Agronomist Notes

We made some amazing seeding progress last week with most producers catching up to about 75-85% complete. Some haven’t been as fortunate and I would say most producers are struggling to plant the number of acres they usually do in a day. Extra sloughs and turning eat up a lot of time adding a few more headlands in each field. We’ve now had 6/10ths of rain in the last few days with a monthly total of three quarter inches.

In this week’s newsletter we’ll look at controlling wild oats early and decide on a drop dead seeding date for canola and wheat. Next, I’ll give you another update on our CTF system now that we are finished seeding. I’ve also included an innovative and cost effective way to build your own implement steering system to begin inter-row sowing. Last, we’ll look at why we should start choosing disk openers over tyne openers. We’ll finish with fundamental and technical grain market news.  

Pictured above: Allen Jones spraying on a rare calm morning in his Case 3330, May 19th near Balzac, AB.

Agronomy

Check problem fields now to control wild oats early

There were a few fields with patchy wild oat pressure in my travels last week and it prompted some spot spraying in a few areas. The plants were at the one leaf stage, a perfect time to catch them before they start to rob yield. Leaving these areas for 10 days to reach our normal in-crop herbicide timing could end in disaster. Research from Alberta Agriculture suggests that when wild oats exceed 20 plants per ft2, tillering in wheat can be reduced by 50%. Remember that tillers account for 50% of your yield in spring wheat. Also, research by Arysta LifeScience pegs nitrogen loss at 1.2 lbs/ac when wild oats are at the 1-leaf stage. If you wait until the 6-leaf stage to control wild oats, you’re looking at a nitrogen loss of 16 lbs/ac in the affected areas.

I know I don’t have to say it again but I will, now is a great time to scout for wild oat patches and start controlling these areas early. There are several grassy herbicides on the market that can be used at the 1-leaf stage in wheat, barley, canola or peas.

• Wheat: Axial, Achieve Liquid, Traxos, Horizon, Everest, Assert, Velocity
• Barley: Axial, Achieve Liquid, Puma Advance, Assert
• Peas and canola: Centurion, Poast Ultra, Assure II, Select

NOTE: Be sure that temperatures don’t fall below 5 degree Celsius the night before spraying any herbicide to avoid crop injury. SL

How late can I seed wheat and canola?

Many producers are faced with the decision whether to continue planting canola and wheat or switch to barley. This is a difficult question to answer but the best we can do is estimate the days to maturity and understand the risk of planting wheat and canola into late May. The biggest risk in our area is fall frost and the damage it does to grade and yield. With that, the best we can do is look at our average fall frost and subtract the days to maturity or swathing to discover our drop dead seeding date for wheat and canola. 

The most common wheat varieties in my area are CDC Go and AC Harvest which are pegged at a 110 day growing season. I know the days to maturity differ on each farm depending on climate, agronomy and management but we’ll use this as a starting point. The days to swathing for most medium maturing canola varieties fall in the 105 to 110 day range.

The average date of the first fall frost throughout most of Alberta is September 11th to 20th (see link below of map) http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/sag6446/$FILE/onl_s_13_twp_annual_normals_19712000.gif. The first fall frost in areas north of Edmonton, Lloydminister and West of Calgary along the foothills is September 1st to 10th and around Medicine Hat is after September 20th. If you count back 110 days from September 11th for example, that would give us a drop dead seeding date for canola and wheat of May 26th. Any later than May 26th and you’re looking at the potential for frost damage. If you have plenty of canola of wheat planted already, perhaps you can take the risk of a down grade and blend these acres off with the rest of your early seeded wheat and canola. SL

Source: http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/sag6446/$FILE/onl_s_13_twp_annual_normals_19712000.gif

Year 2 controlled traffic farming update

Mitch and I wrapped up our second year of seeding in a CTF system and it was a fight to the finish. Once again we ran into hydraulic problems with a brand new pump cratering after 230 acres. As we know, the hydraulics on older model tractors like our PTA 325 weren’t designed to run a fan at 5000 rpm on an air drill all day long. We bought a new pump and plumbed in another hydraulic pump kit to divert 50% of the 36 gal/min to the drill and 50% to the steering. This seemed to solve the problem although we think the orbit motor running the fan is starting to go too. That’s a $2,200 touch on top of the $3,000 kit and $1,000 pump. You won’t believe me when I say it but farming is expensive.

The offset hitch worked like a dream as you can see by the photo, we’ve got this old girl tuned in to inter-row seed really well. The canola stubble was a little challenging because it had lodged last year and the shanks pulled the stubble out of the ground in some areas. I’m a little disappointed with last year’s residue management and thought the combine did a better job. There is roughly four feet on each side of the header that didn’t see straw or chaff in many areas. It is apparent that we’ll have to make modifications to our residue management system or buy another colour combine, one that isn’t galvanized.

The biggest struggle this year was getting consistent wireless RTK signal, a problem that was completely out of our hands. We even had to shut down early one evening because we couldn’t get signal. The Trimble FmX system isn’t set up to run autosteer when RTK signal is lost and even if it was, a WAAS signal isn’t accurate enough to keep us in the tram lines and inter-row seed with sub-inch accuracy. This is major issue because we completely depend on this technology. When it doesn’t work, neither do we and that’s unacceptable. We’ll have to find a solution going forward.

We started seeding on May 13th and finished on the 21st so I look forward to measuring emergence and seeding depth towards the end of this week. As it stands, we’re still 100% sold on controlled traffic farming. I can’t tell you how many remarks I’ve heard from producers telling me about last year’s harvest tracks and this year’s sprayer tracks causing issues with seed placement. SL 

Build your own implement steering to inter-row seed

A friend of mine, Quenten Knight from Precision Agronomics Australia, sent me a YouTube link showing a homemade implement steering system http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHxWVtcANFg
built by one of his clients. The implement steering was designed to begin seeding into last year’s stubble rows. We talk about seeding between the rows here in Western Canada but in Western Australia they actually try to seed on top of last year’s stubble row because the stubble retains more moisture in the non-wetting sandy soil types and improves germination.

The video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHxWVtcANFg  shows the implement steering design which includes a Vaderstad optic sensor, steering leg from SeedHawk, 8-inch stroke hydraulic rams, generic PLC for logic control, a homemade drawbar/ram setup on a JD 9520T, all for a cost of about $3,000 AUS.

Leave it to the Aussies to find an innovative way to effectively and inexpensively solve a problem! Thanks for the link, Quenten. SL

Picture shows the paddle arm from SeedHawk underneath a JD 1820 air drill hitch.

Disk openers for speed and accuracy

I often get ribbed for asking clients to slow down at seeding. It truly pains me to ask them slow down because it means less gets done in a day. The upside is the gain in emergence, maturity and ultimately yield, but it also means we need bigger drills to make up for the loss in speed. In my opinion we will always be limited by speed using tyne or shank style openers. The faster the speed with a tyne opener, the more soil is thrown and the less accurate seeding depth becomes. We also know that there is a limit to drill width when it becomes inefficient and cumbersome with the average field size. I believe the best option is to start looking at how to integrate disk openers on drills in the future. The right disk opener partnered with the right agronomic system can allow you to travel faster while maintaining seeding depth accuracy.

A friend and fellow Nuffield Scholar Stephen Ball from Riverton, South Australia studied a number of disk opener systems around the globe while studying the impact of zero-till systems. I’ve included a section out of his report on disk openers because I think he provides a great perspective on the pros and cons of using disk openers and what to look for when buying one. I’ve included a link to his report here http://www.nuffieldinternational.org/rep_pdf/1303786991Steven_Ball_Final.pdf
if you care to investigate further.

Here are the ins and outs of disk openers according to Stephen:

Problems/ Limitations with current disc machines

A number of the current disc machines that are available on the market have different problems such as:

1. Trouble coping with high clay content soils, particularly when wet.
2. Too much soil disturbance.
3. High maintenance and servicing.
4. Not enough down pressure to engage properly.
5. Unable to cut residue and cause hair-pinning.

Ideal disc machine

According to Erbach the requirements for machine performance criteria are:

1. The need for a device to effectively cut residue.
2. Uniform penetration of the soil.
3. Sufficient tilling in the seed zone to obtain good soil-to-seed contact.
4. Uniform seeding depth.
5. Adequate covering of the seed.
6. Proper soil firming over the seed.
7. The capacity to follow land contours.

To fill these criteria I have a basic set of requirements that the seeder should have:

1. A double offset disc of two differing sizes.
2. Have a small seed firmer wheel. (Not a press wheel)
3. The depth wheel/gauge needs to be independent of any furrow closer i.e. put on front discs.
4. The depth wheel needs to hold the soil in place as the blade pulls from the soil.
5. Furrow closer e.g. Star or cast wheel.

In addition to this, Dwayne Beck [Dakota Lakes Research Farm, South Dakota State University] has given some comments regarding the assembly attachment style:

1. The JD and similar machines have radial attachments, which mean the angle of attack is correct for only one spot in its travel.
2. The parallel (or parallelogram) linkage has the proper angle of attack as long as the frame of the implement is parallel to the soil surface (very level fields).
3. The walking beam attachment has the proper angle of attack at almost all times.

Innovations in Disc Machines

1. Walking Beams

The benefit of this method of attaching the assembly as shown in the picture allows the discs and closing mechanism to be truly ground following. The double disc assembly is connected to the walking beam and the beam then attaches to the main frame. In the model from Avec, shown in the photo on the right, all of the down pressure came from an air over hydraulic system for dampening and keeping each unit independent.

Pulling depth control wheel rather than pushing. With a large number double disc units, the depth control wheels are connected at the rear behind the discs. This system creates a pushing motion and a separating force pulling the depth control wheels away from the discs. Trends in the new designs incorporate a forward fixing point. The force generated by pulling rather than pushing the depth control wheels keeps them tight against the disc which reduces strain and fatigue on the steel. It can also help with cutting action applied to the residue. The picture on the right shows pulling spoke depth wheels with a seed firming wheel.

2. Spoke design for depth wheels

Current designs of the depth control wheels are solid externally with a cavity in behind and this can fill with soil, mud and also residue. The preferable option now is to have spoke design which allows for this residue to escape and not build up.

3. Opening radial arm for depth wheel

The unit which pulls the depth wheels also can be fitted with pivot points that allows for them to pivot out of the way making it easier to change bearings or even the discs.

4. Seed firming wheels

They follow in behind the discs, running along the bottom of the furrow. These innovations along with the soil closure wheels, have taken the place of press wheels. The firming wheels are different, as they only act by pushing the seed into the soil at the bottom of the slot, not by compacted the soil around the seed and the above soil like press wheel. The germination percentage is lot better as the plant shoot does not have to emerge through hard and compacted soil. The photo to the right shows the seed firming wheel in the centre.

5. Soil closure wheels

These are made in a variety of design, but all have similar job to do. They work with the seed firming wheels to create an ideal germination and growth environment. They back fill the slot created by the discs, but not with a lot of pressure. This helps in the fact that once the seed germinates it has only soft friable soil and light residue to push through. The soil does not cap over like some traditional press wheels.
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The goal in any farming system is to become more efficient each year. It seems to me that we’ve hit our peak seeding speed with tyne openers at 4.3 to 5.3 mph. I don’t know about you, but I dream of the day where I can seed at 8-10 mph and still maintain seeding depth accuracy. This can only be accomplished with a disk opener. There are disk openers are ready and available on the market, it’s a matter of building the agronomic system to fit the opener rather than trying to fit a disk opener into our current system. SL

CWB Prairie seeding progress report

Temperatures rose last week to 1 to 5 C above normal, warming soils and allowing farmers to make significant headway on seeding. Overall seeding is now 53 per cent complete, compared to 75 per cent normally. Alberta and much of Saskatchewan are seeing close to average progress. Seeding is nearing completion in areas of Alberta, where light showers (5-20 mm) were beneficial to recently seeded crops. Farmers in southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba are struggling to get crop in the ground. Progress in these areas was pushed further back over the weekend by moderate to heavy rain (15-65 mm) that brought seeding to a halt.