FIFTEEN-year-old York grower Alex Linto, pictured with dad Rob (left), was pretty happy with how his 20 hectare Monola canola crop went this year.
In Farm Weekly's August 4 edition, we told the story of Alex trialling the speciality high oleic canola variety, which is in strong demand from food companies due to its health benefits and stability when cooking at higher temperatures.
For growers, the $95 per tonne premium and the comparable yields to other triazine-tolerant varieties have also seen its uptake increase this year.
"We averaged yields of 2.3t/ha in the Monola and had oils of 47 per cent," Alex said.
"It's not quite as good as I thought it would be but maybe sowing and then swathing so early meant it didn't get to its potential with the oil."
The crop was planted on April 1 and received 100 kilograms/ha of urea during the season.
Alex and dad Rob also sprayed for aphids and sclerotinia.
While next year Rob said Alex had decided to grow wheat, they would consider growing Monola again.
"The $95/t bonus is what makes it," Rob said.
"It has finished off with an average yield and other varieties have done a lot better this year, but they have had a lot higher inputs to get there.
"Next time, we would seed a little later - it finished so early that the ryegrass came through again because it didn't have the canopy to hold it off," he said.
"We swathed in September and sprayed and that was a good result but because we seeded so early it was ready really early - we had to get the Darkan bin to open early just so we could deliver it."
