What is the best direction to swath canola?
While starting on the early side for swathing is better, the same doesn’t necessarily hold true for combining. Hot or windy weather at or after swathing can cause canola seed to be at the appropriate moisture content for combining before it has cured and cleared the green chlorophyll.
How do you know when to swath canola?
The optimal swath timing for canola yield and quality is when 60% of seeds on the main stem are showing some colour change. Seed colour change (SCC) is considered any amount of yellow or brown on the seed. “To determine when to swath a field, growers need to walk the field and crack pods.
How green can you swath canola?
A second such situation is when the crop is still greener than normal and a fall frost is imminent. Under these conditions, you can swath canola as early as 10 to 20 per cent SCC and lower the chances of green seed.
Why do they windrow canola?
Canola is an indeterminate plant, which means it flowers until limited by temperature, water stress or nutrients. As a result, pod development can last over 3–5 weeks, with lower pods maturing before higher ones. Consequently, canola is often windrowed to ensure all pods are mature at harvest.
Can you swath canola in the rain?
Swathing unevenly developed canola in wet conditions has a bright side. It can mean fewer losses and better quality. “Swathing on those really hot, dry days is not ideal because it can lead to higher green seed content.
Why do farmers windrow?
There are many reasons to windrow canola crops, but traditionally it has been to manage variable maturity within the crop and to avoid pod shattering when direct heading. In waiting for less mature parts of the crop to mature before direct heading, the more mature pods could become over-ripe and brittle.
What is a windrow burn?
Narrow windrow burning (WB) is the process where the crop residue during grain harvesting is placed in a narrow windrow and then burnt.
How wet can you combine canola?
Consider starting combining at 12-13% moisture content or higher.) –How many cycles through the dryer are you willing to do? (One cycle with the dryer can safely remove up to five percentage points of moisture – take 15% moisture canola down to 10%, for example.
Can you straight cut canola?
1) Is your crop mature enough to straight cut? Canola varieties with the pod-shatter tolerance trait are a great fit for straight cutting canola, so be sure you are getting the most out of the variety by leaving it standing longer than you would a swathed field.
What does canola look like when it’s ready to harvest?
Canola is ripe when the pods are dry and rattle when shaken. Seed is dark brown to black in color at maturity. Stems will still be partly green. Harvest at 8 to 10% moisture.