Farm Progress

Hale County grower harvests his first canola crop.

Shelley E. Huguley, Editor

June 25, 2018

18 Slides

Hale County grower Bryan Curry planted dryland canola for the first time, as an alternative crop to wheat. Curry planted the tiny Roundup Ready seeds (similar in size to a poppy seed) one inch apart on 15-inch and 30-inch rows. Little did he know, that 2017's winter drought would roll over into spring, hurting his yields. 

Winter canola is an oilseed crop, first grown in the Southwest in Oklahoma. Canola, when followed by wheat, is credited for increased yields and because of its tap-root system, leaves the ground mellow for fall-planted wheat. 

Curry, along with his landowner, Gilda Bryant, of Amarillo, Texas, and his dog Gracie, harvested the cool-season crop.  

"The canola grew very well with only two-and-half-inches of rain since it was planted. It’s a very good crop for dry times," says Bryant. "It has a very deep tap root so it was able to get the moisture that it needed. And now that he has cut it, it’s going to keep the soil from blowing when the winds get up. At some point, he might be able to plant another crop in between those rows for no-till farming."

The crop averaged about 18 bushels an acre. “The edges weren’t so hot,” Curry explains. “There just wasn’t much yield. Most of the yield came from the center of the fields.”

Though Curry didn't produce the bushels he'd hoped for, he says, he'll try it again next year.

Read Texas grower plants winter canola as alternative to wheat

Facts about canola: http://www.uscanola.com/what-is-canola/

About the Author(s)

Shelley E. Huguley

Editor, Southwest Farm Press

Shelley Huguley has been involved in agriculture for the last 25 years. She began her career in agricultural communications at the Texas Forest Service West Texas Nursery in Lubbock, where she developed and produced the Windbreak Quarterly, a newspaper about windbreak trees and their benefit to wildlife, production agriculture and livestock operations. While with the Forest Service she also served as an information officer and team leader on fires during the 1998 fire season and later produced the Firebrands newsletter that was distributed quarterly throughout Texas to Volunteer Fire Departments. Her most personal involvement in agriculture also came in 1998, when she married the love of her life and cotton farmer Preston Huguley of Olton, Texas. As a farmwife, she knows first-hand the ups and downs of farming, the endless decisions made each season based on “if” it rains, “if” the drought continues, “if” the market holds. She is the bookkeeper for their family farming operation and cherishes moments on the farm such as taking harvest meals to the field or starting a sprinkler in the summer with the whole family lending a hand. Shelley has also freelanced for agricultural companies such as Olton CO-OP Gin, producing the newsletter Cotton Connections while also designing marketing materials to promote the gin. She has published articles in agricultural publications such as Southwest Farm Press while also volunteering her marketing and writing skills to non-profit organizations such as Refuge Services, an equine-assisted therapy group in Lubbock. She and her husband reside in Olton with their three children Breely, Brennon and HalleeKate.

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