Canola (Brassica napus L.) is a high‐value summer annual crop grown in the northern Great Plains of Canada and the United States. During the early stages of its life, the crop may lose leaf area as a result of spring hail storms, frost, herbicides, animal grazing, and insects. However, little information is available on the effect of defoliation during vegetative growth on yield for spring‐planted canola. To address this gap, a five site‐year study was conducted in central Saskatchewan, Canada, to test canola recovery from partial (50%) or full (100%) defoliation at five stages before flowering (2‐, 4‐, 6‐, 8‐, and 10‐leaf stages). Partially defoliated canola plots yielded, on average, 92% of untreated control plots, while fully defoliated canola yielded 75% of controls. The yield response to defoliation timings varied; in one site‐year yield loss was minimized with earlier timings, while in the remaining site‐years, seed yield response was inconsistent or unrelated to timing. Our study shows that partial or full defoliation of summer‐cropped canola at any point during vegetative growth is likely to cause a yield loss. However the crop's substantial compensation for loss of foliage means that reseeding is rarely profitable.