Canola Ranges From Beginning Bloom To Cut

While growers with early-seeded canola have started swathing, late-seeded fields in some parts of the province have just started blooming.

"In that south-east, south-central part, just in the last couple of days guys have started swathing some fields, getting some headlands down. I think a lot of fields will go down this week," says Kristin Phillips, agronomist with the Canola Council of Canada. "In other areas, we're quite a ways away. I farm southwest of Brandon and there are some fields here that just started flowering."

"We're going to need a really open fall to get that crop in the bin," she says.

Plant stands are thin on some fields. Phillips says that's a result of stress earlier in the season.

"We definitely struggled to get the crop in this spring, so germination wasn't that even. We then had moisture issues early in the season, and now we're seeing some thin stands. Most of those thin stands have quite a bit of weed competition in them, which isn't helping the situation either," she says.