Canola Water Use

Canola production in Alberta was about 900 lb/acre with 8 inches of water use and increase 135 lb/acre for each additional inch of water used.

Research in Colorado established a water use/yield formula as follows:

yield (lbs per acre) = 175.2 (lb/acres per in) X water use (in.) - 1090 (lb/acre)

This research found that canola yield was not significantly reduced by water stress at any particular growth stage. Trends in data indicated lower numbers of pods and seeds with water stress during reproductive development and lower seed weight with stress during grain filling.

Most of the water used by canola was extracted from the 0-47" soil layer. Water was removed from a depth of 65".

Source. J. Prod. Agric., Vol 10, No. 2, 1997