Agronomist Notes

We’ve come to the end of fungicide season and it was a busy one. The majority of wheat and malt barley got an application this year. Each morning the plant leaves are soaking wet with dew which increases the risk for leaf disease. I have sprayed a few fields for wheat midge but insect pressure has been nowhere near what the forecast maps were calling for.

Many areas had 1 to 2.5 inches of rain that came hard and fast last Friday evening. Thankfully, our barley isn’t lodging and most crops are bouncing back after the storm.

This issue of Beyond Agronomy News, we’ll look at pre-harvest intervals for fungicides and tips on scouting for lygus bugs. I’ve included some information on applying liquid urea to canola at podding to boost yield and on wheat to boost protein. I’ll also give a brief overview of the tram lines after the rains and finish up with wide row spacing in canola using a disk drill. As always, we’ll end with fundamental and technical grain market news.  

Crop Staging Area (Calgary to Drumheller to Three Hills)

Seeded	May 1-7	May 8-15	May 16-21	May 22-29
Wheat	early milk	watery ripe	end of flowering	flowering
Canola	end of flowering	late flower	mid flower	70% bloom
Barley	milky dough	early milk	watery dough	heads emerged
Peas	early pod	late flower	mid flower	early flower

Steve’s tips of the week

• Continue monitoring for wheat midge in wheat that hasn't started flowering. I estimate wheat planted later than May 20th is still at risk. One adult midge per 4 or 5 wheat heads is the threshold for yield loss and 1 midge per 10 heads is threshold for grade loss.
• The window for spraying wheat midge closes at 80% flowering.
• Although numbers have been low, begin monitoring for diamondback moth in canola.
• Begin sweeping for lygus bugs in canola planted the first week of May. My personal threshold for lygus bugs is 4 per sweep at the end of flower.
• If you plan to straight cut canola, watch fields as they come out of bloom to give you an idea of which fields are the most even and best candidates for straight cutting.
• Spraying for sclerotina past 50% bloom is rarely economical and by now most canola is well past the optimum spray window
• Now is a good time for late season nitrogen applications to boost protein.
• Continue to monitor wheat midge levels in the evenings for wheat that has not yet flowered.

Agronomy

Pre-harvest intervals for fungicides

With late fungicide applications occurring this week, it’s important to recognize the right pre-harvest interval for the product you’re using. See below:

• Astound (cyprodinil + fludioxonil): canola 35 days;
• Bravo (chlorothalonil): lentil/chickpea 14 days, peas 32 days, wheat 30 days;
• Caramba (metconazole): cereals 30 days;
• Folicur (tebuconazole): wheat 36 days;
• Headline (pyraclostrobin): pulses 30 days, oilseeds 21days, cereals no later than end of flowering;
• Lance (boscalid): pulses and canola 21 days;
• Mancozeb products (Dithane/Manzate/Penncozeb): lentil 35 days, wheat 40 days;
• Proline (prothioconazole): barley and wheat 30 days, canola 36 days, chickpea and lentil seven days;
• Propiconazole products (Tilt/Bumper/Pivot): cereals 45 days, canola 60 days;
• Prosaro (prothioconazole + tebuconazole): cereals 36 days;
• Quadris (azoxystrobin): canola 30 days, coriander 21 days, pulses 15 days;
• Quilt (azoxystrobin + propiconazole): pulses 30 days, cereals 45 days;
• Rovral Flo/RX (iprodione): canola 38 days;
• Serenade (biofungicide): can be applied up to harvest;
• Stratego (propiconazole + trifloxystrobin): cereals 45 days.

Controlled Traffic Farming Field Day

We hosted a CTF field day at the farm June 29th and Farm.TV was there. They have posted a new video with footage from the day and an interview with Peter Gamache on the CTF Alberta project.
http://originals.farm.tv/post/128/controlled_traffic_farming_alberta_2nd.html

Tips on lygus bug scouting

Many canola fields are almost finished blooming and entering the stage where lygus bugs can cause permanent damage. I haven't found a field even close to threshold after all the rain we’ve had but there may be pockets with high lygus bug pressure. To help you make the decision whether to spray or not this year, I've put together a few pointers. 

Lygus bugs will typically damage 7% of the seed at the 3 to 4 per sweep threshold. That's 2 bushels of damage on a 30 bushel crop, 2.8 bushels on a 40 bushel crop and 3.5 bushels on a 50 bushel crop. Under heavy infestations, yield loss estimates have been as high as 40%.

First Identify the maturity of the lygus bugs. Count the number of fourth and fifth instar lygus bugs there are per sweep, which are the ones that do the damage. Lygus bugs at the 1st to 3rd instar do not have the ability to pierce the pods and cause damage. If you count more than 3 to 4 mature lygus per sweep then move on to the second step.

Second Identify the firmness in the seeds. Lygus bugs have piercing sucking mouth parts, but they cannot pierce through firm seeds or pods. Select a few plants at each stop and open up the pods to see how firm the seeds are inside. Then, estimate the percentage of watery or translucent seeds in the plant.

Last If the mature lygus bug counts have reached 3 to 4 per sweep, not including young lygus bugs and more than 1/3 of the seeds in the pods are watery or translucent, then control is necessary. Reversely, if more than 2/3 of the seeds are firm and the threshold level has just been reached, you're likely out of the danger zone and don't need to spray. SL

Reference and photo source: Alberta Agriculture http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/app21/rtw/index.jsp  and Canola Council of Canada http://www.canola-council.org/

Applying liquid urea at early pod stage in canola boosts yields in the UK

I chatted with my good friend Nick Ward from Lincolnshire and asked him how he applied liquid urea to his canola. Here are his comments:

• You can use any 46% urea and tip it into the water tank and circulate it using a pump. 'Distressed' urea is usually used (ie. sweepings up out of a boat or store) as it is cheaper and doesn't need to have spreading quality.
• We spray on 150-200 litres of 20% nitrogen solution per ha at the end of flowering. (That works out to 25 lbs/N per 15-20 US gallons/ac.)
• If temperatures are hot, apply in the evening. We don't dilute it, but if you were concerned about heat, dilute it with the same amount of water. I've applied the urea solution up to 23 degrees C and didn't have any problems with leaf burn.
• 20% is the max strength that you will get. I think granular urea may be the better option as prilled has an oily coating that leaves a film on the liquid.
• For our main liquid fertilizer solutions we would use an ammonium nitrate/urea mix in solution to get the concentration up to 37%. But for this job a urea solution is a lot gentler and will cause way less scorch even in warmer conditions.

Here are a couple of points of my own:

• Add 3.6 lbs of urea per gallon of water to give you 25 lbs/N per acre and apply solution at 15 gal/ac.   
• You can delay maturity with a late season nitrogen application so those who've finished flowering by late July, early August might be able to afford a slight delay in maturity.
• There is a possibility of leaf burn if applying in warm conditions so try applications at night.

Steve's quick math

Let's see what this nitrogen boost could pay back.
25 lbs/ac × $0.50 lb/N = $12.50 ac + $3.50 application = $16.00/ac
50 bu/ac canola yield × 10% × $11.50 bu = $57.50/ac
ROI: 259%

In theory, if we were to see the same response as some have in the UK, the additional $16.00 investment in liquid urea may net you a 259% return on your investment. I think there is value in spreading out nitrogen applications in canola and this might be a way to generate better nitrogen use efficiency rather than applying all nitrogen up front which by now is 90 days ago. Even a 5% yield increase at today's prices makes this option viable. SL.

Late season foliar nitrogen option to boost wheat protein

The company UAP has been promoting the use of their liquid nitrogen product called N-Pact 26-0-0 to boost protein in wheat. I’ve got a few trials going this year but I thought I would include the info this week in case some of you would like to try. I’m still hesitant on the economics of the application but we’ll give it a try and see how it performs. Here are the details:

• 33% Slow Release if soil applied - 63% available immediately upon foliar application.
• Each US gallon or 3.78L contains:  2.63 pounds of actual N based on a foliar efficiency factor of 10 = approx. 26 pounds of N soil applied.
• Safest form of liquid nitrogen. Will not burn a crop.
• Will not leach or volatilize.
• Translocated immediately to reproductive area at flag leaf, not vegetative growth.
• Can be applied at flag leaf to boost the protein level by 0.5% to 0.75%. We’re trying a later application this year to see what happens.
• N-Pact is clear and water like. No known issues mixing with herbicides or fungicides.
• Rate is 2-4L/ac. SRP is $3.28/L or $12.38/ US Gallon (3.78 litres).

The cost of a 3L/ac rate of N-Pact plus application would work out to $16.84/ac ($9.84 + $7.00) if you were having it custom applied at 10 gal/ac. A 0.5% gain in protein works out to $0.28 a bushel or $16.80/ac on a 60 bu/ac wheat crop. Given this scenario, a 0.5% gain in protein barely gives us our money back. This application would have to provide a 1% increase in protein to provide a 2:1 return on our investment. SL

Tram lines holding up in wet weather – no erosion or weeds

Yesterday I walked through our barley after two inches of rain last Friday evening. I was inspecting the tram lines to see if there were any signs of erosion from the heavy rainfall. Our soils were nearing field capacity before the rain so we thought erosion may be a big risk on our unseeded tram lines. I’m happy to say that after at year and a half of controlled traffic, I didn’t see any erosion. In fact, even at field capacity there are cracks showing up only in the tram lines where the soils are compacted. I suspect the water just shot down the cracks and never had a chance to run very far.

The second observation was the lack of weeds in the tram lines and the size of the weeds that are located inside the tram lines. All the weeds (volunteer wheat mainly) are small, spindly, and unhealthy. There has been plenty of speculation that leaving a 23 inch unseeded gap in our wheel tracks would invite late flushes of weeds. I’m happy to say that it’s not the case can second year in a row. Freeze/thaw, wet/dry, erosion, weedy fields, what other myth out there can we dispel? Mitch and I can’t wait to dig into this barley next month. SL

Wide row spacing in canola drops seed costs with the right drill

I stopped by Doug Clemens near Mossleigh to look at some wide row spacing trials he has in canola this year. Doug is comparing 10 inch and 20 inch row spacing using his John Deere 1895 disk drill equipped with mid-row banders and liquid kit. As you may remember from last year, the folks who tried 15, 24 and 30 inch row spacing with canola using corn planters and a ConservaPak all outperformed narrow row spacing http://www.beyondagronomy.com/newsletter/19_10_2010.htm

Personally, I know we can achieve greater seed placement accuracy, faster maturity, higher yields and significantly reduced seed costs from moving to stand alone canola planters http://www.beyondagronomy.com/newsletter/20_7_2010.htm, like those used in soybeans, corn and sugarbeets. What I like best on top of the benefits is the $20 and $30 acre savings in seed costs, which in most cases just about pays for the canola planter within a year or two.   

The photos you see here are an example of the plant stands we can achieve with low seeding rates and wider row spacing. The photo on top shows the 20 inch row spacing and the 10 inch row spacing is below. Visually, the 20 inch row spacing looks healthier and more efficient with wider leaves and thicker stalks. The 20 inch row spacing had a seeding rate of 3 lbs/ac and the 10 inch spacing had a seeding rate of 5 lbs/ac. Both stands were planted to the variety InVigor 5440. So, for $20.00ac less, we can achieve a healthier plant stand with no lag in maturity. Win win I’d say.

I think it’s a matter of time before separate planters or disk drills are used to plant canola. The disk drill was able to seed at 3 lbs/ac but there’s potential to get down to 1.5 to 2.5 lbs/ac when using a planter like a Monosem or John Deere planter. ConservaPak claims they can go down to 3 lbs/ac with canola and they can, they just cant offer seed singulation like a planter or have the ability to comfortably go down to 1.5 or 2.5 lbs/ac. You just can’t meter out that little product with the majority of air tanks aside from the new SeedMaster tank which can meter down to 1.5 lbs/ac quite nicely. The SeedMaster seed singulation starts off well but falls off the rails when you try and send seed with varying sizes and weights down 60 or 70 ft of air tubes. That’s where the vacuum planters shine and offer the singulation and within row plant spacing we’re looking for along with accurate metering and seed placement. SL