“Growing a profitable canola crop requires careful varietal selection, good agronomy and adequate nutrition, among other things” says Howlong farmer and Riverine Plains Inc chairman, Ian Trevethan.

“This canola systems day aims to help grain growers work through some of these key management issues by visiting trial sites evaluating varietal profitability and nutritional performance” he said.

The field day will begin at 10.00am at a canola systems trial site at Daysdale, which was established by Farmanco in partnership with Riverine Plains Inc and designed to evaluate the profitability of different canola systems using hybrid, triazine tolerant, imi tolerant, high oleic and Roundup Ready® technologies.

“One of the aims of this trial is to establish the profitability of hybrids compared to traditional canola types in the low rainfall parts of the Riverine Plains region” said Eric Nankivell, farm management consultant with Farmanco and Riverine Plains Inc committee member.

“Hybrids are more expensive to grow, so they need to yield more than traditional varieties, especially in dry environments. By visiting the site, farmers can also see the different varieties and how they have established in the tough conditions that have been impacting canola this year” added Eric.

The second part of the field day will involve visits to trials sown as part of a GRDC investment investigating sulphur and nitrogen nutrition in canola.

“Canola has become an important crop in the Riverine Plains, with many growers now having solid histories of sulphur and nitrogen fertiliser application as a result of growing the crop long-term” said Ian Trevethan.

“Given that we are now seeing sulphur accumulation in soils, as well as some movement of sulphur to depth, we wanted to review regionally accepted sulphur and nitrogen application rates now that we are growing bigger canola crops and more often” Ian said.

“2018 is the second year of trials for this GRDC project investment, with results from the 2017 trials showing some interaction between sulphur and nitrogen nutrition and yield, which will be further explained at the field day” Ian added.

The field day will commence at 10am at the Maloney family farm, 95 Saffron Road, Daysdale, NSW.

The second site visit will be from 12 noon at the Tomlinson family’s farm, Emu Park Road, Coreen.

The third site visit will commence at 2:15pm at the Trevethan Family farm, Riverina Highway, Howlong.

This event is free and all are welcome. Signage will be provided on the day and lunch is included.

Seed company representatives will be on hand to answer questions about different varieties at the canola systems trial site.