Canola growers raise the bar on yield.

By Jennifer Barber

Canola growers suspect that you "get out what you put in." And one soil services company set out to confirm that belief with its yield-based King of Canola Challenge.

This is the fourth year Hudye Soil Services in Norquay, SK, has challenged area growers to achieve the highest potential canola yield on a field of their choice. In the first year the winner had upward of 50 bu/ac. Last year’s winner raised the bar to 78 bu/ac.

"This challenge is one way we can show our customers how to maximize their productivity," says Braden Hudye, vice-president of Hudye Soil Services. "In the end, growers are seeing that by giving the crop what it needs for maximum yield, they may be putting more dollars into the field but are actually bringing down their unit production cost."

Each year, about 10 growers have participated in the challenge, which rewards the winner with a $5,000 travel voucher. Participants pick their own field and use the management style of their choice. Hudye Soil Services provides agronomic support with the help of two full-time agronomists. Growers harvest their own crop and Hudye determines the yield.

Some of the management strategies growers have used in the challenge include superior genetics, seed treatments, crop protection products, enhanced fertility with use of micronutrients and other technologies.

"The core purpose is to get customers trying new products, technology and practices," says Hudye. "The challenge provides an incentive to implement what growers keep hearing about and have been interested in trying but have needed an extra push. We hear that they treat the challenge as their own research trial."

The King of Canola Challenge is one part of Hudye’s "Field of Dreams" project. In its twelfth year, this project is all about reducing the per-bushel cost of production. Hudye says that growers who want to push their yield potential have to be proactive, rather than reactive with their crop management.

"Our customers operate in an intensive crop production area so from step one these tend to be growers who are maximizing their yield potential," he says. "They want to be more efficient with their inputs, and this challenge shows them where efficiencies can be gained by putting a little bit more into the crop." FF

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