b'and extending the cycle from two to three years helped improvetightened canola rotations, Beres has seen soil health issues and triticale yield gain. Beres theorizes the benefit may relate to theclubroot incidents escalate. Growers, he says, are changing their fact that canola is not a host for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi,thinking on tight rotations as a result. and the non-host break benefitted the succeeding cereal crop. Its not just soil health and disease pressure thats driving In terms of yield, canola did not respond to increasedchange. In the near future, growers will likely want to change rotational diversity. Beres says the two-year rotation withrotations in order to adapt to changing climate conditions. Beres triticale looked every bit as good as the three-year rotation.suggests winter wheat and other crops with a winter growth From a yield perspective, it was exactly the same. You canhabit could play a more important role in rotations in the future.understand why producers would commit to a shorter rotationIf theres a crop thats going to adapt better or be more with canola, says Beres. resilient as we begin to adapt to climate change, winter-type Not only in the short term was it giving them that kind ofcrops like winter wheat are poised to benefit from it, he says. additional economic returns, there was really no perceivedAnother option may be ultra-early planted spring wheat. In downside to it, Beres adds. The only thing we noticed fromaddition, Beres and his team are currently working on a project our dataset was as soon as you pull canola out, you get a yieldto determine which crops work best with winter wheat, and drag on the wheat, which underscores the importance of canolahow a winter wheat phase compares to respective spring wheat to cereal crop phases. class phases in terms of production, economic returns, and soil Although tighter canola rotations might be more profitablecarbon sequestration. in the short term, in the long term, disease, insect and weedThe study consists of a range of rotational schemes pressure, as well as soil health issues, are sure to increasecomparing three-year rotations of durum, CWRS, CNHR, CPS overall costs.and CWGP with canola and peas to determine what stands out Similar studies conducted by Neil Harker at AAFC havein terms of yield, economic returns and agronomics. shown rotational diversity, as a long-term strategy for canola, isIn this study, however, data shows that triticale responded important. Yields increase as blackleg and root maggot damagepositively to increased rotational diversity. It also showed is reduced. Not only that, short-term benefits might be short- greater stability when field pea was included, and increased lived, says Beres, pointing out that a seven-year study might notrotational diversity led to improved profitability and be enough to really see the effect of those tight rotations.sustainability overall. In high-production environments, where growers have Melanie EppTHIS GUY JUST pIcked Up 44MT of perfecTlY TreaTed wHeaT In 38 MInUTeS!Search G40 Seed Treater on YouTubeand see for yourself.www.seedtreating.comBrian EllisPhone: 403-556-2846 Fax: [email protected] 2020 47'