Trials across high rainfall southern Australia, including at Millicent, are aiming to push the bar higher in canola yields, with researchers confident five tonne a hectare crops are achievable.
Lead researcher Rohan Brill is not expecting a "silver bullet", but believes a combination of selecting the right variety, as well as nutritional management and fungicide management will be key to getting there.
"In some farming systems it is more about the the rotation, but we think in high rainfall areas like this, variety will be one of the first things to get right in growing the crop and protecting the crop," he said.
Millicent is one of five sites across SA, WA, Tas, Vic and NSW that are involved in the GRDC-funded Hyper Yielding Crops project that is being managed by FAR Australia. Similar trials are also occurring in cereals.
In the first year of the hyper yielding canola trials, 24 spring types and eight winter types were grown with both conventional and Roundup Ready, Clearfield and triazine tolerant hybrids represented. Their performance has been put to the test under a range of management treatments.
Mr Brill said there had been a big difference in flowering dates across the different sites from late July to October, as well as large nitrogen responses.
"At the trial in Wallendbeen, NSW, those with early N were about 15 centimetres taller than a later N application so it is a longer, leggier crop," he said.
"We are hoping if nothing else we find they yield the same so we can go with the shorter one - it is easier to harvest a crop with shorter stems and less biomass."
As well as the timing of N applications, subsequent years will assess different products from slow release fertilisers to liquids and manures.
In the first season the focus was on fungicide application at flowering, but Mr Brill said they would look at all the key stages for disease management in the trials.
Rather than screening hundreds of products, Mr Brill said the trial would be looking at only a few and comparing a nil input system with low and high inputs.
"Canola is a bit like a game of snakes and ladders - there are these little ladders that you have to do every little thing right but if you do one thing wrong, there is a big snake and you drop right back down," he said.
"For a 5t/ha yield potential the paddock we bring it on will make up 4t, (soil) acidity and weeds need to be considered," he said. "Then we need to tweak these other bits to go from a 4t/ha crop to a 5t/ha crop."
SOUTH EAST CANOLA GROWERS SEEK CROP YIELD CERTAINTY
NUTRIEN Ag Solutions Naracoorte agronomist James Heffernan says there is scope for more fields of gold across the South East if trials at Millicent can unlock the secret to higher yields.
"We are not achieving the yields we think should be possible," he said.
"We should be targeting 4.5 tonnes a hectare every year but we are a whole tonne/ha or more off the pace.
"We are thinking there must be something along the lines of time of flowering or something varietal that we can better understand to get there, because we are not getting it from nitrogen or other agronomic inputs.
"The issue is there has not been enough work done in the region for a number of years."
He said varieties with herbicide tolerance traits, including genetic modification technology, were more likely to deliver consistently higher yields in the SE than traditional open pollinated types - although the limited germplasm suited to high rainfall areas was an issue.
Some growers south of Naracoorte were achieving 4.5t/ha crops with long season hybrid Hyola 970CL through grain and graze practices, but this was not occurring every year.
"(Canola) is a great rotation crop but it is expensive to grow and it has to pay its way, so we have favoured legumes, which are also expensive but have soil nutrition benefits over canola," he said.
"We need some certainty to bring it back to the table."
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