Tillage Practices and Winter Canola Survival
Paul Porter, University of Minnesota - $8,326

Winter canola has the potential to provide exceptionally high yields compared to spring canola, especially in years when spring rains prevent early seeding of spring canola. For each of the last three years, the winter canola trials in Minnesota were seeded into wheat stubble to provide a means of snow catch. In 2001-02, the land was harrowed to spread the combined straw residue. In 2002-03 and 2003-04, the combine straw was baled off to provide better seed/soil contact and improve germination. Some seed companies that have tried winter canola in the Langdon, ND area reported having better success when winter canola was seeded into tilled field compared with no-till planting.

Objective:
1. Determine if seeding into plowed soil will provide better survivability of winter canola than direct seeding into small grain stubble.