Agronomist Notes
We received another 1 to 1.7 inches of rain across the territory last week bringing the total to 10 inches in some areas since April 1st. At the farm we’re up to 8 inches and almost completely saturated. In spite of the cloudy, wet, and late start, our wheat, barley and canola look excellent and we plan on spraying the canola this week. It’s pretty cool to see those unseeded tramlines show up. I wonder what passersby might be saying about the same two plugged runs in every field!
I’ve found a number of fields with moderate levels of leaf disease in cereals already. From what I’ve seen so far, the excess moisture stress has set back maturity and increased disease pressure in early seeded and deep seeded crops. I’d prepare yourself now and make sure you have cereal and oilseed fungicide booked.
In this week’s newsletter, we’ll look at a technical way to stage leaf emergence so you can estimate your crop staging this herbicide season. Next, Dan Heaney from Random Cross consulting gave me a few pointers on assessing flood tolerance in crops. I’ve listed some points to remember when spraying herbicides after cold overnight temperatures. I’ll discuss spraying Liberty at reduced water volumes and give you an update on the results of our seeding speed in canola this spring. Next, we’ll look at a side by side trial comparing a precision drill with a regular hoe drill. We’ll finish with fundamental and technical grain market news.
Steve’s tips for the week
- Get your spray water checked. Better yet, get it done for free through Bayer CropScience’s water testing program. Eight out of nine water samples I’ve sent in for clients have high bicarbonates, which reduces Centurion and Achieve Liquid efficacy.
- Check for early signs of leaf disease in cereals and pulses.
- Wheat and barley seeded the end of April and early-May are entering the jointing phase so nitrogen applied now will focus more on protein than yield.
- If you have saturated or wet soils and crops are showing signs of yellowing, don’t assume nitrogen or sulphur deficiency. There’s a good chance the yellowing symptoms are signs of oxygen deprivation and not nutrient deficiency.
- Broadcast nitrogen and sulphur as ammonium sulphate can be applied to canola up to early flower.
- Try not to spray herbicide on crops or weeds that are stressed. Not only do you risk poor weed control but you’ll increase unnecessary crop stress.
- Maintain water volumes at 10 gal/ac if spraying Liberty this week. Temperature forecast is for high teens and this product needs heat to work well.
- Check out the label on Simplicity- rainfastness just dropped down to 1 hour. That’s a long way from the original 4 hours!
- There are signs of stripe rust in the Pacific Northwest. Keep a close eye on winter wheat fields as they come into flag leaf.
- Leaf diseases are showing up in winter wheat. With high yield potential and consistent moisture, disease pressure will be high this year.
Crop Staging (Calgary to Drumheller to Three Hills)
Seeded | April 23 - 31 | May 1 - 7 | May 8 - 15 |
Wheat | 6 leaf 2 tiller | 5 leaf 2 tiller | 4 leaf 1 tiller |
Canola | 5 leaf | 4 leaf | 3 leaf |
Barley | 6 leaf 3 tiller | 5 leaf 3 tiller | 4 leaf 2 tiller |
Peas | 9th node | 8th node | 6th node |
Agronomy
Phyllochrons: The technical way to predict leaf staging
The length of time taken for a leaf to emerge is called a phyllochron and is driven by temperature and measured in degree days (°C days). Degree days are simply calculated based on adding the daily high and daily low temperatures and dividing them by two. (i.e.: 22 C + 8 C ÷ 2 = 15 GDD). Research out of North Dakota suggests the phyllochrons for spring wheat, durum wheat and spring barley are 78 days. Although each cultivar has a slightly different phyllochron, 78 days will get you pretty close.
Let’s work through an example. Your spring wheat is at 3 leaf 1 tiller and you need to spray Everest herbicide before the wheat reaches 4 leaf 2 tiller. Under the current weather pattern, how long will it take before you reach 4 leaf 2 tiller? The current forecast suggests that the average temperature for the next 14 days will be a high of 19°C and with a minimum of 9°C.
Steve’s quick math
Max daily temp 19°C + Min daily temp 9°C ÷ 2 = 10 day °C
Phyllochron 78 day °C divided by 10 day °C = 7.8 days per leaf emergence
Therefore, you would have 15 days under current temperatures before the crop would reach 4 leaf 2 tiller. Instead of rushing through spray season in a panic to stay within crop staging limits, this calculation tool will let you know if you have room to breathe without the guesswork. SL
Phyllochron research: http://crop.scijournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/35/1/19
Crop tolerance to excess moisture
I’ve seen a number of fields showing signs of excessive moisture stress. To help you determine crop survival, here are some key points to remember when assessing water logged plants.
- The yellowing or chlorosis you see in low lying areas is most likely oxygen deprivation and not nutrient deficiency. Plants require oxygen for respiration and growth.
- Flooded soil slows down nitrogen mineralization and increases denitrification and leaching so you may experience N deficiency following saturated conditions, if the crop has survived.
- Crops become more tolerant of flooding as they get older. The tolerance of young plants to flooding is low. In order of flood tolerance from least tolerant to highest: peas/pulses < barley < wheat < canola
- Pulses are likely dead after 1-3 days of saturated conditions.
- Cereals are likely dead after 2-4 days of saturated conditions.
- Canola behaves a little differently but in the early rosette stage expect roughly 20% yield drop with 3 days flooding, 40% with a week, and 50% loss to dead after two weeks.
- Look to see if crop is putting out new leaves. In cereals recovery may come through tillering if secondary buds have not been killed.
Source: Dan Heaney PhD, PAg, RandomCross Consulting
Consider overnight temperatures before spraying each morning
The first thing to consider when reviewing overnight air temperatures is what height you’re taking the temperature from. For example, Environment Canada takes temperatures 4 feet above ground, but typically you’ll find temperatures 1C to 2C cooler. The following temperatures are based on temperatures taken within 12 inches of ground level; if taking temperatures at 4 feet above ground add 1C to each of the following temperatures below.
- After a frost (-1C to -3C) please wait at least 72 hours of good growing weather before applying herbicides. ( minimum day time temperatures following the frost must be at least 18C with overnight lows no lower than 3C)
- Overnight temperatures of +0C please wait at least 48 to 72 hours of good growing weather before applying herbicides
- Overnight temperatures of +1C please wait at least 48 hours of good growing weather before applying herbicides
- Overnight temperatures of +2C please wait at least 24 to 48 hours of good growing weather before applying herbicides
- Overnight temperatures of +3C wait till temperatures warm up to at least 10C that day before you start spraying.
- Overnight temperatures of +4C Can start spraying early that morning.
Source: Bayer CropScience
Can I spray Liberty at 7.5 gallons/ac?
I’ve fielded a few calls on using lower water volumes with Liberty herbicide as producers try to get more done in a day and in between showers. Understandably, dropping your water volume to 7.5 gallons an acre will net you 25% more acres per fill but what are you sacrificing? I’ll outline a few key points to consider before you drop down to 7.5 gallons acre when using Liberty herbicide.
- If weeds are small, dropping to 7.5 gal/ac would work between the hours of 1pm and 6 pm. These 5 hours must include bright, sunny skies, no cloud cover and be over 20 degrees Celsius.
- If you are targeting small “fleshy” annual weeds like stinkweed, lambsquarters, shepherd’s purse and wild mustard then 7.5 gallons will do.
- Do not drop your water volume if you’re targeting weeds like kochia and hempnettle or any weed with a hairy leaf surface.
- If you have cleavers, don’t even think about dropping below 10 gal/ac.
- If you have dense patches of volunteer cereals or wild oats, do not drop below 10 gal/ac.
- If you drop your water volume be sure to increase you water pressure so your spray droplets are smaller to give you better coverage. This will increase your risk of drift and movement off target.
Ultimately, the risk of having poor weed control by dropping your water rate with Liberty is too high in my opinion. I don’t always toe the line on herbicide rates and water volumes but I do know that I’m rarely satisfied with weed control when Liberty herbicide is sprayed below 10 gallons acre. SL
Seeding speed in canola
There are certain things I’m adamant about and one of those is seeding speed in canola. All my clients told me they were seeding around 4 to 4.3 mph this year and what a difference! Typically they would seed around 4.8 mph and some faster, depending on how far they were behind. I caught flack on this issue and there was more than one comment about how much they enjoyed watching each lug on the tire turn slowly by. In the end, it was all worth it. Plant stand densities are between 10 and 12 plants per ft2 with lovely, uniform emergence.
Now, I realize we had rain shortly after seeding but I’ve never seen emergence rates and plant stand densities so consistent across my territory and across a range of drills and openers. I’ve got John Deere’s, new Morris’s, older Flexicoil’s, new Case’s and New Holland’s with sideband openers, low draft openers, Stealth openers and dual shank openers. They all did a very good job and I’ve never experienced the kind of consistency across every drill like I have this year. The one change we all made this year was speed and that was the difference. Remember, speeds kills! SL
Comparing the JD 1820 vs JD 1870
I’ve been keeping my eye on a few side by side trials comparing the JD 1870 Conservapak drill verses the JD 1820 hoe drill with GEN 300 4-inch low draft openers. I also have another trial looking at the Concord drill with the Dutch 4-inch low draft openers as well. So far, the regular hoe drills don’t hold a candle to the precision drills like the JD 1870. Take a look at this side by side trial with InVigor canola. Both tractors were tracked units, one a CAT Challenger and the other a JD 9630 T with 30-inch tracks. The JD 1870 had a tow between tank and the 1820 had a tow behind so the field finish looks different in the photos.
The photo on the left is the JD 1870 and the photo on the right is the JD 1820 with 4-inch low draft GEN openers. Need I say more? I’ve seen a few comparisons between regular hoe drills with the 1870 and it always comes out ahead in plant emergence and crop uniformity in canola. I don’t think anyone would argue that it does a better job in canola. To date, the only limiting factor I can see is soil type. Anyone with sticky clay, high magnesium soils may have trouble with the 1870 due to its dual shank system that requires the fertilizer knife to drop at least 3 inches below the surface. Anytime you stick a piece of metal below an inch in clay soils, you bring up lumps and moisture that subsequently builds up on packers and messes with seed placement and causes plugging. If you can figure out how to lift the fertilizer knife to just 1 ¼ inches while placing the seed shank at ¾ inches, please let me know. I’m sure the problem can be solved.
I did some quick math on emergence rates across a farm that seeds 1,800 acres of canola and this is what I came up with comparing the JD 1820 to a JD 1870.
Steve’s quick math:
15% increase in canola emergence × 5 lbs/ac avg. seeding rate × $8.00 lb = $6.00
1,800 acres of canola × $6.00 = $10,800.00
This farm could drop seeding rates by 15% and get the same plant stand as their regular hoe drill with the added benefit of improved crop uniformity. Just in seed cost alone, you’re looking at a three year payback on the investment made by upgrading to a JD 1870. If you’re debating whether to upgrade to a precision drill, I don’t blame you for being cautious as many precision drills are fairly new to the market. New products always seem to come with hiccups and glitches and it would be nice not to be the guinea pig after spending that kind of money. However, in my mind, purchasing a drill that offers precision placement is a matter of when you should buy one and not if you should buy one. SL
Controlled Traffic Farming Alberta Website and Message Board launched
Controlled Traffic Farming Alberta (CTFA) recently launched a web site and web-based message board discussion group on controlled traffic farming. Peter Gamache, Project Leader says ‘it is part of our plan to build a network of people interested in controlled traffic. CTF is pretty new to Alberta so sharing ideas and questions among growers, agronomists, equipment dealers and researchers will be important.”
The Controlled Traffic Farming Alberta Message Board is a forum to share your questions and experiences about controlled traffic, guidance, inter-row seeding, equipment, agronomics and other issues and observations. During the short time the message board has been operating we have some good discussions going on inter-row seeding and disk seeders.
We encourage you to sign up for the forum. Go to our website www.controlledtrafficfarming.org and follow the link. Registration is required. The web site also has some valuable links to controlled traffic farming web sites. We will be hosting some field tours this summer and posting information about them on the web site.
If you are already practicing CTF or inter-row seeding or are interested these new concepts, please call Peter Gamache at 780 720-4346 or email him at pmgamache@gmail.com.
Funding is provided by the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund (ACIDF) and the Alberta Canola Producers Commission, Alberta Pulse Growers, Alberta Barley Commission and the Alberta Winter Wheat Producers Commission.
Market News
Commodity Fundamentals
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: June futures. The short term trend is up and the long trend is down.
US Dollar Index: June futures. The short term trend is down and the long term trend is up.