Wheat’s Best Friend: Canola

Here are three steps to optimize yield potential with a canola/wheat rotation.
1. Control weeds.
Weed control in wheat can be difficult. By taking advantage of the Genuity® Roundup Ready® trait in CROPLAN® HyCLASS® canola seed as a rotation on your farm, you can reduce weed competition by applying WinField® Cornerstone® 5 Plus herbicide. This will make for a cleaner field when you rotate back to wheat.
Adding InterLock® adjuvant to your treatment can improve canopy penetration. Class Act® NG® adjuvant can also be included in your tank mix to improve uptake and speed herbicide movement.
2. Provide adequate nutrients.
A NutriSolutions® tissue analysis, taken when canola greens up after winter dormancy, can show what nutrients your crop needs. Canola generally needs a minimum of 100 to 130 pounds of nitrogen and 30 pounds of sulfur to produce a 2,000-pound crop.
Depending on tissue analysis results, an application of MAX-IN® Ultra ZMB® or another MAX-IN® micronutrient product might be recommended by your agronomist. Also, insecticides can be tank mixed with micronutrient applications, so don’t forget to scout for pests when taking tissue samples to save a trip across the field.
3. Harvest on time.
A timely harvest limits pod shattering, which in turn reduces the amount of volunteer canola that will pop up in next year’s wheat crop. To achieve a well-timed harvest:
- Spread the maturity of your canola crop across your acres to ensure that it all won’t be ready to harvest at the same time.
- Prepare for different harvest field conditions and weather scenarios, and determine which harvest method — direct combining, swathing or pushing — makes the most sense for your fields.