LibertyLink Canola

Seeding

May 15
105 lbs NH3 + starter blend
Bourgault 65 ft, 10″ spacing

With an open spring, TJ was able to seed the cereals quickly and moved onto canola mid May. We used Climate FieldView when seeding to mark where the varieties were. Since the boundary was incorrect, we needed to manually ‘start’ the varieties as we crossed the mid line (sometimes forgetting to turn it on/off – evident in the random lines on the iPad). It took the majority of the day to seed, with only a bit of canola spilt.

A HUGE thank you to TJ O’Donnell for putting in this trial

An equally HUGE thank you to the suppliers of canola seed: Breanne Bredo (Invigor, 3 bags), Cory Lohr (Pioneer, 3 bags), Duane Briand (Canterra, 1 bag), and Kyler Loomis (Brevant, 2 bags).

A smaller, but equally heartfelt, thank you to Derek Friend (Nutrien/Proven, 2 bags) for giving a good deal

Scouting

1st pass: Liberty + Centurion + Fitness
2nd pass: Liberty

Weekly scouts were completed on this trial once seeding was completed until spraying was finished. This field was sprayed with full rate Liberty and Centurion, with a propiconazole spray (for blackleg control). Second pass was full rate Liberty. Below are some scouting notes:

CS4000 had very small seed/TKW (May 15). This bag will last forever

B3010 appears to have a thin stand despite high seeding rate to compensate for high TKW (May 28)

Minimal flea beetle damage across all varieties (June 1)

Invigor L345 is the furthest ahead and nicest looking variety so far, followed by P506 (June 17)

B3010 is beginning to branch/fill in nicely (July 3)

It is easy to pick the Invigor varieties out, they are highlighter yellow vs a darker yellow on the other varieties (July 9)

P501 looks very good, tall and filled in nicely (July 14)

PV660 furthest behind in maturity. P509 not much ahead (July 27)

Harvest

September 15
JD 9770, 35′ Flexdraper

TJ began by cutting out the trials so that we had 1.0 acres to harvest on each variety. During combining, we harvested down the middle of the strip (65′ drill). The area chosen was very even for all varieties (it was where the EA Day trail was also cut as it was the most even – trail is evident in yield map).
Weights were recorded using a grain cart with scale.