rotations

[oakboy]

As of a few years we have been running a rotation as follows.Peas wheat canola barley.The peas are not doing well as of late.Main reason is very little rain.We use one pass seed and fertilizer with conserva pak seeder.WE are thinking about removing the peas and replacing with canola.The rule of thumb says it is not a good rotation.Now as I have peas cereal canola and they are both disease related and considered a decent rotation.Is it a big jump to canola cereal canola? I'm thinking sclerotinia but this should have been a problem in my latest rotation as well.Any info. would be as asset. Thanx

[emiled]

As you know, ideally, (by the book) 3-4 years between canola crops is desirable. The impact of growing canola every other year will be dependent on many factors including soil and climatic conditions for your area. Obviously, diseases is the first thing that comes to mind and is impacted by climatic conditions. Build-up of insect pressure is possible but also dependent on climatic conditions and the individual pest.

According to canola production manuals, diseases with the highest risk probability is sclerotinia (within 4 yrs), blackleg (3 yrs) and alternaria (blackspot - within 2 years).... Root rot and damping off have a low probability within 2 and 1 year(s) after respectively... Root maggots, flea beetles, and cabbage seedpod weevil could be other concerns but will be dependent on current levels.

From a local field experience point of view, we have seen few problems with this type of rotation although sclerotinia can be a problem here from time to time.

One last note, watch out for herbicide residue problems ....

[ALLFARMER]

I know of one farmer who seeds everything to canola every year. He has grown canola on canola for over 7 or 8 yrs now and seems to grow as good a crop as anybody?

[dnach]

These are two rotations that we are using in two cropping systems:
#1 4 year - 4 field
Canola - Canary or Barley - Pea or lentil - Wheat
#2 5 year - 5 field
Mustard - Wheat - Flax - Pea - Wheat
We run #1 on 16 fields and #2 on 5 fields
Generally in #1 we put the lentil on canary and peas on barley for easier clean - out for shipping.