[ZEEMAN]

Never have grown mustard, with canola seed out of control cost, thinking possibly of some yellow mustard, or another mustard type.
What seeding rate, chemicals, and what would be the approx cost/ac for the seed?
Thx in advance.

 

[ZEEMAN]

Also, how does it respond to fert? Have heard you don’t need N like canola?

 

[brs]

Have u been growing canola in the last 3 years? If so good luck was always told one or the other will get a disaster with volunteers.

 

[bradw2]

we have been in and out of the mustard market for 15 years.... 2 years ago was the 3rd "last time ever" and I hope it stuck!


weed control sucks. we didn't use treated seed and would end up spraying for flea beetles almost every year. when factoring in that you use higher seed rates (7-9lb oriental, 10+ in yellow) the treated ends up being as much as canola / ac. so we used bare seed and always almost just about lost the crop every spring! Need the higher seed rates for weed completion, and the fact that mustard plants are not as elastic as canola - doesn't fill in the holes as good. cleaning isnt easy but it is OP and you can keep the seed for future years if you wanted too. Edge and Rival are about only herbicides. Authority is registered for yellow (how I do not know - have seen plants half the size of the untreated ones, can cause really severe stunting- don't do it)


Brown / oriental can yield quite well if the stars align just right, its basically OP canola top end yield is 40ish. yellow is a totally different arm of the brassica family (its a renegade radish). can look like a huge crop and run 25. can look like crap and run 25. can look like crap and run 6............. Sask Mustard is running some Hybrid Brown trials right now with up to 20% yeld bump I guess. but its now using hybrid seed costs as well. fertility is definitely less than canola but not a lot - still growing an oilseed crop using around 3 lb of N per bushel, just not targeting as many bushels!. foliar fertility is up and down but when it does work can see some pretty nice results.


the buyers are the pickiest bunch in the industry. will give you a hard time about residues even from registered products so be **** careful what you spray (pre harvest in particular). yellow has a pretty constant market in north America, but brown goes to Europe and Oriental to Asia and either one can just be shut off in a moments notice. they are really picky about canola contamination. will want fields that are 4+ years removed from a canola crop. most contracts give buyer 12 months to collect their mustard and they usually wait so don't think this stuff will fix any cash flow problems. Aside from Viterra you are dealing with some pretty questionable operations with regards to whether you get paid or not.


but when it is all said and done you actually might make a few dollars on the years the price is up.


but you will still wish you had been growing canola.

 

[brazil08]

I had a first time experience with Yellow mustard this yr and still trying to figure out if it will be my last. Thought the numbers compelling - 9lbs/a untreated seed @$2/lb, Sprayed about 2/3 of it for flea beetles so approx $12/a, $25-30/a edge treatment, half as much N as canola, twice the price of canola, etc. Thought process was that if could grow half the yield of quality yellow mustard as canola would be good decision. Have a 25-30bpa type crop of it. However, really was not the sort of growing conditions that expected this yr and could have some green seed issues that cost quite a bit in cleaning and/or yield part of calculation. Am hoping it will pay to have very good relationship with buyer.

 

[ZEEMAN]

The land I’m thinking of growing it on has never had canola. If seed cost is $60-70 ac I won’t be growing it. That’s way too much, then again canola seed has gotten out of my budget.
Getting impossible to make a plan what to grow anymore with soaring input costs.
I know one guy who is going back to half and half.

 

[ZEEMAN]

We have all grown crops where we have said “never again”. Winter can heal a lot of wounds!! Price swings can change a lot of minds. But I don’t look for that to happen in the near future.

 

[meritmat2]

I’m with brad waste of time

Growing it on stubble you get a mess with poor weed control.
Biggest bitch I had was the buyers. Been ****** twice by two diff buyers. Vittera and Secan.

Won’t ever grow it again

 

[farmerandy]

We have grown Brown mustard almost every year the last 6 years. Always make money and always get 25-30bu ac here. We probably will never grow Canola again. Agronomist would rather we grew Canola but I don't mind a couple weeds to have money in the bank. Canola might be good for controlling weeds but volunteer canola is a weed in it's own right haha.

 

[mustard]

We have made Alot more money growing mustard than canola. Due to less seed cost and Higher selling price.
Used to grow Yellow but switched to Brown few years back. If your seeding yellow then seed bare seed as the only time you see flea beatles is on Late seeded yellow. Beetles dont like Hairy stem on yellow.
Brown will yield much more than yellow and authority can be used ahead. Flea beetles do like brown. "muster" can be used for weed control but weed spectrum is small. The mustard family emits a chemical that Usually prevents weeds from being a problem.
Edge can be used ahead of Yellow only
There are Many good companies that are Licensed and Bonded. Go on Sask Mustard site to see a list.
Taking out a production contract is a good idea. I usually deal with Rayglen who are very good to deal with

 

[mustard]

Used to buy cleaned treated brown for $2.10/lb and seed at 6lb for a $12.60 per acre cost
Have sold lots of brown for $.34/ lb ($17 per bushel) and 25-30 bushel yield.


Yellow as said can be very Inconsistent in yields. If your in an area that can get more consistent yields the payoff can be big. We had it Spike up to $.70 /lb and its nice to have a binfull when that happens. We quit growing due to wild mustard that Sticks out like a sore thumb in yellow and is Very hard if not impossible to separate


Canola weed control is Way easier but it seems like ALL the profits go to the Seed and Fert Dealer

 

[primer]

If your seeding yellow then seed bare seed as the only time you see flea beatles is on Late seeded yellow. Beetles dont like Hairy stem on yellow.

That was true the first 2 years we grew it. Since then, it has not held true at all. We've been spraying for flea beetles at least once and have some acres this year that got 3 trips. Have had to reseed 50-60% 1 out of 4 years. This, however, might have more to do with the type of springs we've had in my area than anything. Or we've just been training our flea beetles..

 

[primer]

We've been growing yellow for around 8 years now. It's definitely had ups and downs and many learning opportunities.


Authority is very strange on yellow. Sometimes, it works perfectly and does little damage and other times it will near wipe out the crop.


Hail insurance is very important to us in it. 3 out of 4 we collect enough to cover the premium for the entire farm. 1.5 of those years we are 50-60% hail damage. Something about the timing of thunderstorms in our area and when the stuff is ripe makes it very susceptible. The Invigor canola handles the hail way better than mustard. I had 30-40% damage beside canola that was in the same stage that had around 2 or 3 percent. Keep your areas hail history in mind when making this decision, too, the mustard premium is 2x and canola is 1.5x or 1.75x(can't remember offhand).

 

[ZEEMAN]

Used to buy cleaned treated brown for $2.10/lb and seed at 6lb for a $12.60 per acre cost
Have sold lots of brown for $.34/ lb ($17 per bushel) and 25-30 bushel yield.


Yellow as said can be very Inconsistent in yields. If your in an area that can get more consistent yields the payoff can be big. We had it Spike up to $.70 /lb and its nice to have a binfull when that happens. We quit growing due to wild mustard that Sticks out like a sore thumb in yellow and is Very hard if not impossible to separate


Canola weed control is Way easier but it seems like ALL the profits go to the Seed and Fert Dealer

We “used to” buy everything cheaper.
Now it’s double the price.

 

[ZEEMAN]

They say up to 9lbs if Authority is used.

 

[lander2]

I always made more money with yellow mustard than canola. I grew Andante, because that's what I had. Seed rate of 16lbs cleaned bin run, 90-115 lbs N depending on soil test, 25lbs of S, starter N and P. Weed control was edge which needs a lot of harrowing if it is going on cereal stubble and a heavy dose of glyphosate pre-seed. Once the mustard was seeded I was done until combining. Nothing ever ate much of it, not enough to pay for spraying. Straight cut it, air in the bin and sell it picked up in the yard.

I always sold to Viterra and was never disappointed with the grading or dockage. I always got paid for what I put in the truck, lower quality was lower grade and higher quality was higher grade.

My rule for pricing is that if it was 19/bu or below don't contract and 19/bu or above contract it.

The seeding rate I used is much higher than recommended but when I started I had no idea what I was doing so did a bit of everything to see what worked and 16lbs worked.

 

[mustard]

Looked up my last mustard seed costs and for 2018 for treated centennial brown from a Seedgrower it was$19 per acre. If buying from Viterra youll pay Alot more

 

[meritmat2]

Good experience from Rayglen? You drinking?