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:
- 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.
- 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.