Agronomist Notes

I arrived home from England on Sunday night after a peaceful ten hour flight. During my stay I had a great chance to visit with farmers who are pioneering controlled traffic, minimum tillage and renewable energy. Minimum tillage in an area that has an average temperature of 15 degrees Celsius, 24-inch annual rainfall and produces 180 bushel wheat straw is not as easy as it sounds!

I’m a little jet lagged but eager to get on with things. I’ll be at the Red Deer AgriTrade event on Thursday and Friday and I’ll be headed to Saskatoon for a two-day agronomy conference next week. There’s no shortage of events to check out.  

In this newsletter, I’ll discuss barley yield responses to foliar nitrogen. I’ll discuss some late season nitrogen management in canola that some producers use in the UK. Next, I’ll provide some details on RTK guided implement steering that might help producers in rolly terrain begin inter row seeding. Bruce Love will give us his weekly carbon market update and we’ll finish with market news.  Have a great week. SL

Pictured above is Lincoln Castle in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England.

Agronomy

Barley responds to foliar nitrogen but it’s all in the timing   

I’ve recently come across some interesting research on the response of barley to foliar applied nitrogen. Research from North Dakota State University compared yield responses in barley to foliar applied nitrogen at the tillering, early jointing, boot and flowering stages. It found a significant yield response when slow release liquid nitrogen was applied only at the early tillering stage.

The experiment used a slow release urea product called GP 30-0-0 applied at 2 gal/ac in 8 gal/ac of water. The equivalent product in Alberta would be N-Pact 26-0-0 produced by UAP. The total nitrogen applied was 6 lbs N/ac with a yield response of 8 bu/ac over the check. That works out to 1.3 lbs N/bu, which is exactly what I use for a nitrogen uptake rate when developing fertilizer recommendations for malt barley.

The response of barley to nitrogen at the tillering stage is likely from the plants ability to develop new tillers, which increases the number of heads per plant. The use of early nitrogen applications to stimulate tillering is used in Europe, New Zealand, Australia and the US on winter wheat, winter barley and winter canola crops. We haven’t progressed to that level in Western Canada yet for some reason, even in our winter wheat.

If we were to look at foliar applications of a slow release nitrogen product like N-Pact, let’s just see what kind of response we would need using an average cost of $0.45 per lb of N.

Steve’s quick math

Yield response of 6 lbs foliar N on a 50, 60, 70 bu/ac barley crop at $3.00/bu.
6 lbs N × $0.45 lb/N + $5.00/ac application = $7.70/ac
$7.70 acre x 1.5:1 ROI = $11.55
$11.55 ÷ $3.00/bu = $3.85 bu/ac
(50 ÷ 3.85) = 7%
(60 ÷ 3.85) = 6%
(70 ÷ 3.85) = 5%

So, in order to generate a 1.5:1 return on investment, we would need a 7%, 6% and 5% yield increase on a 50, 60 and 70 bu/ac barley crop, respectively. The biggest downside risk with stimulating more tillers early in the season is that we may not have enough moisture to sustain it. This is a really tough call in May when most barley is in early tiller, but then so is the risk of putting all your fertilizer down at seeding before you have a clue about how the season will turn out.

Many barley crops didn’t tiller until July in 2009 because of the cool and dry April, May and June. Perhaps a well timed nitrogen application could have generated those few extra tillers we were looking for in June and avoided the late tillering mess we found ourselves in. SL

GP 30-0-0: http://www.growthproducts.com/pdfs/GPSolutions_Nitro-30.pdf

Source: David Franzen, North Dakota State University, http://www.soilsci.ndsu.nodak.edu/Franzen/Franzen_Publications/foliarNreport.pdf

Canola responds to late flower liquid urea application in UK

After visiting with a few producers in England, I discovered that’s common practice to apply a 20% liquid urea solution to winter canola at early flower. I also discovered that a few producers have bumped the application to the end of flowering with great results. In 2009, the one farm increased yields by 7 bu/ac by applying a liquid urea at 20% solution at 35 lbs/N ac using 10 gal/ac of water.

Liquid urea enters the leaf quickly and can burn leaf tissue, which is why you must be careful when you apply it. Producers in England are using it successfully, up to 35 lbs of actual N safely. It may be worth a test strip next year with a few different application timings with an ideal timing of just before sun down. 

The cost of applying 35 lbs N as urea plus application would be around $20.00/ac using $7.00/ac for application and $0.39/lb for nitrogen. You would need at least a 3 to 4 bu/ac response from this practice to generate a decent return. I have a sneaking suspicion that we’re running out of nutrition come pod fill in canola and this just might be the solution. We should have a good idea about yield potential at the end of flowering which would make running the numbers a lot easier. SL  

Controlled traffic and inter-row seeding now possible on rolling terrain

Implement drift is one of the reasons some producers struggle with adopting controlled traffic or inter-row seeding. They may be able to steer their tractor straight with RTK guidance but as soon as you hit a side hill, the seed drill starts to slip down the slope thereby making it impossible to follow the same line year after year. That is until now.
Trimble produces two RTK guided steering systems that can be mounted on drawn implements. The first is something called active guidance, which can be defined as at the technology that actively steers an implement. This technology is called Trimble TrueTracker. With an AgGPS receiver and T3 terrain compensation technology, the implement is steered on a repeatable path, year-to-year, even on steep hills and variable soils. Repeatability is paramount to developing a successful controlled traffic and inter-row seeding system.  

The second implement steering package is a passive guidance system called Trimble TrueGuide. It controls the implement by using the AgGPS Autopilot steering system to move the tractor which keeps the implement in line. TrueGuide measures the position of the implement relative to the AB line, a guidance path that is generated for the equipment to follow through the field, and moves the tractor left or right to guide the implement to the line.

On average, an implement without guidance moves roughly 12 inches on flat ground and on slopes as much as 3 feet downhill, resulting in overlap and wide guess rows even when the tractor is accurate. Adding TrueGuide to the Autopilot significantly improves implement position. For example, Trimble claims on flat ground an 8-inch drift can be reduced to better than 3 inches and on slopes 3-foot drifts can be reduced to 8 inches or better.

The rough price estimate for the TrueTracker is $6,000, not installed. That cost would be over and above the autosteer you already own. It’s new technology and its price tag will come down over time, as with most things. With 12% yield increases in wheat from inter-row seeding and 35% reduction in fuel cost from controlled traffic to name just two examples, implement guidance technology may generate a return quicker than you think. SL

Trimble TrueTracker: http://trl.trimble.com/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-343005/022503-282A_TrueTracker_FS_0707_lr.pdf 

Trimble TrueGuide: http://trl.trimble.com/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-465327/ 

Carbon News

Can a price on carbon drive investment in renewable energy?

November 9, 2009- To date, Canada has resisted any regulation to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) and place a price on carbon. This makes complete sense if you have the short term (five years or less) view of maximizing the returns from producing and using fossil fuels, and in particular, those high in carbon equivalent emissions. All this has not boded well for the renewable energy industry in Canada.

If we look to the experiences of the European Union (EU) and the influence of a carbon price on energy choices, there may be some insights into what Canada’s inaction means. One of the major themes of the EU energy market with carbon pricing is switching between fuel sources. While EU carbon permits are trading hands these days at around 14 euros, they have been as high as about 30 euros per tonne of CO2e just over a year ago. With significant carbon prices, the impact was seen primary in the electricity sector. When the price of coal goes up and the price of carbon is included, electricity generation switches to using natural gas. Fewer carbon emission permits are needed per unit of electricity for natural gas than for coal, resulting in a relative cost advantage.

Following our EU example, we also see that many counties there have aggressively encouraged renewable energy projects and technology. This typically has taken the form of a greater “feed in” tariff for renewable energy sources over traditional fossil fuel sources. Solar power is one such example, which gets a significant premium per kwH over fossil fuel sources. This combination of incentives, higher prices for power sourced from renewable energy and no requirement to buy carbon permits, has fostered a large and growing renewable energy sector.

As the price of carbon increases, consistent with more stringent reductions in GHGs, the need for financial incentives for renewable energy should decline in-leu of the relative cost advantage over traditional fossil fuel sources. It would appear that EU policy makers may have been forward looking by creating a renewable energy industry with an exit strategy for funding it.

To answer our question: does a price on carbon drive investment in renewable energy? You bet it does, but please not here. Given Canada’s abundance of fossil fuels and energy intensive industries, we may be better served by policies that maintain and grow these industries in the short run. Therefore, it should be no surprise that Canada is starting to invest significant amounts of tax payers’ money into carbon capture and store projects and resist a global climate change deal that will create restrictive GHG reductions. Without a large renewable energy industry in Canada, GHG offsets may be the next best thing for Canada if it’s forced by our trade partners to reduce.

Reference: Bruce Love, Preferred Carbon

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author only and are not intended to represent financial advice.

International Crop and Weather News

Western Canada: Excellent late-season weather allowed farmers to make significant harvest progress last week. Spring wheat is now 97-per-cent complete, durum is 99-per-cent complete, and barley is 98-per-cent complete. Continued favourable weather this week is expected to allow farmers to continue harvesting remaining fields.

United States: On the Plains, isolated showers are developing in central and southern portions of the region. In most areas, however, mild, dry weather favors summer crop harvesting and winter wheat emergence and growth. In the Corn Belt, favorably mild, dry weather continues, despite an increase in cloudiness. One factor limiting the pace of corn and soybean harvesting is the backlog of high-moisture-content crops drying in the field or being mechanically dried.

Middle East: Locally heavy rain and snow in Turkey provide much-needed moisture for winter wheat and barley.

Europe: Showers return to central and northern Europe, providing soil moisture for vegetative winter crops. Dry weather in northern Italy favors fieldwork but reduces irrigation reserves for winter wheat. Showers in Eastern Europe hamper summer crop harvesting, notably cotton in Greece.

Former Soviet Union: Showers from Belarus into Russia’s Volga District provide additional moisture for winter wheat establishment but slow summer crop harvesting. Dry conditions persist in southern Russia, reducing soil moisture for winter wheat establishment. An arctic front brings an end to the growing season in Kazakhstan and Russia’s Siberia District.

East Asia: Showers favor emerging winter wheat on the North China Plain and winter rapeseed in the Yangtze Valley.

Southeast Asia: Typhoon Mirinae crosses the northern Philippines, renewing flooding in minor rice areas of southern Luzon. Dry weather favors rice harvesting in Thailand and coffee harvesting in Vietnam.

South Asia: Dry weather throughout India favors summer crop harvesting and winter crop planting but reduces soil moisture for winter rapeseed emergence in Rajasthan, where little irrigation exists.

Australia: Soaking rains overspread much of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales, providing a much-needed boost in topsoil moisture for summer crop germination and emergence. Elsewhere in the wheat belt, light showers help maintain good to excellent winter grain prospects.

South America: Hot, dry weather stresses winter grains and pastures in northern Argentina. Summer grain and oilseed planting progresses elsewhere. In Brazil, conditions are generally favorable for soybeans and other summer crops. Drier weather in Brazil’s southern wheat areas brings some relief from unfavorable wetness.

Africa: Dry, hot weather favors early winter wheat and barley planting in Morocco and Algeria. Warm, showery weather benefits germinating summer crops in the eastern corn belt.

Source: USDA