BUMPY START for South Africa’s 2020/2021 canola season

Farmers are anxiously waiting to see whether canola production will return to normal following the past three years of drought in major production regions.

Koos Blanckenberg, Grain SA’s chairperson of the canola specialist committee, said farmers in both the Swartland and Southern Cape regions had been able to plant under favourable conditions in April, but germination difficulties occurred due to insufficient rain the six weeks thereafter. Germination, in effect, had been patchy, resulting in below optimal plant densities.

The situation, however, could be salvaged if favourable climatic conditions were experienced during the remainder of the season. “What happens from here on is out of our hands; it does not have anything to do with your farming abilities,” he said.

The arrival of new canola varieties with higher yields could also help to make up for the impact of poor germination on production. “The new varieties are definitely better than the older ones, resulting in my five-year production average being about 0,2% higher than my 10-year average, despite the past few years of drought,” Blanckenberg said.

Zander Spammer, agricultural resource manager at Southern Oil, agreed that the weather would be the biggest determinant in what happens during the rest of the season. “In June, farmers on average received 30mm [of rain] across the production region, which has helped to alleviate the impact of the poor rain at the start of the season. If climatic conditions remain favourable, we could actually be heading for a bumper crop.”

However, it was still too early to predict what would happen, he said. “Last year, we were heading for a record season until we hit a dry August, resulting in the final harvest coming in at [just