August 22, 2011

Dockage, discounts, low test weight; these are almost cuss words in our part of the world. Cleaning up your wheat fields using chemical year after year just isn’t going to cut it anymore. We’ve got to break this constant cycle of wheat, wheat, and more wheat if we ever want to improve our yields and quality of our crops grown here in Oklahoma.

Winter Canola…..it’s got a ring to it! We here at Plains Partners are large supporters of crop rotation and treating our soil good, so that in turn it will treat you good with better quality wheat pasture and better yields flowing into your combine. Winter canola is an oilseed crop that works great in our neck of the woods for a companion crop next to our hard-red winter wheat. With the canola that we offer being a Roundup Ready crop, this allows our growers to spray a glyphosate over the top of their crop and kill the many elusive winter grasses that plague our wheat fields. Planting canola is usually a little earlier than putting in wheat and should come off earlier than your wheat harvest, depending on variety.

These are a few of the basic concepts of putting in winter canola. Please feel free to contact your local Plains Partners staff with any further questions, or contact me directly; (405) 368-1193. It would be our pleasure to help you with your crop rotational needs.

Micah Honick

November 25, 2009

Plains Partners, in conjunction with the OSU Extension Service  has applied Quadrius Fungicide to canola east of Hennessey today. The canola disease Blackleg has shown up. Heath Saunders of the Enid Extension Service Office called Tuesday, November 24, requesting that we spray the canola since the disease is here and can cause severe damage to the crop. There is little to no information available on the diseases in winter canola in this area since canola  is relatively new to Oklahoma. Most of the information we have is in regard to spring canola in the northern states. The test plots are on the Ray Bullis farm east of Hennessey . Mark Broyles and Heath Sanders along with the Plains Partners staff will monitor the plots. Earl Marshall, long time spray truck operator and Certified Crop Consultant, applied the chemical. More plots will be applied in the spring to further study the problem. This year has had  the best conditions for fungus. The wet weather and mild temperatures have been ideal. These are also ideal for Rust, etc. in wheat, so you may want to be alert to that.

This is new to our area and  canola producers need to check their fields to determine if it is present. The leaves will have holes in them and begin to die back along the edge of this hole. It looks like insect damage holes, but is where the disease has destroyed the leaf. The entire leaf will yellow and die. In the spring the fungus will migrate to the stems and cause black lesions. The fungus spores can blow up to five miles and rain splatters them. If you have the Canola Production Tips produced by the Canola Council of Canada you can get more information.  This disease may or may not be a problem In the spring since the leaves will die very soon. It will depend on the spring growing conditions. These plots are to gain more knowledge and provide you with  information.

Please feel free to call your Plains Partners Staff for information or to check your fields.

 Paul Campbell