THE practice of direct heading canola has grown in popularity through the eastern states in recent years.
Always popular in the west, more and more farmers are willing to experiment with direct heading, both to cut costs by not getting in a windrower and also for better harvest management. There is also the issue of getting hold of contractors at a suitable time.
Many farmers throughout Victoria, in particular, reported they direct headed for the first time last year, primarily due to crops coming in all at once due to the heatwave, making it hard to get contractors. The hot conditions meant pods were fragile and were prone to shattering, meaning farmers were forced to take a punt on direct heading.
Looking into the issue, Birchip Cropping Group is this year conducting trials into direct heading versus windrowing, but BCG’s researcher Simon Craig said he believed direct heading would be more useful in crops with good potential.
“Direct heading has an application in crops with lower yield potential, and also perhaps in juncea canola, but overall, at this stage, it appears windrowing is still worth it.”
Pacific Seeds western zone manager Anton Mannes agreed.
“I know there’s a lot of direct heading going on in Western Australia, but as a general rule of thumb, anything over a tonne to the hectare is worth windrowing.”
The BCG trial is looking at advances such as the podseal product, which can be used when direct heading to prevent pods from shattering and the seed falling out.
