Agronomist Notes

Harvest is just getting underway with pea harvest in full swing and winter wheat harvest just beginning. Pea yields in the Carbon area have been in the 60 bushel range with winter wheat topping 90 bushels an acre. What a great start to harvest! You know it’s been a good year when 60+ bushel peas are standing and you’re able to leave 12 inches of stubble.

Thousands of canola acres have been swathed in the east with producers in the west just beginning to open up fields. Wheat and barley are almost ripe. Unfortunately, it looks like everything will be ready at once.

Yesterday, I tiptoed down a pre-harvest spray track to get a photo of this dandy pea crop. The yield monitor on the combine read 80 bushels an acre where you see me kneeling. I’m wondering, though, if we’ll see those yields for canola this year. There are few big crops out there but with 12 inches of rain up until early August, I suspect we’ll see 48 bushel canola, 95 bushel barley and 75 bushel spring wheat. That’s my prediction for the country from Highway 21 and west. You could shave off 15% for the country east of Highway 21.

This week we’ll discuss straight cutting canola versus swathing and take a look at whether big acre farmers are pushing efficiency too far. I have a fellow Nuffield Scholar visiting me from Western Australia and he and his father seed 20,000 acres with one 50 foot drill! If all goes well, they can seed everything in 30 days working 24 hours a day. We’ll also look at grain cart compaction and whether we’re doing more harm than good. Finally, we’ll finish with international crop weather news.  

Agronomy

Straight cutting canola versus swathing

Many producers are looking at straight cutting canola rather than swathing this year. We know that straight cutting can significantly increase seed size and to some extent yield. With custom swathing rates hovering around $10 or more an acre and most producers in a labour shortage, some would rather eliminate a man or one operation if they could. With that, the research I’ve found in terms of yield comparisons would suggest that swathing late at the 60-70% seed colour change can yield 8% higher than straight cutting. The end result is a possible increase of over $30 an acre with late swathing versus straight cutting.

Now the results of several research plots are not your fields in 2008 and risks must be weighed by field, by crop and by each individuals harvest capabilities. If you are ready to swath this week and the crop is between 30% and 60% seed colour change, you’ll be in good shape to try straight cutting provided the crop has decent yield potential and fairly even maturity. After the end of this week, leaving canola to straight cut may leave too much risk of frost, snow and late maturity as cool fall weather sets in. SL
Reference: http://www.ssca.ca/conference/conference2006/Nybo.pdf

Are big acre farmers sacrificing yield for efficiency?

I know a number of producers who look across the fence at neighbors farming 7,000 to 10,000 acres with one air drill and wonder if they would be better off farming less and doing a better job. Some may call it jealousy; some may be justified in their opinion when you look at some fields with thin stands. Now, not all big acre producers are doing a poor job. It’s so easy to point a finger when you don’t know the whole story. Also, you have to wonder if the gains in efficiency make up for the few fields that some would call disastrous.
Fortunately, the spring rains in May and June for the last two years have washed over everyone’s seeding sins big or small, like seeding too fast leaving highly variable germination and emergence, poor weed control from untimely spraying and subsequent yield losses. Unfortunately, when the spring rains don’t come after seeding, it will sting those who don’t do a proper job of seed placement.

The question I’m most curious to answer is how many fewer acres a 9,000 acre producer would cover by slowing down from 6.5 mph to 4.5 mph on canola, for instance. The reason I ask is because of the larger producers I watch, I do notice significant variation in crop emergence, especially in canola. The difference I see is due to seeding speed, with many pushing the 6.5 to 7 mph mark. A great deal of research has shown improvements in yield and maturity when seeding speed drops from 6.5 to 4.5 mph in canola. Yet, does it really matter?

Let’s do the math:
Example producer: 2,000 acres of canola to seed, 70 foot air drill dropping from 6.5 mph to 4.5 mph
70ft × (5,280ft/mi × 6.5 mph) ÷ 43,560 ft/acre = 55 acres per hour
70ft × (5,280ft/mi × 4.5 mph) ÷ 43,560 ft/acre = 38 acres per hour
2,000 acres ÷ 55 acres per hour = 36 hours
2,000 acres ÷ 38 acres per hour = 52 hours

In this scenario, you stand to gain 16 acres per hour by seeding 2 mph faster. With an average seeding day that’s 12 hours long after fill times, you stand to gain 192 acres seeded per day. At 6.5 mph and a 12 hour seeding day, you could seed 2,000 acres of canola in three days. At 4.5 mph it would take four and a half days to seed 2,000 acres of canola. So in the end, you’ve seeded an extra 1,000 acres by seeding at 6.5 miles an hour. At this year’s conservative $100 per acre net margin, the 4.5 mph drop in speed would have to net you another 4.4 bushels in yield or $50.00 per acre. This assumes that you would farm 1,000 acres less because you decided to seed 2 mph slower on your canola. Interesting!

With average canola yields hovering around 35 to 40 bushels an acre, you have to increase yields by at least 10% to make up for the net revenue you’ve lost on the 1,000 acres you decided not to seed. In the end, perhaps it does make sense to keep seeding speeds up and push equipment efficiencies to the point that a little yield loss is not the end of the world. SL

Grain cart compaction, is it an issue?
Over the last two years, we’ve seen a large increase in the number of grain carts used on most farms. Average cart capacity is between 1,500 and 1,800 bushels. That translates to a 40 or 50 tonnes load on two to three axles. As any plant geek would do, I went out and purchased a compaction tester to help find any hidden compaction we’re not seeing. I am growing more concerned with the amount of wheel tracking we’ve done over the last three wet years with all of our equipment. On Monday, I was able to catch a pea harvest after an inch and four tenths of rain to see if I could measure any significant compaction. 

The equipment I was following was a JD 9760 with front duals and a Balzer 1,800 bushel grain cart with tridem axels, pulled by a 4WD Case 9150. The picture on the right is taken in the wheel track behind the grain cart.

In this test, I didn’t see any significant compaction behind the wheels of the grain cart or the JD 9760. Where I did see significant compaction was behind the tires of the fully loaded B-train truck and trailer. The areas I tested behind the grain cart and combine were considered very mild in the top 15 inches. The compaction behind the tires of the B-train was rated moderate.

Perhaps a winter of freezing and thawing would alleviate some moderate compaction and maybe I’m making a fuss over nothing. However, after today’s small experiment I’m thankful we’ve moved away from tandems and B-trains to the more efficient grain carts. Farming is about managing all the small things that add up to a large sum. Alleviating compaction where we can is a step in the right direction. SL

Market News

International Crop Weather News

United States: In the West, dry weather prevails, except for scattered showers in southern and eastern New Mexico. Fieldwork, including Northwestern small grain harvesting, is proceeding with few delays. On the Plains, scattered showers sweeping across Montana and the Dakotas are easing drought but causing brief small grain harvest delays. Elsewhere, the central Plains are getting a break from recent downpours, while heavy showers and thunderstorms on the southern Plains are slowing fieldwork but aiding drought-stressed pastures and immature summer crops. In the Corn Belt, mild, dry weather remains nearly ideal for reproductive to filling summer crops. In the South, locally heavy showers and thunderstorms are spreading eastward. Rain is arriving too late for drought-stressed corn, but remains favorable for pastures and immature summer crops.

Europe: Drier than normal weather persists in northeastern Europe, reducing soil moisture for filling spring grains and vegetative to reproductive summer crops. Showers slow small grain harvesting in England, France, and Germany. However, the wet weather maintains favorable soil moisture supplies for filling summer crops.

Former Soviet Union: In western Ukraine, dry weather follows in the wake of last week’s heavy rainfall, allowing flood waters to recede and improving conditions for small grain harvesting. In eastern Ukraine and southern Russia, showers and cooler weather improve growing conditions for summer crops in the reproductive to filling stages of development. In major spring wheat producing areas, showers accompany a cooling trend in the Urals District in Russia and north-central Kazakhstan, while hot, dry weather stresses filling crops in Siberia, Russia.

East Asia: Dry weather reduces soil moisture for reproductive corn and soybeans in western Heilonjiang.

Southeast Asia: Seasonal showers bring favorable moisture to corn in Thailand. Tropical showers cause flooding in the northern Philippines, likely necessitating some replanting of corn.

South Asia: Heavy rain in central and western India boosts soil moisture for cotton, soybeans, and groundnuts. Showers reach southern Pakistan more than a month later than normal, easing irrigation requirements for cotton and rice but likely arriving too late for rain-fed summer crops.

Australia: In Western Australia, soaking rain sustains favorable growing conditions for winter wheat and barley. Elsewhere in the Australia wheat belt, scattered showers continue to benefit vegetative winter grains.

South America: Rain maintains generally favorable conditions for winter wheat in southern Brazil. Following last week’s rain, winter grain planting continues in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s largest producer of wheat. Drought-related planting delays continue, however, in Cordoba and Santa Fe.

Canada: Moderate to heavy rain increases moisture for spring grains and oilseeds in many previously dry locations of the northern and eastern Prairies.

Mexico: Summer showers boost moisture for corn and other rain-fed summer crops after a brief drying trend.