Production | Summer 2010
Kings of canola crowned — again.
By Jennifer Barber
These two-time King of Canola winners are giving the yield challenge a third shot.
The Krywy brothers’ father always told them you can’t fool the land. If you ask, he said, it’ll tell you what it needs and reveal what it’s likely to yield in the end. Don, Lynden and Sheldon credit listening to the land with helping them win the King of Canola Challenge two years in a row.
The brothers own and operate Krywy Farms north of Danbury, SK. The third-generation farmers raise crops including canola, wheat and hay on 4,200 acres. They say they have always been open to new ideas and management strategies, which, when implemented, have always worked in their favour. "Competitions like the canola challenge encourage us to think of new ways to achieve high yields and get the most profit from our crop," says Don.
This is the fourth year they’ve participated in the King of Canola Challenge run by local crop services retailer Hudye Soil Services. With three competition harvests under their belts, they’ve come out on top two years in a row. In 2009 they earned top honours with a yield of 78.19 bushels per acre, outpacing their previous winning crop by more than 10 bushels per acre.
"Last year we seeded our canola for the challenge on land that had been poorly managed by the previous renters," says Don. "The first thing we did was soil test. The soil was completely depleted of nutrients. Our agronomist said the only things that land would produce were thistles and wild oats."
So how did the brothers achieve such a high yield on such poor land? The Krywys say they gave the crop what it needed. Results of their soil test in hand, they seeded at a rate of four pounds per acre with their 57-foot Flexi-Coil 500 air drill with on-row packing. They put down 100 lbs/ac of anhydrous in the fall. Based on the results of the soil test, they applied a blend in the spring of an additional 10 lbs nitrogen with 44 lbs phosphate, 36 lbs potash and 25 lbs sulphur. They seeded the plot on May 23, avoiding spring frosts. The long-time InVigor growers seeded InVigor 8440 as in previous years because of its yield advantage.
"We have tried different canola systems and always get the best yield with InVigor," says Lynden. "Every new variety seems to give us better performance. We’ve done side-by-side trials and InVigor out-yielded the competition by at least 10 bushels per acre."
They also gave their crop a micronutrient boost — a broad-based mix from Golden Harvest. And they pretreated their seed with Action, as they had for their previous winning crop, to help get the seed growing in cold soil.
"We’ve been using micronutrients in recent years and they seem to help give crops a head start," says Don. "We consider it a type of top dressing, with the major fertilizers doing the heavy lifting and micronutrients feeding the crop as it grows."
Of course, no crop flourishes without help from Mother Nature. Regular evening showers in 2009 cooled the crop at night and gave it needed moisture. Don adds that since canola seems to prefer cooler growing conditions, below-normal temperatures last spring and summer probably boosted the crop’s performance.
They applied Proline foliar fungicide first at 30 per cent bloom and again at about 60 per cent bloom. "We didn’t hesitate to use two applications," says Lynden. "When we tell other farmers this, they all want to know the answer to one question — does it pay? Well it sure paid on our crop. Basically, whatever canola disease pressures are out there, we’ve got them, so we have to be on top of them."
The swathed crop was combined on November 10. With adjustments for dockage and moisture, Hudye Soil Services calculated yield from a one-acre plot.
As winners of the contest, the Krywys received a $5,000 travel voucher, which they split three ways. Two years ago they took their winnings and rewarded themselves with a trip to Mexico during the off-season. This past year they decided to be tourists in their own country, with a vacation in and around Calgary.
In 2010 they are attempting to become three-time King of Canola champions. While using what they learned in the first two years of high yields, they aren’t doing everything the same. This year they are trying a starter fertilizer treatment, Omex, which is a magnesium/sulphur mix aimed at giving canola a lift right when it starts to grow.
"We’ve had a bit of a cool spring and are always concerned about what cold weather will mean for the crop," says Don. "We’ve heard from others that this seed treatment helps to get their crop off earlier. And to keep improving, we have to look for that kind of advantage."
In 2009 they applied the same management strategies from their competition plot to their 2,000 acres of canola, so were able to reap the financial rewards of a high yield across the entire crop. They now watch the weather and hope it works in their favour this year. And they’ve learned over past years that results can sometimes surprise them.
"Last year, given how badly beat up the land was, we never really thought for sure the plan would work," says Don. "But it produced one heck of a crop. We’re giving it another try, and this year we’re going back to the plot we used the first time we won but with a slightly different approach. It’s looking good and we have our eye on the prize again. There’s nothing like healthy competition to encourage you to try new things." FF
