Wednesday, November 15, 2006 - 1:30 PM
219-2
Yield and Seed Quality of Direct Harvested, Swathed, and Forced Lodged Winter Canola.
Winter canola grown in semiarid Oregon can be direct combined, swathed and combined, or forced lodged and combined. We compared these three methods of harvest in a randomized complete block experiment with four replications for two crop seasons. Treatments compared yield, seed size, and chlorophyll content of seed. All plots were 1.5 m wide by 30 m long. Plants were force lodged at first brown seed using a costume build divider shield mounted on a John Deere 880 skid-steer swather. Plants were swathed at one third brown seed using a Swift plot swather. All plots were combined at the appropriate time using a Hege 140 combine. Highest yields and best seed quality was achieved by forced lodging and combining. Swathing and combining yielded less seed, had smaller seed and higher chlorophyll content. Direct harvest plots had the lowest yield but were comparable to forced lodging in seed size and chlorophyll content.
Recorded presentation