Good afternoon, I will share with you some of our experiences with fall seeding, dormant seeding of canola.

I grow pedigreed seed on 2800 acres with my father, Roger and families , around Churchbridge, which is located in the thin black soil zone. We are located on the Yellowhead highway, 50 km east of Yorkton and 50 km west of Russell, MB.

My wife and I have 2 sons: Michael – 10 and Matthew – 7 both active in farm and seed activities especially when the jobs actually pay.

We are in what is called a sure crop area of the province which even in the drought of '61, 70 something and '88 grew at least an average crop. Our average rainfall is approx. 8 inches throughout the growing season with deviations from 3 inches during 1997 to over 18 inches each of the last 2 years.

We operate a pedigreed seed business growing, processing and retailing everything from spring, prairie spring, extra strong and winter wheat to hulless, malt and feed barley, flax or linola, canola, peas, sunflowers, corn and soybeans. Over the last couple of years we have added ryegrass and a couple of nutraceutical crops to keep things interesting. For the first time in over 20 years we were forced to summerfallow a piece of land do to very wet soil conditions in the month of May.

Direct seeding has been a standard practice for us on all our crops since 1994. However we have been direct seeding winter wheat since 1981. We now utilize a Flexicoil 820 cultivator pulling a 2320 Flexicoil air tank, which has an on-board treater. Nitrogen is applied in the fall according to soil test, which usually ends up being 85-100 lbs./ac actual N. Our applicator is a deep tillage cultivator using a ¾ inch Dutch knife. For the past 2 seasons we have been sidebanding a blend of 20N, 25P, 20K and 20S while seeding. This is applied to virtually every crop we plant including our pulse crops. Over the last couple of years we have been foliar testing for micronutrients on most of our crops and have applied Boron on some wheat and a micro blend on canola.

Our biggest experience with fall seeding is with winter wheat. It has been in our rotation for just about 20 years now. Fall seeded crops allow us to spread out our workload for both seeding and harvest and also allows us to do more acres with less equipment. Also fall seeding allows us to farm land that potentially could be very wet and difficult to plant early and protect land that is prone to wind and/or water erosion. In the past couple of year's fall seeded crops have also escaped some of the other maladies such as wheat midge, fusarium and rust.

Fall seeding of canola has not been a new venture for us. In the days of Pride Brand Seeds we attempted to grow a couple of plots of Eastern Canadian winter canola which unfortunately never overwintered well. Winterkill is not really a concern for us but rather early spring kill. Generally we don't need a lot of snow cover to protect a fall-seeded crop and have never had a concern with early winterkill. What usually sets back a fall-seeded crop is the February or March "bonspiel thaw". That is the snow melts for a week, the hills become bare and water starts to pool under the snow. The crop begins to believe spring is around the corner and breaks dormancy. However by the bonspiel finals on the weekend the temperature drops to the minus 20's and 30's and the wind howls but no snow is delivered. It is at this time that we experience the most fall seeded crop loss.

Our interest in dormant seeding of canola began with our failed attempts at seeding the actual winter canola varieties in 1994. The reason I believe they failed is they couldn't handle the spring variable conditions mainly due to their eastern Canadian origins.

With the winter canola we also wanted to get the plant to germinate in the fall just like winter wheat. The plant would go into dormancy and then regenerate in the spring and grow again out of the crown. We had seeded the canola over each of the four weekends in October into wheat stubble that had been preworked and banded. The canola was planted with a hoe-drill and had a phosphate – sulfur blend applied with the seed. Freeze-up that year was the second week in November. We had excellent germination on all 4 seeding dates and went into freeze-up anywhere from late cotyledon to 4 true leaf stage. Snow cover wasn't abundant throughout the winter but was adequate. The spring thaw came by the first week in April and had turned cool i.e. below –15C for a few days at a time at least twice in the month of April. By May 1 I wore out one set of knees out of my bluejeans looking out for at least one live plant and not having success the entire plot was worked out and the entire experience chalked up to a failed experiment.

In the winter of 1998 I was reading an article on the experimenting done by GrowTec in Nisku, Edmonton, AB and Saskatoon, SK regarding a polymer treated canola that was planted in mid-Oct. and successfully harvested in early August. We are a Limagrain canola seed retailer and in mid-September of 1998 they had approached us to consider a seeding date trial assessing the suitability of this process for our area. We had to attend a GrowTec training session in late September, which identified the recommendations for planting this product and assessing some of the risks associated with the procedure.

What appealed to us about dormant seeding canola is the fact that the plants will typically emerge three to four weeks ahead of normal spring planting. This provides numerous advantages, which range from:

-Seeding already completed by springtime allowing for more acres to be seeded and harvested with the same equipment.

-Good utilization of early spring moisture.

-Early emergent canola "hardens off" enabling it to better withstand spring frosts.

-Not likely to require a fungicide application for sclerotinia as it flowers before the critical disease cycle.

-Flowering during cooler part of the summer.

-Should miss most of the late season pests such as diamond back moth, bertha armyworm and lygus bug.

-Harvesting by mid-August with no green seed problems and potentially capturing August price premium.

-We are able to seed a winter cereal at a more preferred time, provides a wider window for seeding.

Our experiment started on a 65-acre field that had produced a 110 Bu/ac CDC Boyer oat crop. We harvest with a CaseIH 2188 combine that is equipped with chopper and chaff spreaders. The field was heavy harrowed immediately after harvest to redistribute the trash. Soil tests were completed by the end of September. Nitrogen was applied by using anhydrous ammonia at 80 lb./ac actual using Dutch knives on a deep tillage on Oct. 1. We were provided one lot of LG3295 with both NonExtender coated seed and Extender treated. We started our first trial on Oct 10 with a soil temperature of 5C at the 2-inch depth. Our drill is a Flexicoil 820 cultivator with a 2320 air tank. We sideplaced 20 lbs. of actual N, 25 P, 20 K and 20 S using the Flexicoil Stealth opener and knife. Seed was placed at approximately ¾ inch and packed with 3 inch deep V rubber gang packers mounted on the back of the cultivator. Seed rate was 6 lb./ac. Our judge of seeding canola at the right depth is if we can see one seed on top of the ground about every 2 feet behind the air seeder. All through the month of October our soil moisture conditions were adequate at all depths.

At the end of that 7-acre trial we planted one strip with non-coated seed as our check. The following week (Oct. 17) we planted another 7-acre plot with Extender treated product and one adjacent check strip. The soil temp. at this time was 3C at the 2 inch depth again with adequate moisture at all depths. For approximately 3 days around Oct. 20 the daytime highs were pushing +20C which allowed us to harvest our sunflowers dry but also brought the soil temperature up to 7C and then down to 5C when we completed our next seeding trial on Oct. 27. We did notice that the seagulls were gathering on the uncoated checks done on Oct. 10. On closer inspection we did observe 35% of the seed we found had germinated. Visually we could see approximately 10% of the Oct. 10 treated canola had also sprouted. We had confirmed with GrowTec that the soil temp and moisture conditions would be conducive to the early seeded material germinating and we would have to assess the plant stand in the spring to determine if enough plants were around to justify leaving the trial.

On Nov. 3 we planted 13 acres to uncoated LG3295 canola using our usual parameters. Soil temperature was 1-2C and the outside air temperature was 0C. The soil was clodding up slightly when we opened the ground up but we felt there was still decent seed placement. The following day the high of the day was –10C and winter was upon us.

Throughout the winter we received average to slightly above avg. snowfall with 15 inches distributed uniformly through the field. By early April enough thawing had taken place that a couple of the taller hills were fully exposed. By mid-April most of the snow had melted and we were assessing the field on April 24 for signs of germination. Overall 75% of the field had germinated by this time and we were able to determine the Oct. 7 plot would need to be replanted as well as the checks for Oct. 7 and Oct. 17. The Oct. 7 Extender treatment averaged 7 plants/m2 and the check averaged 1.7. The Oct. 17 check averaged 2.7 plants/m2 and the plot was 31.2. The Oct. 27 plot averaged 107.6 and the check 101.2. The Nov. 3 plot was 102.1 plants/m2. To put into perspective if every seed had germinated and survived at our 6-lb./ac seed rate we should have had 150 plants/m2. Therefore the Oct. 17 plot had a survival rate of 20% or under 2 lb./ac. The later plots had a 65% survival rate or 4lb/ac seeding rate. During the last 2 weeks of April the nighttime lows did dip as low as –6C for a period of 6-8 hours per night with no apparent visual damage we could find on the canola seedling. Our last spring frost was May 10.

On May 9 we opted into reseeding the 2 early checks and the Oct. 10 plot to LG3295 uncoated. We turned the fertilizer off so as to replicate similar background as the fall-seeded plot. It took 5 days to emerge and was at least 3.5 weeks behind development compared to the fall seeded plots.

Our earliest spring seeded canola was a field of Invigor 2273 planted across the road from this plot. It had a similar crop history; fertilizer and herbicide application as the fall seeded project. This will be the field I will refer to in comparison to the fall-seeded canola.

On May 13 we applied .5liter of Round-up Transorb on the field at the average of 4-6-leaf stage. At this time we were trying to control the winter annual growth of stinkweed, shepherd's purse, flixweed and some early mustard. Another .5 liter was applied on June 6 at the pre-bolt stage, which was quite late. At this time we were trying to control wild and volunteer oats, suppress thistle and control buckwheat, chickweed and the spring annuals of stinkweed, and shepherd's purse.

By June 13, 1 week after spraying the Oct. 27 and Nov. 3 plots and checks were at least 20% flower. The Oct. 17 plot was only in 5-10% flower. The check was in 20% flower. The spring-seeded plot was in late rosette and early bolt. On July 1 the Invigor field and reseeded plot were in 30% bloom as we sprayed the Invigor with Benlate for sclerotinia control. We did not spray the reseeded plot, as we wanted to assess the sclerotinia infection in it versus the fall-seeded plots. The fall-seeded plots were easily in 70+% bloom and 30% of the early flowers had dropped and pods had begun to form.

Our initial assessment of the overall appearance of the fall seeded canola was quite concerning especially being adjacent to a well-traveled highway. The stand appeared thin, short and in places virtually non-existent. Our initial thoughts at this time were if we could salvage 20-25 Bu/ac would be the most we could expect. However the Invigor across the road had given us expectations of 45+bu/ac. Sclerotia fruiting bodies were easily found in adjacent fields that had canola or peas on them last year. Our expectations of sclerotinia being a problem were quite high.

By July 12 the Extender plots had finished flowering. The spring-seeded fields were at 70-80%. July 27 the seed was 10-15% color change in the plots. The seed was just developing in the spring fields and plots. Sclerotinia was observed in the Extender plots with an initial assessment of 15% infected but well over 30% infected in the spring reseeded untreated plot. Sclerotinia pressure this year was the heaviest we have experienced due to the cool, wet month of June and early July.

Our annual farm tour was scheduled for Aug. 5 so we left the plot until then before we swathed. Seed color change by Aug. 6 was 40 % in the late seeded plots and just turning in the spring seeded plots. The spring-seeded plot was swathed at 20% seed color change on Aug. 16.

We did have a concern with the low stubble height remaining after we cut the fall-seeded plots. The podding height of the fall-seeded canola was from 3 inches off the ground to the top of the plant. The fall-seeded plant was at least 10-15% shorter than the spring seeded but had 20% more pods and an 8-inch larger podding zone.

We were able to harvest the fall-seeded plots on Aug. 24, 2 weeks after swathing. There was 0% green and the canola was 7.8% moisture with dockage of 1.8% on both late fall seeded plots. The Oct. 17 plot and spring seeded plot were harvested Sept. 14, 3 weeks after swathing with the Oct. 17 plot .5% green, 3.5% dockage and 8.8% moisture; the spring plot was 1% green, 2.4% dockage and at 9.6% moisture. The yields broke down as follows:

May 9 seeded 31.5 Bu net

Oct. 17 treated 33.73 net

Oct. 27 treated 41.28 net

Oct. 27 untreated 35.6 net

Nov. 3 treated 42.82 net

Invigor May 3 39.31 net

At this time I don't have the percent oil per treatment or bushel weight but we were monitoring for those characteristics also.

In conclusion the results we realized were a surprise as the initial visual appearance of the dormant seeded plots were about half of what we actually received. The benefits we added up during the season provided a significant net return per acre. Our net return per acre at $6/bu even with TUA gave us an extra $30/ac. Taking into account yield and no fungicide application. We were able to seed this field to winter wheat on Sept. 2 whereas the other fields we wanted to plant winter wheat in were either planted mid-Sept. or abandoned completely due to the late harvest. At the time if we were to sell the canola at the time of harvest our local crusher was paying $6.65 far better than the $4.85 they are selling the product for now or even $6/bu later in the fall. As it turned out some of our late harvested canola was on the green seed so we blended this product out with it and it all graded a #1.

I feel quite comfortable in the treatment that we planted another quarter this fall and were considering a second one if time permitted. GrowTec has guaranteed us a 21-day window from the date of planting which was Oct. 28, 1999. This was a positive feature as the month of November was the third warmest on record. However monitoring soil temperature we did not observe it getting over 4C at a 2-inch depth. It appears 5C is the critical soil temp. when canola begins to break dormancy. When we were looking for plants on Nov. 15 we could not visually observe germination but would have to wait until spring to get a final assessment. The quarter we planted this fall is traditionally saturated but not with standing water. It is scheduled for winter wheat so we are anticipating an early harvest and a timely wheat planting. With the 3 week window on fall planting, it allows us to plant more acres in the fall taking the pressure off getting everything seeded the first Tuesday in May. We can also do more acres without jumping up our line of iron or having to buy more.

In the future I can envision planting some very high yielding but late maturing varieties that may or not be herbicide tolerant. By gaining up to 25 days on maturity allows us to look at a variety that may need 120 days to maturity. If the Extender technology was affordable we could even go as far as look at planting some early grain corn, soybean or other 125-day commodities. It may allow us to plant high yielding durum, wheat or chickpeas which require longer days. Perhaps there is an opportunity to double crop an early variety of barley or canola and second crop silage or another early maturing crop. This technology may allow us to dormant plant grasses and alfalfa without a cover crop and get an early establishment on them.

This technology will open another new window to agriculture and gives me another good reason to look forward to getting up every morning.