While the official industry recommendation for an optimal canola plant stand remains 7 to 10 plants per square foot, farmers have cut back on seeding rates to save on seed costs.
Not everyone in the canola agronomy world agrees, but some extension agronomists and researchers are suggesting the industry recommendation should also be lowered to acknowledge the economic reality of higher seed prices.
Murray Hartman, oilseed specialist with Alberta Agriculture & Forestry, made the case for lower seeding rate recommendations at the 2016 Canola Discovery Forum recently held at Winnipeg.
“I don’t think 7 to 10 is an economic range for producers to target. It should be lower than that,” he explains.
Hartman would like to see a calculation or app developed that takes multiple variables into account to provide growers with the personalized optimal economic seed rate.
As he explains, there’s a long list of variables and risks that need to be considered, including seed costs, canola prices, seed placement and emergence rates, target yield, weed pressure and resistance concerns (since a thinner stand might require an extra application), seed-placed fertilizer toxicity, frost risk, flea beetle pressure, and fungicide timing.
“There are a lot of factors to consider, and not all of them are easy to quantify,” he notes.
Source : Albertacanola