April 2011 Archives

Researchers working with the Canola Council of Canada are looking for about 50 producers across Western Canada to help with a stand establishment study.

If you’ve had some experience growing canola (i.e. well remember the rapeseed days) the Canola Council may be interested in talking to you about production and stand establishment practices and doing plant counts on your farm in early June.

The study is being organized by Dr,. Yantai Gan with Agriculture Canada at Swift Current. If you are interested in helping out contact Dr. Gan by email at: yantai.gan@agr.gc.ca or phone 1-306-778-7246.

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Farmers across Western Canada using an Agrowplow direct seeding drill to plant Viterra forage seed this spring can get a 100 per cent forage seed warranty from the companies.

It is a limited time offer that has to be booked by April 30. So if you buy your forage seed from Viterra and plant it with an Agrowplow drill and it doesn’t grow or falls short in performance the companies are offering a 100 per cent warranty.

Mark Johns with Viterra’s forage seed division in Lethbridge, (right)  and Graeme Finn, Agrowplow North American manager (at left) , say you just have to call one of the 200 Viterra forage seed retailers before May 1 to make arrangements for the offer. And if you don’t own a drill, contact Agrowplow to find a custom operator in your area.

For more deteails call Agrowplow in Crossfield, Alberta  403-946-5300, or visit their website at www.agrowplow.com  or contact Viterra at 1-800-661-3334 or visit their website at www.viterra.ca

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 Banding all fertilizer best under “normal” conditions

While there have been some newer products and pitches advocating split fertilizer applications, an Alberta Agriculture soil scientist says a single application of fertilizer, banded at time of seeding, is the most effective means of providing adequate nutrition for a crop.

Ross McKenzie, who is based in Lethbridge, says research with cereals, shows placing all fertilizer, preferably in a banding operation, at time of seeding is the most practical treatment, under average moisture conditions.

"In a year like 2011, when producers in most areas are heading to the field with good and up to high soil moisture, McKenzie there would be few benefits from a split application. “When field moisture is topped up in most areas like it is this year, I would be inclined to fertilize for optimum yield and put it all on either before or at time of seeding banded in or to the side of the seed row.”

Couple exceptions

He does describe two exceptional circumstances when a split application or top dressing on cereals may be warranted.

“If you have very dry conditions at time of planting you may want to cut back the fertilizer rate you would normally apply,” says McKenzie. “And then if two to three weeks later you get two or three inches of rain that changes the yield potential for the crop, you can look at going back and top dressing with the rest of the fertilizer rate.

“In the other situation, if you seed your crop, and then over the next two to four weeks you have exceptional rainfall there is a risk some of the nutrients applied at seeding could have been leached from the soil or lost through denitrification, and again a top dressing may be warranted.”

McKenzie says producers need to pay attention to the type of product, the rate and the timing of the application, for both in-crop applications, or when top-dressing, makes sense.

“Regardless of what product is used for top dressing, you need to apply at least 30 to 40 pounds of nitrogen,” says McKenzie. “Top dressing with 10 pounds simply isn’t enough to be of any value to the crop.

Fertilizer options

With granular nitrogen fertilizers, his first choice is ammonium nitrate, 34-0-0 as it is very stable when surface applied during a top-dressing treatment. However, it is a formulation that is seldom available to producers. Urea can be broadcast applied as a top-dressing, but unless it rains a short time after application, with warm, moisture soil conditions, there is risk of some nitrogen being lost to the atmosphere through a process known as volatilization.

To reduce the risk of nitrogen losses he recommends using urea treated with a urease inhibitor, such as Agrotain, which provides 10 to 12 days of protection against volatilization “and hopefully within that time there will be some rain to move the nitrogen into the soil,” he says.

McKenzie says liquid nitrogen fertilizer such as 28-0-0 are effective for top dressing, but recommends it be applied with a jet stream-type nozzle directly onto the soil surface. Since half of the 28-0-0 is made up of urea, it also is at risk of being lost to volatilization, and again recommends the use of a urease inhibitor with the liquid product.

Another granular product that can be used for top dressing is 21-0-0-24, ammonium sulphate. It is a very stable source of nitrogen with low risk of losses if it stays on the soil surface for a few days before it rains, however, with it producers are also applying sulphate which the crop may not need.

Limitations

McKenzie doesn’t recommend the use of foliar nitrogen top dressings, simply because he doesn’t feel they are effective. At the most, only 20 pounds of nitrogen can be applied as a foliar, because higher rates will damage the crop leaves. Even though liquid products are applied as foliars, he says only one to five per cent of nitrogen is actually taken up by the leaves, and the rest has to be washed from the leaves by rain and eventually taken up by the roots. If it doesn’t rain nitrogen can be lost.

With any top dressing he says it can take three to four weeks for the crop to be able to take up nutrients after the application. If a farmer decides on June 10, for example, to apply a top dressing, it could be three to five days after that before it rains to carry the nutrients into the soil, and then it will take two to three weeks more for soil microbes to convert the nitrogen to a nitrate form so it can be used by the crop. It could be July 1 before the crop is actually able to make use of the nutrients.

A split application or late season nitrogen boost may help yield slightly, and may bump protein, which is fine for feed barley, or if producers are after high protein in spring wheat and durum, says McKenzie. “If the second application is made between the six leaf and boot stage, it can affect protein, but it is not always reliable and in my experience the success is marginal,” he says. And an in-crop top dressing with nitrogen, which could boost protein may not be desirable for malt barley production.

The yield potential of crops is determined at the tillering stage, so any top up application aimed at improving yield has to be applied before tillering. Later applications may salvage yield, but won’t increase yield, says McKenzie.

Lee Hart is a field editor for Grainews in Calgary, Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com

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A lot of companies and associations have “great websites and great web tools”  to keep people informed and make life easier. And sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t.

But, one recent website/software I was pointed towards, which I think is just a great idea is called Savvy Farmer. It costs $199 per year to subscribe to the web-based software, but what it does is help a farmer or crop advisor in selecting the proper crop protection products, to deal with whatever weeds or insects are out there, and it also shows cost per acre depending on the product chosen.

You can read more about it in the May 2011 issue of Grainews, or visit the Savvy Farmer website at www.savvyfarmer.com

This program, developed by former Syngenta president Warren Libby and technical partner Sam Vurrabindi, has brought together a data base of all registered crop protection products in Canada, along with all the known weeds, diseases and insects that can affect some 756 crops. The program can calculate something like four million treatments with different product combinations.

So you as a farmer would subscribe for access to the software program, enter some basic information like your province, the type of crop, the weeds, disease or insects to be controlled for each field, and hit search, and in about three seconds the program gives you all the product options for controlling the crop pest, as well as a cost range per acre for each product, based on suggested retail price.

Talk about slick!  Maybe your mind is like a steel trap and you can remember all the brand and generic product names, new combinations, new formulations and all the different weeds, or insects, or diseases the respective products can control. I can’t. Once you get passed glyphosate I am lost.

I ran through a Savvy Farmer demo and even I could figure it out. It is that simple.

If you’re in Saskatchewan looking to control narrow leaved hawks beard and stinkweed in malt barley, for example — enter that basic info and BAM the program gives you your two or three dozen product options, the herbicide group, rates and tank mixes, and cost of each product per acre.

It is a great idea and looks to be very thoroughly and professionally done. Along with Grainews and Savvy Farmer website, Shaun Haney of Real Agriculture has a video interview with Warren Libby and demonstration on his website at www.realagriculture.com . Just go to the realagriculture.com website, enter Savvy Farmer in the search window and watch the interview.

Lee Hart is a field editor for Grainews in Calgary, Contact him at 403-592-1964 or by email at lee@fbcpublishing.com

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