Cover crops provide ground cover to avoid leaving fields bare. They provide weed competition, take up excess moisture, tie up nutrients at or near the soil surface so they’re not lost, and improve salinity. Nitrogen-fixing cover crops can increase soil nitrogen levels. Grassy cover crops act as “green manure”. All cover crops can reduce wind and water erosion of soil.
Growers who want to run an Ultimate Canola Challenge trial in 2016 can contact CCC agronomy specialist Nicole Philp at philpn@canolacouncil.org or 306-551-4597. This collaboration gives growers a chance to learn first-hand how to run an effective on-farm trial.
One challenge with boron is the hot water extraction (HW) soil test commonly used to test boron levels does not seem to be a reliable indicator of available boron. A 1999 study by Rigas Karamanos showed no relation between HW boron levels and canola yield, as the graph shows. Yet soil analysis continues to use the HW test for boron.
Fertilizer planning: Growers with soil tests, particularly for poor performing fields in 2015, have valuable background information for making informed fertilizer rate decisions for 2016.
Rotation planning: This is a good time to go over notes for disease levels in 2015. Fields where disease levels were noticeably higher than in the past will benefit from a longer rotation away from canola.
The ground is not frozen yet, which means growers and agronomists still have an opportunity to take fall soil samples. This is one of the best times to sample because…
Decisions on what variety, nutrient or crop input product to buy are improved with good data. When looking for data, here are a few clues as to the quality of the data set…
Soil sampling is good practice in the fall — whether crop was better or worse than you thought. Why fall? Growers often have more time in the fall than in the spring. And with results and recommendations in hand before winter, growers can use the winter months to plan their fertilizer programs for next year, to order fertilizer, and to take advantage of reduced pricing opportunities that may occur.
Have you seen patterns like this? Potassium in swathed crop is mobile and if several rainfall events fall on the swath before combining, potassium will bleed out below the swath. Since a six-foot swath contains all the straw from a 30-foot or wider cut, the K is concentrated. K-loving crops following canola can find sufficient K below the swath, but inadequate between swaths.
Conditions are much more favourable in Medstead with recent precipitation! Currently the crop is in 40-50% bloom. When pictures were taken from the air and also from the ground no visual differences were observed. 
This diagram from IPNI shows where deficiency symptoms are likely to show up on a plant. Nitrogen is mobile, so with an N shortage, plants will move N to new parts of the plant. Therefore deficiency will show up first in older leaves.