Canola crops tend to yield more when they start off with five to eight plants per square foot, and when seedlings emerge at the same time. Growers can also often save extra management costs for flea beetles, for example, when plants germinate and emerge quickly.
Farmers are not alone in the quest for sustainability. All businesses are looking for ways to keep going in the face of change. This article talks to PepsiCo’s Steven James, cookbook author Claire Tansey and Canadian Centre for Food Integrity CEO John Jamieson to see what sustainability
means to them, and how this relates to canola growers.
It is difficult to project the annual demand for canola as a biofuel feedstock under the new Canadian Clean Fuel Standard, but modelling suggests that CFS could be a significant demand pull for canola oil.
New research, sensors and tools make it easier to assess the key risk factors for sclerotinia stem rot: canopy moisture levels and presence of sufficient spores. Also look for the Canola Council of Canada’s new Sclerotinia Risk Assessment Tool at canolacalculator.ca.
Ultimate Canola Challenge (UCC) tests various techniques and products to identify the best management strategies for canola growers. In 2015, UCC added an objective to help growers run their own on-farm trials.