If u fertilize the same as wheat you will have a nightmare to combine. The straw is very wirey and strong. A lot harder to combine. About the hardest thing there is. I like to use a stripper header but even then it's a good challenge. U can't combine it tough it won't thrash out of the head. It's got to be dry to combine so storage is rarely a problem. Canary is tough you can leave it out all winter and combine next summer and still have good quality. Peeled seeds and weed seeds are the only sell factors. Summer heat is bad for canary. flower blast can be bad when it gets hot. It's a longer season than wheat

 

Mice like canary same with birds. We always leave it stand and try to take in the least amount of straw. Mice will gather heads and leave them in piles. That is in standing canary I couldn't emagine what they could do in swathed canary. Puma will hurt it same with avenge but can be used if wild oats are bad. Trophy or mcpa for broadleafs

 

If spraying Puma Super use 10 gal of water, 60#N probably as high as you want to apply. Headline is showing good results on it. Cant be dried, tough to get airflow through unless you add another grain into it. And dont forget the aphids love it, Cygon might be only chem for them and its more toxic then Lorsban. I would start with a quarter or two and hope for .20+cents a pound

 

It used to be common practice to treat canaryseed like wheat when it came to a fertility program. But it has been found that for the most part it was getting over fertilized. You can for the most part, depending on what your soil tests say, fertilize it like flax. 40-60 lbs of N and about 50% of your cereal blend when it comes to dry starter fert. Find some good old common Keet seed it is still the best yeilding variety there is, mine went 2200 lbs/ac last year, it will cost you about 0.42¢/lb and seed at 40lbs/ ac. Wild oat control is the issue, Avenge is the only "registered" post emergence control for wild oats, a pre emergent like avadex works best. Whatever you use don't tank mix do two applications. Canaryseed responds phenominal to fungicides probably the best response of any field crop, and yes the little aphid bastards love it. When checking for aphids open the ball up and look right down in the V that is formed by the stem and the ball, if you have aphids there will be black slimy aphid ****. As far as combining it you can swath it, dessicated and straight cut or just leave it and straight cut it. It has to be dry to thrash it, the perfect conditions are when you see complete balls coming out of the chopper and there is not a seed left in them. As far as dockage, cracked and peeled are your only concern, some companies call that dockage some don't. Right now canaryseed is about 0.22¢-0.24¢/lb which translates to $11-$12/bu, if you plan on growing some I would seriously consider selling some new crop now, right now at those price points canaryseed looks pretty attractive compared to everything else. I think we are going to see a rise in canaryseed acres just based on the fact it is cheaper to grow. I have 600acs planned for 2014 and thinking about upping that to 900acs. The problem is that the market for canaryseed is so small that any amount of increased production drastically affects the price. That's why I think it is important to lock in some new crop at these prices.

 

Yes get a contract first. There will be a s***load of acres of this stuff going in next year. I suspect the market will be oversupplied for years.

 

Seed. 40- 50 lbs.
30 to 40 lbs n max. 15 sulphur
Spray with buctril m in crop
Mix liquid avadex. With burn off worked well for me except on volunteer tame oats.
Budget for a 20-25 bpacrop and u won't be disappointed with yield. Hope for a killing frost. And it will thrash much better.

Finally prepare yourself for the worst itch u can imagine

 

Thanks for the great info guys. Are there any re-cropping restrictions for avadex or avenge? Looking at seeding barley after the canary.

 

Barley no problem. U might wanna stay away from oats

 

Can you mix avadex with glyphosate for the burnoff or do you have to do two separate applications?

Is there anybody in or near Lloydminster/Vermillion that buys canary seed?

Are aphids a problem every year?

 

Are aphids a problem every year?

most of the times yes, we sprayed it every year.
we grown it quite a few times, but kicked it to the curb due to poor wild oat control, poor yield performance when experiencing extreme heat.

hated the crop period, when prices went sky high we were missing yield + price. growing canary seed now is kind off chasing the market imo. And just growing a quarter is not gonna make your bank manager smile at you anyways. I'd rather grow an extra quarter of beans or canola or wheat.
I know markets don't look that good at the moment but just make a new ballance at the time your combine hits the field its usually all the same.

nutrients we put on 80 lbs of N, most of the time it went to the ground, but having a good swather and flat fields didn't make matters worse.
plugging the combine is a nightmare don't do it.

 

(other than being itchy)

I thought I heard there are variety(s)? that aren't itchy but it was long enough ago I can't remember the name.

With current mainstream crop prices I don't think this will be the last thread on alternate crops.

 

The newer hairless varieties such as Maria and Cantate just don't yeild as well as Keet. As far as wild oat control, treat canaryseed like oats, grow it after a canola crop, wild oats should be a minor problem.

 

What would one expect for a yield? or what crop could you compare to canary seed for yield? flax? mustard?

(assuming 70lbs of N)

 

Grew it one yr had a disaster. Put 70 N friend who grows a lot of canary said u don't need that much N. If July turns hot look out, canary is a very shallow rooted crop. I had a 40 bu stand went 1.5 thankfully only had a quarter lol. Ya I can laugh about it now.

 

Does avenge have some residual control on wild oats or something? If it doesn't, I don't see any point in adding it to your burn off. Can you use express or prepass as a burn off so you can control your volunteer RR canola?

 

roll it with a land roller like you would peas/lentils. We are rolling all canary seed/barley/beans and even some oats in our area after the last 5 years. Renting a roller is cheap, especially if you were to take in a rock, or if it crop goes down and the ground is at all damp when trying to harvest.

 

Prepass isn't registered for canary seed but there is no reason why it shouldn't work.

 

CDC Bastia is a new itchless variety that yields pretty good. We have grown it for 2 years now. Yielded 1500 pounds acre in 2012 and around 1200 pounds acre in 2013 seeded on lentil stubble.

 

You can burn off with express, but not express pro.
I used to spray with tank mix of Buctril M and Avenge, then switched to split application of Frontline then Avenge when canary was at 5 leaf stage.
This spring I broadcast avedex with good results.
I always spray fungicide(Quilt) and usually Cygon for aphids.
The crop usually grows till first frost, so you can usually count on decicating.
Harvest is often challenging if don't bit warm days, and once the sun goes down and the due sets in, you are done.
Cantate is not an ichless variety and yields as good or better than Keat.
I know lots of guys who try to grow canary on years when the price looks good and many end up with half a crop or less due to wrong product or missed timing.
Sounds like alot of guys are considering growing it this year as it pencils out better than some other options.
Due to incresed acres and flat demand, the price will surley end up below 20cents/lb.

 

Heat for burn off as well.

 

Grew it ten years ago for three years strait, what I learned is its likes fertility, 70n and moisture can be a easy 35bu crop...

I used the puma rate at 60 percent and had some damage, would cut that back to 50 and spray early for oat control, buctral m for broad leafs

First year it grew 27bu/ac and got 27cents, second year even better and last year price dropped to 9 cents and took till last year to get rid of it for 29 cents, so it's a crop you might have to sit on for a long time to get the price you should

I did find out my last year about affids, had some hail and when doing hail claim, we were covered in them, crop was incredible but only did just over twenty, so I would put a pesticide in it after heading, it's also a crop that can be like wire to combine if tuff, and don't fill the truck to full

Over all it's was not bad to grow, but markets made it tuff to sell, I could grow it again if price was over 30 cents