Print This PageRoundup Ready® canola provides short and long term benefits
Award winning northern Wimmera crop grower Tim Hausler has sown canola every year since the 1980s as part of his crop rotation. It forms part of his ideal, sustainable rotation which begins with a chemical fallow to maximise soil moisture storage for the canola crop the following year.
Planting canola allows Tim to clean the paddock of weeds, especially annual ryegrass, before sowing a cereal crop. Cereal is then followed by a legume, a cereal and back to fallow. This season Tim has sown 60 ha of conventional canola and 200 ha of Roundup Ready® canola on his 2500 ha property.
“In the past we have sown the Roundup Ready® variety GT 61 from Nuseed which has yielded as well as conventional canola under our recent dry conditions,” Tim said.
Julia and Tim Hausler have benefited by including Roundup Ready canola in their crop rotation.
“This season we thought we would try one of Nuseed's Next Generation releases called GT Scorpion.
“According to Nuseed, GT Scorpion is a high-yielding, high oil content, early to mid season variety that has been bred to perform in lower rainfall regions, making it ideal for our location.
“Growing conditions so far have been favourable and we are hoping for 1.5t to 2t/ha crop.”
Tim added that there were a number of other benefits associated with using RR canola compared with the triazine tolerant or Clearfield varieties.
“We found that Roundup Ready® canola yields about the same as conventional canola and is often 20 to 30 percent better than triazine tolerant varieties, and you are not restricted with what you can plant the next year, as you are with Clearfield canola,” he said.
Rob Christie of Nuseed and Tim Hausler discuss the benefits of growing RR canola.
Tim said that he and his wife Julia had recently acquired some land that was showing a problem with herbicide resistant annual ryegrass.
“We fallowed it last year and this season we have sown GT Scorpion,” Tim said.
“By following the Monsanto management plan when growing Roundup Ready® canola we aim to control the ryegrass and other problem weeds by simply spraying one or two applications of glyphosate.
“This same simple strategy allows us to quickly and effectively control weeds in other paddocks that start showing problems with weed control.”
Julia said there were significant short term and longer term benefits associated with the inclusion of Roundup Ready® canola in the rotation.
“In addition to controlling ryegrass and other weeds and growing a profitable canola crop that year, we have also found it is easier to control weeds the following year,” she said.
“Fewer sprays are required to control weeds – which is a cost saving but also minimises the risk of developing herbicide resistance – and because the paddock has a clean start, soil moisture is as high as it can be and the cereal germinates and grows with minimal weed competition.
“As a result of growing Roundup Ready® canola we also maximise the yield potential of the cereal crop the following year.”
Each season, Tim and Julia review the costs and benefits of sowing Roundup Ready® canola.
“So far the short term benefits of growing Roundup Ready® canola have outweighed the additional cost of buying Roundup Ready® seed, the discount when selling the grain, the technology fee, and even any extra freight costs to get the grain to the nearest delivery point,” Julia said.
“In addition to it being profitable for us to grow Roundup Ready® canola, there are the added longer term benefits of having a clean paddock to sow a cereal into the following year.”
“If the benefits were not there or if it was costing us money to plant Roundup Ready® canola, we would not be doing it. We have other options, including a longer fallow for weed control,” Tim added.
Tim and Julia said they have had no problems marketing Roundup Ready® canola and that delivery points were close by. Their neighbours were aware of their practices and had no issues. In addition, by following the recommended practices and putting herbicide resistance management foremost, growers could benefit from Roundup Ready® technology for many years.
