Kojonup’s Spring Field Day NVT tour looked at Southern Dirts Canola Trails and Dr Heping’s main take-home messages from the CSIRO research and his presentation on the day were:

1. The CSIRO trials at Kojonup over the last five years showed that hybrid canola outyielded open-pollinated canola by 15-24% on average. Our economic analysis also showed that growing hybrid canola is more profitable than open-pollinated canola after considering the cost of hybrid seeds. Therefore, growers in the high rainfall (annual rainfall > 450mm)  zone of Western Australia can take advantage of hybrid canola. We recommend that growers gradually switch from open-pollinated canola to hybrids as growers increases their confidence in hybrids.
2. The CSIRO trials at Kojonup showed that late flowering spring canola allows the crop to accumulate more biomass, set up high yield potential and produce a 5-13% higher yield than early flowering canola. If the early sowing opportunities present, growing late-flowering spring canola can also reduce the risk of frost.