Management Strategies for Winter Canola in the Texas Rolling Plains.

Planted canola acres continue to increase in North Texas, an area in which monoculture wheat systems are predominant. A large portion of planted acres have been in no-till environments, which has led to winter survival issues, although plant date played a significant role in 2013.  We have initiated research projects to address agronomic issues specific to the Texas Rolling Plains.  Research included the impact of plant date (no-till and conventional tillage); row spacing, variety selection, and seeding rate; canola-wheat rotations; and grazing.  The optimum planting date for the region is around Sept. 20^th. In 2013, all research planted October 7^th and later resulted in 100% crop loss. We will also discuss the impact of row spacing and using strip-tillage to alleviate winter survival in wheat stubble.  We examined the impact of three pull-off dates during the winter of 2014.  Grazing cattle resulted in significantly reduced spring stands after only one and two week grazing periods compared to the ungrazed check.  2014 yield data and 2014 fall stand data will be the focus of discussion.