Agronomist Notes
The weather remains cool with September just around the corner. All crops are having a hard time maturing and little progress has been made week over week. I manage some 110-day barley that’s been in the ground for 120 days and is still 12 days away from harvest! Yield prospects are excellent and well above average for most but quality will be an issue. The 14-day weather outlook calls for temperatures averaging below 20 degrees C. Break out the swathers and sprayers folks, natural dry down will be merely a dream.
In this week’s issue of Beyond Agronomy News, we’ll look at pushing the pre-harvest glyphosate window and how to determine physiological maturity in wheat. Next, we’ll run the numbers on delivering tough grain to see if starting earlier than normal makes sense this year. Last, I’ll give you an update on blackleg that I’ve been finding recently. Of course, we’ll finish with fundamental and technical grain market news.
Steve’s tips and tricks
- 14-day weather trend calls for temperatures below 20 degrees. Plan a swath or desiccation program in cereals. High humidity + soil moisture + late crops = slow drydown
- Lygus bugs: count only the adults at this stage and if you’re finding 4+ per sweep with about half the seeds on the main stem watery/translucent, then apply insecticide.
- When judging pre-harvest dry down in wheat and barley, be sure you have green leaf material left on the flag and penultimate leaves. No green leaf area = no dry down effect
Agronomy
Pushing pre-harvest glyphosate in wheat
With the prospect of late maturing crops on our hands, many producers are wondering how early they can push the pre-harvest glyphosate window to speed up maturity. From experience, spending the money on a properly timed pre-harvest glyphosate application can mean the difference between No. 1 HRS and feed in a wet, humid fall. However, a poorly timed application can lead to either no dry down effect or excess glyphosate residue in the seed and yield loss. Let’s look at the straight goods on pre-harvest timing in wheat for dry down purposes.
Canadian research has shown that glyphosate applied to wheat with seed moisture content above 25% slightly improved the dry down of both the seed and foliage when compared to leaving a standing crop. The authors found that the small differences in the dry-down required 10 to 15 days to become expressed, and warmer or drier conditions tended to make the differences in dry-down between treated and untreated disappear.
The maximum benefit of glyphosate as a desiccant was observed when seed moisture content was above 40%. This was well before the wheat crop reached physiological maturity and, consequently, the authors reported yield losses and high residue levels of glyphosate in the harvested seed. When seed moisture content dropped below 40%, the glyphosate applications caused little or no yield losses and little to no differences in kernel weight, test weight, grain protein, or germination. Just to note, 40% seed moisture content is 10% higher than registered.
If you’re planning a pre-harvest dry down application the biggest thing to observe is the amount of green leaf area remaining on the flag and penultimate leaf. If the top two leaves have died from disease or other related stresses then a pre-harvest glyphosate dry down application will not work and only leave you disappointed. You must have roughly 5 to 10% of the top two leaves with green leaf material adjacent to the stem. The glyphosate must translocate down to the roots to stop growth. If there is dead tissue between the stem and green leaf area, the glyphosate has nowhere to go but accumulate in the leaf and do nothing to stop growth. If this is the case then swathing will be your next best choice. Good luck this fall. Here’s hoping the weather holds! SL
Source: www.smallgrains.org
Quick facts: Knowing when wheat has finished filling
How do you know when wheat has reached physiological maturity and finished the filling stage? At physiological maturity, the maximum amount of dry matter or filling has accumulated in the kernels. The peduncle is the upper internode of the stem that carries the spike. It has a characteristic bend just below the spike. It is this bend that will lose the green colour first, signalling that the vascular system no longer communicates to the head and that physiological maturity has been reached.
The loss of green in the peduncle is a very useful marker to aid in the correct timing of pre-harvest use of glyphosate. The picture on the right shows the colour changes in wheat that has matured on the right and wheat that has not finished filling on the right.
Source: www.smallgrains.org
Grain moisture content and grain drying fees: Planning for a tough harvest
As we move to a rather cool and possibly wet harvest on crops that are physiologically behind, I think it’s important to weigh all the options. Delivering the first 25% of your grain tough may allow you to start harvest earlier this year. I’ve called around and every elevator seems to be in the process of figuring out drying costs and tough discounts. I thought I’d run some quick numbers using last year’s discounts to see what moisture percentage we might want to start harvesting at this year.
Steve’s quick math
Tough grain discount (17% moisture): $8.00/T
440/T (10 loads) × (17% - 14.5%) moisture = 11/T gain in weight
11/T × $223.94/T net for No. 1 HRS 13.5 protein on the fixed price contract as of Aug 23rd = $2,463.34
440/T × $8.00/T discount = $3,520
$3,520 - $2,463.34 ÷ 440 T = $2.40/T
Therefore, in this scenario, you would be giving up $2.40/T by delivering grain at 17% and incurring a tough discount instead waiting for the appropriate 14.5% moisture to begin harvest. It’s true that you may be giving up $2.40/T by speculating on a wet harvest which hopefully will not occur. However, if you plan on harvesting another 1,000 to 2,000 tonnes of wheat afterwards and the weather turns wet, the difference between a No. 1 HRS and a No. 3 or feed is $20-$40 a tonne. Delivering tough grain early might save you $20,000 to $40,000 by saving a few grades if harvest weather doesn’t cooperate. Talk to your local elevator now and see what numbers you come up with and whether they’re keen to consider it. It would be better to put a plan in place now so your local elevator knows your what-if scenarios, rather than sitting in their office with 3,000 tonnes of tough grain and no bargaining power. SL
Blackleg in moderately resistant canola varieties
After inspecting prematurely ripened pods in canola last week, I noticed a fair amount of weakly virulent blackleg in some varieties. I first noticed it in my own canola, InVigor 1141. What drew my attention were the prematurely ripened pods, which at first I thought was sclerotinia. After pulling the plants out of the ground I noticed stem lesions with black peppery spots on the infection point and there was infection on the leaves as well. To my dismay, all InVigor varieties are rated resistant to blackleg except for the InVigor Health 1141 and 1145. Thankfully this disease strain rarely causes much yield loss but it may cause some shattering loss.
So, be sure to check your fields this fall and examine plants for signs of blackleg. Find out if you should be choosing varieties that are resistant to blackleg instead of moderately resistant. Looking at the number of canola acres grown this year in my area, this disease may become more of an issue going forward. SL
For more info on blackleg go to: http://www.canolacouncil.org/chapter10c.aspx
For information on varietal blackleg ratings go to: http://www.canolacouncil.org/uploads/PCVT%202009%20for%20web.pdf
Market News
Commodity Fundamentals
| Wheat Production in Million Metric Tonnes | Ending Stocks 5-Year Avg | Sep Ending Stocks vs. 5-year Avg | ||||||
| Crop | Production | Ending Stocks | ||||||
| 2008-09 | Aug-10 | Change | 2008-09 | Aug-10 | Change | |||
| Rapeseed | 57.9 | 56.7 | -2% | 6.7 | 4.8 | -29% | 4.6 | 4% |
| Barley | 154.9 | 127.9 | -17% | 30.6 | 21.3 | -30% | 25.7 | -17% |
| Wheat | 683.2 | 645.0 | -6% | 165 | 174.7 | 6% | 138.6 | 26% |
| Corn | 794.7 | 831.5 | 5% | 147 | 139.1 | -5% | 125.9 | 10% |
| Soybeans | 211.7 | 253.6 | 20% | 42.8 | 64.7 | 51% | 54 | 20% |
Technical Analysis
Canola: November futures. The short and long term trend is up.
HRS Wheat: December futures. The short and the long term trend is down.
Corn: December futures. The short and long term trends are down.
Soybeans: November futures. The short term trend is down and long term trend is up.
Canadian Dollar: August futures. The short term trend is up and the long trend is down.
US Dollar Index: August futures. The short term trend is down and the long term trend is up.
