If you are targeting 40 bu/ac canola, you usually don’t need to worry about micronutrients. If you’re targeting 60 bu/ac you often need boron and when you’re after 80 bu/ac you will likely need it.
When you’re intending to grow high yields of crops, a possible analogy is to think of your crop as a high performance race car engine and the nutrients needed as the high octane fuel required so the engine performs at its optimum potential.
Similarly, if you are already investing a lot in your canola crop by putting down high rates of the macronutrients don’t then limit yield by not applying micronutrients such as boron.
While a high-end fertility program does not guarantee higher yields it does significantly increase the probability of obtaining higher yields over average fertilizer programs.
Agronomists generally suggest that for canola you want 2 lb of boron per acre in your soil or 1.0 ppm on a 0-6” soil sample but there are a number of aspects to boron that can affect this recommendation.
When you do need to apply boron, these are your options:
Note, given that it takes quite some time for boron to move from the foliage to the destination tissue, Yara agronomists recommend it be applied no later than 10% bloom, i.e. usually with the herbicide.
Watch this video about the benefits of foliar nutrition in canola.
Low boron can lead to cracked, hollow stems, poor seed set and yield loss. The picture below from a trial in Manitoba showed the boron added, created a 7 bushel/acre yield response. SRP on BORTRAC 150 is less than $3/acre - an extremely cost effective application. Add in to herbicide or fungicide at 0.4L/acre.
In interview to Real Ag Radio on March 28, 2019, Yara's Crop Manager Markus Braaten talks about the critical role each micronutrient plays in producing the best possible crop.