Tightening canola rotations may pose problems in long run

notafarmer

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Prairie farmers are expected to plant record canola acres this spring as the crop looks very profitable, but the tighter rotations may lead to other agronomic issues in the long run, according to crop specialists.

After seeding a record 18.9 million acres of canola in 2011, Canadian farmers are poised to shatter that record in 2012. Industry participants are forecasting seedings in the 20 million- to 22 million-acre range, or above.

Many of those additional acres will be planted in land that was unseeded in 2011 due to adverse spring conditions. However, strong canola prices are encouraging some farmers to tighten their rotations and even plant canola on top of canola in some cases.

A canola-on-canola rotation is believed to reduce yields by 10-15 per cent, said Grant McLean, a crop management specialist with Saskatchewan?s Agriculture Knowledge Centre in Moose Jaw. However, larger disease issues are also a concern.

"Farmers are trying to run a business, so they are looking at dollars per acre, but there are some agronomic risks," he said.

The industry has improved varieties over the past years to deal with disease, but McLean said there were signs that resistance to the blackleg fungus and other diseases was starting to break down in some locations. Concerns over clubroot are also becoming more prevalent in Western Canada, particularly in Alberta.

Flea beetles and lack of moisture utilization are additional problems posed by planting canola in too tight a rotation, said Anastasia Kubinec, oilseeds specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives at Carman.

More at http://agcanada.com/daily/tightening-canola-rotations-may-pose-problems-in-long-run/
 
 
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