Combines canola

[Turk]

Our Canola was just east of Caldwell KS on 81 Highway, some of you may be going by there on your way south. It is a Round Up Ready Winter Canola from Dekalb. Do any of you know what the risk of cross pollinating with mustard would beIJ Hate to get Roundup Ready mustard started. I hope we get some of our Canola picked up today, the cutter is going to do another field first, and I don't know if they got started yesterday or not. What is the height of the Canola in the Dakota'sIJ Ours was around 4', and thick enough that you couldn't walk through it. I still can't believe that we could have got a 30' windrow stuffed through the MacDon head. This field was planted with a 1860 air seeder at 5n, and I think it was plenty thick.

 

[Bigsky]

Don't worry, the 30' McDon would have handled the swath no problem. A good canola stand will grow 4' +, depending on the vararity, but that does not mean it will yeild good. Its all in the pods. A 36' McDon will handle any type of Canola stand. You wonder how it will come out of the opening, but it will. Good luck in your harvest, and keep us posted on yeild, etc.

 

[Curlboy]

To keep canola from shattering too much when swathing, we often start at 10pm or later and swath all night when the dew hits. It is also much easier to swath and lay a nice tight swath when the plants are a little wet. Have also swathed lots in light rain. last year the canola was 6 feet tall and went through a 30 ft macdon no problem.

 

[Bigsky]

I completly agree with you. We also swath in early mornings, or when drizzling, or all night when the dew is on. If we get behind, we will even swath in a rain, as long as we are not leaving any ruts, or the swather is not spinning out in the rolling land. Only problem is, that you have to keep an eye out, for no build up on the rollers.

 

[Turk]

With limited information I expect 32-44 bushels per acre. It is contracted for $4.75 per bushel. My market is local, and his contracts are actually with someone using it in a mulch mix in Oklahoma, so I believe volume is somewhat limited for the time being. If it becomes a crop, I'm sure marketing could be worked out, but freight will be a killer unless it can be crushed rather close. As for govt. support prices, I don't have a clue. I haven't checked in to it, but I do know it is not yet insurable. I am trying to baby it to get a maximum yield to try to establish a county yield. After the storm that just went through here there might not be much to look at tomorrow. Another producer that is growing some said his windrows caught some pretty good hail last night. He said the tops of the windrows were white from shattered pods.

 

[Turk]

The fact that you can work with the canola in the damp weather is one thing that appeals to me. We have such a narrow window to harvest wheat that we usually only get about 100 hours on a combine at wheat harvest, then another 60-70 in the fall. If we could run around the clock at wheat harvest it would be easier to finance the combine.

 

[Turk]

I have a 36' 960 MacDon that I run on a lease combine in the summer. What are my options on using this header to windrow CanolaIJ My Dad has a 2550 New Holland swather, is there any way his tractor could be used on this headerIJ I don't know if it would even pick it up. I assume that a MacDon swather tractor would work, and that might be the thing to do is trade the New Holland. On the MacDon subject, how much trouble is it to put a 871 adaptor on a 960 headerIJ I have seen some with them on there, but I don't know how much modifification it took.

 

[Turk]

Well, I'm afraid I was right. Golf ball size hail and 60 mph winds shattered the Canola out. Got about 700 acres of wheat too!

 

[wheaty]

Hey turk you seem to be referring to oklahoma canola what part you from and how much canola you got. Wanted to plant some this year but didnt get around to and im curious how its goin to do.

 

[Turk]

I'm in South Central Kansas near Caldwell. The Canola looked very good, although I don't know much about it yet. It got hailed out in the windrow night before last. I only had 70 acres. Plan on trying it again.