A major pinch point earlier in the year was the cost of inputs. “We were looking at ridiculously high fuel and fertilizer costs going into the spring,” Heather says. “We definitely needed to know our cost of production, and set marketing targets based on this.”
Canola prices increased in the weeks and months before seeding. “We set our rotation and stuck with it this year,” Heather says. “It wasn’t as scary to keep canola in the rotation.”
Because Vulcan can be dry, Heather budgets for a canola yield of 25 to 30 bu./ac. By early July when Canola Digest called, rainfall had been well above normal and the canola yield outlook was high. “We had been in a 10-year drought, so no one is complaining, even when spraying has been a challenge with all the rain,” Heather says.
One other pinch point Heather wants to flag is gopher control. Heather, who is also an agronomist, had one customer this year who lost almost an entire quarter section of canola to gopher feeding. “They moved in off a grass field beside it and took almost everything,” she says. Not having strychnine early in the season was a problem because nothing else works as well. She knows that strychnine probably has to go, but “we need a replacement that works and is safe.”
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