in the next issue.

Small grains
Cool season crops in a cool season year? What more can you ask for, except less rain in the areas that got too much, and more rain in areas that received too little. There were many reports of good yields and test weight overall, with no real insect issues to speak of, and generally very good weed control this year. Fungicides paid for both early leaf diseases and for head scab, where conditions made disease potential an issue. Wild oat products did well, as did most of the broadleaf products. Haven’t seen much difference with fungicide performance and variety of wheat.

The downside was that later-seeded fields in very northern areas did get hurt by early frost, and harvest moistures for many were too high and the protein levels too low, resulting in very large discounts on protein and moisture. 

Lower proteins shouldn’t be that surprising. When you fertilize for a 50-bushel wheat crop and pull in a 60-80 bushel crop, something has to give. Topdressing helped with the protein and some yields. There was too much moisture and too shallow of a root system for early season N use. But the season illustrated that fertilizer is cheap compared to low pro and not supplementing a crop in a year with high-end yields.

Winter wheat did well and there are more acres planted this fall, but protein was really bad.  A lot of malting barley did seem to make contract with little to no vom, especially further west.

Flax
There was some late crop, and straw this year was tough as the weather never seemed to dry out. It was still a great year for the crop though, as the cool season played well into the hands of yields. Test weights were down somewhat but when the yield is outstanding, who cares. Yields in the 25-40 bushel range. No white mold, no other major diseases, and only the occasional grasshopper problem. Market was up for a while and weed control was for the most part very good.

There is good interest in flax next year and people who were planning on using Spartan 75DF should talk to dealers, as this product is out of supply for 2005.  There are other viable weed control options, such as Select, Bison, or Curtail M products.

Canola
The season started out with quick planting, but weather delayed emergence for many, and early seeded canola took some time to get established as the cool weather did not allow for canopy.

Flea beetle pressure was considerably lighter as the cold weather delayed emergence of the insect. Seed treatments were very effective in handling diseases like damping off, seed-borne blackleg and pythium this year. Most issues with stands were related to flooding, frost and weather so cool that seed rotted in the ground.

The crop looked rather ragged for most of the growing season as the widespread rains caused a large amount of denitrification of nitrogen, leaching on lighter ground and a poorly developed root system. The canola crop started to bolt in some cases when the crop was only 4-6” tall. Also, there was considerable sulfur deficiency showing up as well due to excess moisture and no release from organic matter due to lack of warm temperatures.

With the relatively high nutrient requirement that canola needs, growers did very little topdressing of supplemental nitrogen or sulfur before bolting/flowering as their fertilizer budget was already used. People that did some saw a good response to the additional fertilizer.

The weather for the most part straightened out in time for most weed spraying and glyphosate performance was very good. The same can be said for the Liberty Link varieties. On the average, hybrids such as Croplan 905, Croplan 910, InVigor 2663, Invigor 2573, and Croplan 2061 did show the characteristics that make them high yielding varieties. Good early season vigor, aggressive growth, quicker canopy closer, and good standability are some of the genetic traits that helped them stand out.

Plant height was an issue this year, as a variety that was taller with great standability was an asset. Normally the shorter variety is wanted due to harvesting ease, but with a cooler year causing a shorter plant, the “short” varieties were very short. The extra stubble height made for cutting the crop taller and giving it enough catch so it wouldn’t blow away.

Some varieties did show blackleg in very small amounts on the stem while others had canker or stem girdling that essentially killed the plant. Some fields were written off as having a high degree of white mold were actually issues with blackleg.

Being a cool season crop, canola rebounded very nicely at about the bolting to flowering stage and with a long stretch of cool weather, bloomed for a very long period of time, in some cases over five weeks. But with the cool, moist weather and long bloom period, the management of white mold was very tough. Growers that used a fungicide helped address this problem, but with a flowering time frame that was extended due to the weather, late season infections set in even after 50-60% bloom.  There was still a benefit to fungicides as yield increases were seen when the treatments were used.

Early frost did affect some of the crop, mostly in very northern areas. Overall though, most of the affected crop came through better than expected.  Yield for many was very good, ranging from 1,700 up to 2,600 lbs/acre. Interest in the crop for 2005 is high as canola handled the weather very well, and for many growers was harvested with fewer problems than other crops.

Hanson, Devils Lake, N.D., is a regional agronomist with Agriliance.