Canola - Crop Use Guide

Pre Canopy

Quantify the impact of critical decisions like replanting, herbicide applications and impacts of mechanical issues with high quality satellite images from Granular Insights!  The WDRVI will help you track crop variability and priority areas that need your attention first. 

Granular Insights Frequency

• Leverage weekly Directed Scouting emails to highlight top fields of interest.
• Log into Granular Insights at least 1 time a week.
• Use the Field Ranking filters, compare layers and the Vegetation Index against what you know about your fields.

What to Look for & Actions to Take:

• Early Weed Detection: Getting the crop to emerge with very little weed competition is ideal.  Early weed removal is critical,  look for areas of relatively high vegetation in the vegetation index as this can indicate weeds flourishing in those areas.  This is the time to evaluate additional management options available.
• Poor Germination/Replant Decisions:  Low areas in the Vegetation Index may indicate germination areas that can help you make a timely replant decision.
• Fungicide Decisions: As your canola is emerging, watch for areas of low vegetation to make application decisions due to early disease pressures.
• Mechanical Issues: Mechanical issues present as high field variability.  Leverage satellite imagery and directed scouting rankings to detect variability.  High field variability can indicate areas affected by planter skips or sprayer malfunction.

Canopy

The human eye is no match for Granular Insights satellite imagery.  Pin-Point potential issues before they become bigger problems.  WDRVI picks up subtle differences in crop canopy, being more accurate and precise than NDVI. 

Granular Insights Frequency

• Leverage weekly Directed Scouting emails to highlight top fields of interest.
• Log into Granular Insights at least 2-3 times a week.
• Use the Field Ranking filters, compare layers and the Vegetation Index against what you know about your fields.

What to Look for & Actions to Take:

• Pest/Disease Issues: Localized but irregular areas of low progress in the Vegetation Index.  Look for the defoliation of areas eaten away by flea beetles. Leverage the Find Me feature within the mobile app to walk straight to the areas in question.
• Stand Reduction: Low vegetation areas may indicate areas of low fertility, nutrient deficiency symptoms, herbicide carryover/drift damage.  Watch for a high field variaility rankings of your fields in Granular Insights.  Consult with your local agronomy specialist to evaluate the need for top dress fertilizer application.  
• Fungicide Decisions: Watch for areas of low vegetation within the Vegetation Index to make application decisions due to disease pressures. 
• Clubroot Presence: Imagery is an ideal method for identifying clubroot.  Reduced vegetation indicates low biomass and can be a good indicator of where to scout.  If you see a patch in your images of low vegetation, this would be a good indication to go scout for Clubroot issues in your field. 

Reproductive

When it is too hot to wander aimlessly, Granular Insights satellite imagery helps you scout your fields without having to walk into them.  Mid-July is when you will see your Canola blooming! Use your knowledge and the field rankings to make sure your fields are on track!

Granular Insights Frequency

• Leverage weekly Directed Scouting emails to highlight top fields of interest.
• Log into Granular Insights at least 1-2 times a week.
• Use the Field Ranking filters, compare layers and the Vegetation Index against what you know about your fields.

What to Look For & Actions to Take: 

• Pest/Disease Issues: Pests or diseases would display as a patch within the field with low vegetation, often the radius can change from one day to the next.  Waist deep Canola can be difficult to scout; leverage the FindMe feature on your mobile device to walk you directly to the areas of question. 
• Fungicide and Nitrogen Decisions: Watch for low vegetation areas in the Vegetation Index.  Low areas may indicate areas that require a fungicide or Nitrogen treatment.  Make targeted point in time decisions for rescue applications.
• Flowering Unevenness: Leverage variability ranking filter to look for uniformity.  Is the field flowering consistently?  Use the Field Variability filter to identify the evenness.  This is a good indicator of whether the crops will mature at the same time.  Knowing in advance is power!
• Clubroot Presence: Imagery is an ideal method for identifying clubroot.  Reduced Vegetation Index indicates low biomass low biomass and a good indicator of where to scout.  Watch for low patches within your imagery as an indicator to go scout your field. 
• Bertha Army worm: Imagery that displays pockets of low Vegetation is an indication that Bertha Army worms are present.  Often, the larvae aren't noticed until they move up the canopy and their damage is visible during mid to late podding.  Consider applying an insecticide as soon as economic threshold has been reached. 

Harvest & Beyond

Unleash the power of your data by using Granular Insights imagery to better plan for the next season.

Granular Insights Frequency

• Leverage weekly Directed Scouting emails to highlight top fields of interest. 
• Log into Granular Insights at least 2-3 times a week and leverage the map layer to monitor dry down.
• Use the Field Ranking filters to check crop rankings against what you know about your fields. 

What to Look For & Actions to Take:

• Clubroot: Scout for Clubroot at swathing.  Satellite imagery will display a low Vegetation Index.  Look for thin stands near field entrances or places of water movement.  The plants may not swath with a clean-cut, but instead, plants pull out of the ground due to poor root anchoring from club development.  If clubroot is present, take all the measures necessary to avoid soil transfer from the affected areas in order to contain the pathogen.
• Disease Issues: Look for high in-season change or high variability within your field ranking in order to identify disease issues.  Clear patches of canola plants that are yellowing prematurely could be diseased and are a good starting point for a pre-harvest disease survey.  Premature yellowing of Canola plants can indicate disease but easiest to diagnose a couple of weeks before swath timing.
• Dry Down Consistency: The question to ask is if it is consistent across the whole field?  If you are straight cutting rather than swathing, look at areas of high vegetation areas to show that your Canola is not dry enough, and lower areas on the index to show that dry down has began in that area.  As your entire field dries down, it will return to a medium green color on the Vegetation Index. 

*Not all uses and decisions that can be made at this time are documented above.*