Canola: the crop that requires perfect planning
In 2018, seven years after joining his father, Bertus, on their family farm, Klipheuwel, near Moorreesburg in the Western Cape, Melt van der Westhuizen won a prize for the highest canola yield in South Africa.
Ironically, Van der Westhuizen did not suspect that the harvest would be one of his best, let alone a record-breaker. Yet he averaged 3,44t/ha on the 34ha camp entered into the Protein Research Foundation’s annual canola yield competition.
“Our yields had averaged around 2t/ha since we incorporated canola into our wheat rotation system in 2014, but fluctuated greatly from one year to another mainly because of the drought that started in 2015.”
In 2014, Van der Westhuizen harvested a healthy 2,6t/ha, followed by 1,7t/ha during a much drier 2015. Production was up
