Agronomist Notes
Last week provided another random weather event that brought seeding progress to a halt once again. The reports around the country were anywhere from ½ to 4 inches. Many producers are struggling to get the last 10% seeded and some producers along the Highway 2 corridor are struggling to get the first 20% seeded! There are many fields sitting at the saturation point with hidden wet areas you would never think possible. You drive right through a draw only to grab the hydraulics and pull out on a side hill! If you have duals for the tractor, you may want to put them on before you go spraying.
The majority of wheat and barley seeded between May 14 and 20 is in the 3 to 4 leaf stage and tillering. The early May seeded wheat and barley is now early 5 leaf and 2 tillers. The canola seeded mid-May is in the 4 to 5 leaf stage with early canola at 6 to 7 leaves. The crops have finally started to leaf out nicely with the warmer temperatures and we need to be ready to get in the fields in a timely manner. I can see this spray season having the hurry up and wait flavour.
Most of the wild oats I’ve seen are tillering so our application window may close on us quickly if we delay application to catch all the weeds. I say make hay when the sun shines because I don’t trust the weather. I’ve included a list of tank mixing instructions for you to print off and carry in the sprayer. With the impromptu weather patterns this spring, be sure to take rainfastness into consideration when choosing your herbicide options. There’s nothing like checking the Crop Protection book to see that the product in your tank requires a six hours rainfastness and the storm clouds won’t go away! This week’s newsletter will cover the areas of herbicide performance and conditions surrounding efficacy.
Agronomy
New Season For Herbicide Applications
We are quickly approaching in-crop herbicide applications, so I have provided you with information on the factors effecting herbicide performance. The weather forecast calls for hot and moist conditions which is favourable for herbicide efficacy. We can talk all day about cutting herbicide rates under ideal conditions, but the number one thing to understand is that you remove yourself from any liability claims when you reduce herbicide rates. If the product doesn’t work, you’re stuck with the mess.
The best management practice I can suggest to avoid cutting wads of wild buckwheat vines out of the combine with your Buck knife or watching wild oats scattered thick across the field waving their empty heads at you is to check the fields 10 to 14 days after application to see if the product worked. If a product didn’t work like it should, you have the option of calling the herbicide representative and deciding whether a re-spray is necessary. When you ignore the field and assume everything is fine, it can come back to haunt you. SL
Can Water Quality Affect Pesticide Efficacy?
Yes, the quality of mixing water can interfere with the effectiveness of pesticides. The compounds most likely to interfere with pesticide effectiveness in tank mixes are: suspended solids (clay and organic particles), dissolved organic matter, dissolved minerals (calcium, magnesium, sodium bicarbonate, iron) and hydrogen/hydroxide ions (pH).
Can Water Volume Affect Herbicide Efficacy?
Yes, the volume of water can affect performance. It has been shown that reducing water volumes from 10 to 5 gal/ac can increase efficacy of: Assert, Assure, Avenge, Ally, Buctril M, 2,4,-D amine, MCPA amine, 2,4-D + Banvel, Roundup, Rustler, Poast and Select. Only Achieve had a lower efficacy when low water application rates were used. The effect of lower dilution volumes may be even more dramatic when poor quality water is used.
Link: http://www.agr.gc.ca/pfra/water/farmchem_e.htm
High Levels of Bicarbonates Affect Herbicide Efficacy
Bicarbonate is known to reduce the activity of 2,4-D amine and the grass killers that belong to the "dim" group of herbicides (Achieve (tralkoxydim), Poast (sethoxydim), Centurion/ Select (clethodim)). Bicarbonate concentrations as low as 500 ppm have reduced the activity of these herbicides under some circumstances.
I typically recommend applying 3L of liquid ammonium sulphate per 378 L (100 gal) of water, which works nicely, but contact your representative to see what works in your area. Some areas have higher levels of bicarbonates and may require more ammonium sulphate.
Research has demonstrated that the use of liquid ammonium sulphate fertilizer at 4 L/ha (1.6 L/ac) or 0.8 kg 21-0-0-24 dry ammonium sulphate fertilizer/ac (2 kg/ha) or 0.5 L/ha (0.2 L/ac) of 28-0-0 liquid nitrogen fertilizer as an adjuvant will overcome the antagonistic effect of bicarbonate in spray dilution water. Further research is being conducted to confirm these results and refine the fertilizer rates required.
Link: http://www.agr.gov.sk.ca/docs/production/waterquality.asp
Environmental Conditions Can Affect Foliar Absorption
Plants undergo a variety of changes in response to changing environmental conditions. On an overcast day, the amount of light energy available for photosynthesis can be reduced by as much as 50%. Plants will increase leaf area and produce more chlorophyll in order to maximize photosynthesis under low light conditions. Leaves will orient parallel to the ground to capture any available light. If growing conditions are favorable (temperature and moisture), all metabolic pathways will be active and sugars produced during photosynthesis will translocate to areas of active growth (young leaves, roots and shoot meristems).
Temperature and Herbicide Efficacy
Ideal temperatures for applying most herbicides are between 18 and 28 0C. Speed of kill may be slow when temperatures remain below 18 0C. Some herbicides may injure crops if applied above 28 0C or below 5 0C. Temperatures following herbicide application influence the crop safety and weed control. Crops often metabolize herbicides but metabolism slows during cool or cold conditions, which extends the amount of time required to degrade herbicides in plants. Rapid degradation under warm conditions allows crop plants to escape herbicide injury. Herbicides may be sprayed following cold night-time temperatures if day-time temperatures warm to at least 15 0C.
Sunlight inactivates some herbicides by ultraviolet (UV) light. Liquid Achieve, Poast, and Select are highly susceptible to UV light and will degrade rapidly if applied during mid-day or if left in non-metal spray tanks for an extended period of time. To avoid UV breakdown, apply soon after mixing and with an effective oil adjuvant, which enhances and speeds absorption.
Grass and broadleaf weeds are controlled more effectively when plants are actively growing. Liquid Achieve and other Group 1 (ACCase) grass herbicides generally provide more consistent and greater grass control in warm, dry conditions compared with cool, wet conditions. Other ACCase herbicides, such as Assure II, Poast, and Select, also control grasses better in warm weather when grasses are actively growing. Cool or cold conditions at or following application of ACCase herbicides such as Liquid Achieve may increase injury to wheat.
Cold temperatures, including freezing conditions following application of ALS herbicides (Group 2’s) or Sencor, and Buctril M, may increase crop injury of labeled crops with little effect on weed control. Delay applying fenoxaprop (Puma Super, Fusion), ALS herbicides, and Sencor until daytime temperatures exceed 15 0C and after active plant growth resumes. Basagran, Liberty and Gramoxzone are less likely to cause crop injury when cold temperatures follow application but less weed control may result.
Products such as 2,4-D, MCPA, dicamba, clopyralid (Lontrel), fluroxypyr (Attain) have adequate crop safety and provide similar weed control across a wide range of temperatures, but weed death is slowed when cold temperatures follow application.
Source: http://www.smallgrains.org/springwh/Summer07/weed/weed.html
Rainfastness Guide
The following link is a list of rainfastness for registered herbicides in the province of Alberta.
Click on: http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/app23/getcataloginfo?subject=product&view=varietal
Market News
USDA World Ending Stocks Summary
The USDA released its estimate of 2007-2008 world ending stocks of corn increased from 90 to 92 million tons. Soybeans are 54 million tons, down from 64 million tons the previous year. Wheat slipped from 113 to 112 million tons.
Source: futuresdaily.com
Ag-Canada Wheat Outlook
For 2007-2008, wheat prices are expected to remain near the historically high levels of 2006-2007 due to continuing tight wheat stocks and high US corn prices. The USDA forecasts world production to increase by 4% to a near-record 617 Mt. Supply is also forecast to increase but higher production will be partly offset by lower carry-in stocks. Wheat consumption is forecast to increase slightly due to greater non-feed use. World wheat carryout stocks are expected to fall by 6% from the previous year, to 113 Mt, with the stock-to-use (s/u) ratio at a record low of 18%. Trade is expected to remain near the 2006- 2007 level of 110 Mt.
Source: Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
Canadian Dollar Reduces Wheat Prices
Canadian wheat prices will continue to be pressured by the stronger Canadian dollar. Currently, the Canadian dollar is valued at about US$0.92, and has averaged US$0.87 for 2006-2007 to date. If the Canadian dollar continues to strengthen relative to the US dollar, the exchange rate will have an impact on the year-over-year change in returns. To put this into perspective, the No.1 CWRS 13.5% PRO for 2007-2008 would be more than CAN$80/t higher than currently projected, at over CAN$290/t, if the Canadian dollar were worth US$0.65 rather than the current value.
Source: Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
World Wheat Outlook
Ukraine officials announced a new, higher estimate of crop damage today from the lack of rain. The current estimate is now that 650,000 hectares of Ukraine’s grain crops have been “irreparably damaged” by the drought. This is only likely to increase because about 10 million hectares total have been affected out of total acreage of 15.0 million acres. The loss of production in Ukraine and southern areas of Russia has been good for US wheat because the Black Sea area is usually such an aggressive global exporter.
The Ukraine’s decision to suspend exports until state reserves are formed has lifted the value of world wheat supplies and may provide more business for the US. Concerns also persist about the heat and dryness in China and Australia’s wheat growing areas. The forecast shows more of the same for China, which should be good for wheat harvest but stressful for summer crops. For Australia there is rain in the forecast in certain wheat growing areas but continued dryness in others.
Source: FIMAT
USDA Predicts 6 Mln Bushel Drop In Winter Wheat Production
On Monday, the USDA predicted a 6-million-bushel drop in winter wheat production this year. The new forecast is the result of a new survey conducted out of concern for damages done during spring freezes.
Source: CBOT News
Global Oil Prices
Global edible oil prices have risen sharply due to increasingly strong demand from China, which has helped strengthen soybean fundamentals. In addition, weather forecasts indicate drier conditions for soybean growing areas in the U.S. at a time when soybean planting is in full swing, further supporting prices. The U.S. is the world’s largest soybean producer. Chinese importers are stocking up on soybeans as ocean freight rates are falling while edible oil prices in China are rising rapidly.
Source: CBOT News
Weather Outlook
This was taken from May 29, 2007 Beyond Agronomy News. “My weather source predicts a wetter than normal June-July with June more likely to be wetter than July. This is due to the low sunspot activity, westerly stratospheric winds, low North American snow cover last winter and some residual El-Nino effects.” What’s happened so far? Three inches of rain in the first week of June and six days over 20 0C. We need to start budgeting for fungicide applications on the fields with decent yield potential. SL
USDA World Crop Weather Highlights
The link below is a summary of the USDA’s world crop weather highlights for eleven of the major grain producing countries.
Source: http://www.agweb.com/news_printer.aspx?articleID=136399
CWB Fixed Price Contract
Yesterday’s fixed price contract through the CWB closed at $229.48/tonne or nearly $5.00/bu depending on freight and elevation. The USDA world ending stocks report came out on Monday and revealed lower than expected world wheat stocks. What a racket this grain marketing is this year. SL
CWB FPC: http://www.cwb.ca/db/contracts/ppo/ppo_prices.nsf/fixed_price/2007_index.html
CWB Crop Prospects Report
The CWB will hold its annual grain industry briefing on weather conditions and crop prospects in Western Canada and other major producing regions around the world on Thursday, June 14 at 2 p.m. CT.
Source: http://www.cwb.ca/public/en/newsroom/
