It’s the crop that keeps on giving, as Rodney Herbert won champion oil seed in the District Exhibits at the Sydney Royal Easter Show for last year’s canola crop.
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Mr Herbert, who fetched $491 per tonne for the crop in November last year, has been awarded a first place rosette and Royal Agricultural Society Certificate for his efforts and had his canola displayed at the District Exhibits throughout the 2017 Easter Show.
Mr Herbert, who farms at “Woodburn” Miandetta, said late nutrition application and direct heading produced the high oil content.
The 660 hectare crop’s overall oil content was between 48 and 49 per cent and yield averaged 1.8 tonnes per hectare with one paddock yielding two tonne per hectare.
“We used 30 kilograms per hectare of DAP (phosphorus fertiliser) at sowing and we used 20 litres per hectare of Stoller liquid at the end of June,” Mr Herbert said.
Stoller’s Central NSW territory manager, Barry Unger, who alerted The Nyngan Observer to the championship win, said the fertiliser Mr Herbert used was a full balanced nutrient.
“The zinc would have helped root growth while nutrients and zinc’s sulphur would have helped oil increase as well,” he told The Land Newspaper.
Nyngan agronomist, Tim Broadhead said the rain and late starter application helped the canola crop in a normally marginal canola growing country.
“We would have applied the ClearStart nutrition liquid earlier, but it was too wet at that time,” he said.
The weed control stopped the moisture from being stolen from the canola plants.
Mr Herbert has started sowing his 2017 crops with hopes for another successful year.
Did you have a win, an exhibit or attend the Sydney Royal Easter Show? We’d love to hear about it, email grace.ryan@fairfaxmedia.com.au.