Agronomist Notes

I was a spectator at Agronomy Update in Lethbridge last week and enjoyed catching up with friends and colleagues. I’ll be sharing a few of the things I learned there with you in this issue. I’m speaking at FarmTech on Wednesday and Friday so be sure to email or call me to see if we can catch up.

In this week’s newsletter, we’ll be looking at an alternative insurance tool to manage weather risk. I’ll talk about a handy little glyphosate resistance assessment tool to help you understand your own risk and I’ll also talk about a new way to manage black leg in canola. Next, I’ll pass along some more information on liquid kits for your drill from Alpine fertilizer and then we’ll discuss the importance of soil temperatures when dealing with wireworms. We’ll end it with fundamental and technical grain market news.

Pictured above: You may or may not know that my family and I are featured in the winter edition of Farm Forum magazine. If you’re brave enough to delve deeper into my psyche and learn how I ventured into farming, you can download the issue here http://www.farmforum.ca/PDF/FarmForum_Winter2011.pdf or visit http://www.farmforum.ca to read the cover story.

Agronomy

Insurance alternative for weather risk

A new crop insurance tool was introduced to the Canadian market in 2010 by a company called eWeatherRisk http://eweatherrisk.com/ . It uses local weather stations to grab long term data in order to calculate your risk premium. The tool is designed to offset the risk of crop loss due to specific weather events throughout the growing season. For example, you could insure for excessive precipitation during seeding, throughout the year or from precipitation events that prevent you from planting, spraying or harvesting. On the flip side you could get coverage for extreme temperatures during flowering or for drought during the growing season. You could also insure individual fields that have the greatest risk of weather, such as fields with sandy soil texture which are more at risk of dry periods during July and August verses clay-loam soils. The options are endless; it’s just a matter of understanding the weather risk on your farm.   

To give you an example of how this insurance works, I’ll set up a scenario for you: It’s late June and canola is coming into early flower. Temperatures above 28oC during flowering can reduce canola yield significantly, roughly a few percent loss per day and you want to protect your investment.

Steve’s quick math

Excessive heat during flowering, July 8 to 29, 2011
Farmer has 1,000 acres of canola and weather forecast calls for 30oC+ temperatures. The price of canola is $11.50 bushel. Predicted yield loss is 10% if temperatures rise between 28oC and 33oC during this period. Yield potential is 40 bu/ac after decent rains in June.

40 bu/ac canola x 10% yield loss x $11.50 bu x 1000 acres = $46,000
Farmer offsets risk of $46,000 in yield loss
$46,000 x 12% premium = $5,589 or $5.59 an acre
Calculation of degree days: (Temp Max – 28oC) = degree day x 21 days
Payout per 1 degree day above 33oC = $1,703
Temperature climbs to 32oC for 12 out of 21 days
Degree day total: 48 – 33 = 15   
Payout is $1,703 x 15 = $25,545  

Therefore, with a $5,589 risk premium, you would capture $25,545 in yield loss associated with temperatures reaching in excess of 28oC. I know it seems to take a lot of variables to understand when and how this weather risk insurance may apply, but it I’m sure the tool has a fit. The biggest downfall currently is where the weather stations are located and their proximity to your farm or fields. Depending on your location, you may not have representative weather data close by. I suspect this will improve with the growing number of weather stations popping up across the Prairies and eWeatherRisk gaining access to existing stations.

The second challenge is realizing that you don’t have to predict weather for this tool to work. Putting your money down and guessing whether it will or will not rain is gambling. You must approach this service understanding which weather risk has the greatest impact on yield at what time of year and insure for those events whether it’s excessive rain in May, lack of rain in July or excessive heat during flowering. I can see eWeatherRisk providing the additional coverage we need outside of hail insurance.  Email Brian. Ohearne@eweatherrisk.com for more information and see what options are available in your area. SL

Glyphosate resistance online assessment tool

I’ve always been a strong proponent of managing glyphosate resistance in our current direct seeding systems. Glyphosate is one of the main and most cost effective tools we have for managing weeds and something none of us would like to lose. That being said, I don’t think anyone of us know what our glyphosate resistance risk is here in Western Canada that is until now. With the help of weed scientists from Ag Canada and the Universities of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Monsanto has developed a very simple tool to measure glyphosate resistance risk. SL

It’s a quick and easy guide which gives you a rating from low to high. Try it out at:
http://www.weedtool.com/Assess_Canada/

Rotate blackleg resistance in canola varieties – Insert blackleg lesion on leaf

With canola rotations tightening from 1 in 4 years to 1 in 3 or 1 in 2 years, blackleg is something we need to be keeping a close eye on going forward. Blackleg is a virulent disease in canola and lead to 100% yield losses in severe cases. The disease can mutate easily, making it difficult for plant breeders to keep up with resistant varieties. Up until now, we’ve been coasting along with little trouble because plant breeders have kept up with evolving strains. However, as canola acres grow, so does the selection pressure of this disease and one day, it could devastate us.

As a resistance management tool, you may want to look at rotating your canola varieties depending on their black leg rating and the strain of black leg they are resistant to. This should help keep you a step ahead of those who ignore this disease and grow the same variety each year on tight rotations. SL

For more on managing black leg go to: http://www.canolacouncil.org/chapter10c.aspx

A cost update on Alpine liquid kits

I was talking with an Alpine http://www.alpineplantfoods.com/eastern_canada.html
fertilizer rep today about liquid set ups. Alpine sells liquid kits for air drills and even provides a discount on their products if you buy their equipment. They sell a John Blue ground drive pump for $800 and the cost of the lines running from the pump is $27.00 a run. Again, the cost of the poly tank is about $1,300 for an 800 gallon tanks which can be purchased anywhere. I did a quick calculation for a 70 ft drill for a client and the total cost came to $3,990, about half of what I mentioned in the previous issue which quoted on variable rate drive pumps for liquid kits.

Unfortunately for most with paired row openers, you’d have to double the cost of your lines to run one down each row or two per opener. If you’re applying liquid phosphorus, you’d have to keep your product rates up to 5 gal/ac or more to maximize product distribution. Too low a rate means inconsistent distribution in the seed row. SL

Pay attention to soil temperature if you have trouble with wireworms

Many producers are contemplating the use of wireworm control products like Raxil WW (Imidacloprid) by Bayer or Cruiser Max (Thiamethoxam) by Syngenta. The trouble most have if they haven’t experienced wireworms is deciding whether or not to spend the additional $10.00 an acre for the added insurance. Those who have experienced wireworms have likely invested in the seed treatment and have been moderately impressed with the results.

First off, we need to understand that wireworm products are formulated to suppress and not kill. Both Thiamethoxam and Imidacloprid act like a hunger suppressant. The wireworms will feed on the treated seed which in turn suppresses their appetite for a while. Meanwhile, the crop continues to grow and before the wireworms get hungry again, your crop is off and running and the plants outgrow the damage.

The reason soil temperature is so important is because of feeding rates and crop growth. Wireworm activity increases with warmer soil temperatures, especially above 10oC. If you plant treated seed in the middle of April, the ground tends to stay cool, typically below 10oC. During that time, the wireworms will continue to feed slowly for a few weeks and never really consume enough insecticide to suppress their hunger. At the same time, crop growth is also slow. The combination of steady wireworm feeding and slow crop growth can be disastrous, even when you’ve spent the money on treated seed. 

If you have wireworm problems, be sure to seed those infected fields last or when the soil temps rise above 10oC. The strategy will help the wireworms ingest the insecticide quickly, putting them off food faster while crop growth is more vigorous and grow through the damage. The fields with the worst wireworm damage are typically found in the earliest seeded fields. So, when planning your wireworm control this year, be sure to delay seeding in those fields until soil temps rise above 10oC and treat your seed with Raxil WW or Cruisermax to get the most of your investment. SL

Subscriber comments on boosting proteins with liquid urea 

I had some feedback from a grower who read last week’s article on boosting wheat protein with liquid urea and he provided a few key points when applying liquid urea that I thought I’d share. He’s had success with increasing protein in wheat using diluted UAN (28-0-0) but feels liquid urea works better.

I’ve included his comments here and added my own:

• It’s important to keep the urea on the plant, in particular the head.
• Use granular urea dissolved in water.
• Keep low water volumes.
• Maintain low pressure.
• Urea has a very small molecular size, a neutral charge and is readily absorbed into the plant through the stomata and ectodesmata.
• Ammonium and nitrate which is 50% of UAN needs to be washed into the soil before it can be taken up by the plant. Urea can enter through the leaves.
• Rates of urea are yet to be determined in our area but there is plenty of research on rates and protein increases internationally.
• Gabala et. al. (2003), added 9 lbs/ac of urea during flowering and increased protein from 10.2 to 11.8%.
• Johnson and Perfine (2002), added 9 lbs/ac of urea at milky dough and increased protein from 9.9 to 10.8%.
• Svenson et. al. (2002), added 11 lbs/ac of urea at doughy stage and increased protein from 11% to 12.2%.