October 25, 2011

Agronomist Notes

This is the 46th and final issue of Beyond Agronomy News for 2011. This year is another one for the record books for yields, quality and extreme weather.
The year started off wet with many producers delayed until mid-May before seeding. The warm, moist soil made crops jump out of the ground quickly and the rains kept coming until late-June. At our farm, we had 8 inches of rain before the end of June and only 6 days in June without rain. The tap turned off in July and August with just a few showers to finish the crops. September brought two weeks of awesome temperatures (high 20's and low 30's) to finish off our late crops perfectly. In fact, most of use shut down the combines each night because we were tired, not because the straw got tough! In the end, wheat yields were pushing high 50’s and low 60’s in the east and high 60’s, mid 70’s in the west. Barley yields were all over the map due to the heavy rains early on but some managed to make malt quality barley and push over 100 bu/ac. Canola yields were just above average for most with a few mega yields pushing high 70’s but most in the 50 to 60 bu/ac range. Peas were the sleeper this year with yields in the high 50’s and 60’s.
The biggest money makers were malt barley, peas and canola, then wheat and feed barley. The biggest disappointment was the downgrading in wheat from high levels of ergot and lower proteins from two years of above average yields. As I write this, parliament just passed the bill to end the CWB monopoly so 2012 proves to be an exciting one for all commodities.
This week we’ll recap some of the most innovative and well received articles from 2011. We'll welcome you back January 3rd with Volume 7 of Beyond Agronomy News.
Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I wish you all continued success with your family and business.

Agronomy

Shielded sprayers to revolutionize attack on resistant weeds

If weed control is an issue on your farm and you know it’s costing you money, a shielded sprayer may be just what you need.

I was first introduced to shielded sprayers at Robert Ruwoldt’s farm near Horsham, Victoria back in 2009. Robert built a 30-foot shielded sprayer to spray non-selective herbicides like glyphosate between his 30-inch rows in canola and fababeans. Shielded sprayers are an excellent tool to fight against herbicide resistant weeds like Group 2 kochia, wild buckwheat, Group 1 resistant wild oats or even problem weeds like Japanese and Downy brome which have limited control options.

I contacted a hooded sprayer manufacturer called Southern Precision http://www.southernprecision.com.au in Australia who sells the CropStalker, a hooded sprayer with the ability to spray between 12-inch and 15-inch rows. The photo you see here is their 40-foot shielded sprayer spraying glyphosate on lentils on 12-inch rows.

The sprayer uses a Garford Robocrop XHD http://www.garford.com/Brochure%20Robocrop%202.pdf side shifter to guide row crop equipment accurately at speeds up to 7 mph within 12 and 15-inch row spacing. The RoboCrop XHD uses a camera to view the crop ahead of the sprayer. The camera image is scanned to find the higher concentrations of green pixels relating to the crop rows and uses prior knowledge of the row configuration to overlay a matching grid onto the image. This information is then utilised to bring the equipment onto the exact row centres via a hydraulic side shift.

Watch the CropStalker in action http://youtu.be/2QOtGuER5ME

Southern Precision currently offers a 40-foot wide shielded sprayer suited to spray between 12 and 15-inch rows. The 40-foot unit suited for 12-inch rows retails for $99,770 AUD including GST. They are currently researching sprayer widths up to 60 feet with shields on 10-inch spacing.

A little Steve’s quick math will tell you that even at a cost of $120,000, if you could avoid a 10% yield loss on a 1,680 lb/ac average red lentil crop across 1,500 acres, you’d have the sprayer paid for in two years. Or, if you could avoid a 5% yield loss in canola across 2,000 acres, you’ve have it paid for in two years.

I can really see a fit for shielded sprayers in the durum-lentil belt where they’ve been battling resistant weeds for years. I can also see it fitting into Liberty or Clearfield canola systems to improve herbicide options as well as in non-competitive crops like chickpeas and field peas. Take it a step further and I can see a great fit with wide row canola using precision vacuum planters. How about spraying Group 1 and 2 resistant wild oats between 12 inch rows of wheat and barley? Shielded sprayers have a fit in our market place in Western Canada. SL

A Case 2140 vacuum planter fits a Ponoka farm’s production system

A first season review

Back in July I stopped by a farm owned by Darren and Helko Feitsma at Ponoka to look at the canola they planted with a Case 1240 vacuum planter on 15-inch row spacing. This week I talked to Darren about the finer points of his first year seeding with the planter. Here are the details:

Planter system

38ft Case 1240 planter on 15-inch rows with two dry boxes
Bourgault LFC 2000 liquid tow-between tank
1mm 120 hole discs for the canola
Yetter residue cleaners in front of each row

Agronomics

Banded fertilizer in the spring with Flexi-coil 5000, 5-inch openers on 12-inch spacing at 6.5 mph prior to seeding
Planted InVigor 5440
Had to request thousand kernel weight from Bayer for canola to adjust seeding rate
Targeted 250,000 seeds per acre for a total of 2.6 lbs/ac

Residue management ahead of a vacuum planter is a universal challenge. The Yetter residue managers in front of the openers worked excellent in their Ponoka loam soil, moving residue and avoiding hair pinning. They may not be an option for those with heavier clay content. Some producers in Southern Alberta are strip tilling on RTK guidance and seeding into that fertilized row the next year. The Feitsma’s used their FlexiCoil 5000 to band fertilizer and manage residue. It does leave the risk of drying out the seedbed if it doesn’t rain soon after seeding.

The seed placement on this planter was excellent and very consistent at half an inch. However the seed spacing within each row was almost as inconsistent as an air drill which I found somewhat surprising. The reason behind the inconsistent seed spacing or singulation is the variability in canola seed size. Canola seed size can vary between 3 and 6 grams per thousand kernels, even in the same seed lot. The variability in seed size causes some seeds to double up in one hole while some seeds are too big to fit in the hole. In a perfect world you would have canola sized to a consistent seed size so the 1mm 120 hole disk would grab and separate one canola seed at a time instead of two seeds, then none and so on. You can see in the bottom picture where 7 plants are spaced unevenly in one foot of row.

Some folks are nervous about wide rows because it may encourage weed growth from the lack of crop competition. If you look at the canola in the middle photo, the canopy is just about closed 40 days after seeding on June 26th. I would suggest that with the right variety, canola can canopy quickly and still compete against weeds even in wider row spacing.

Darren figured the canola planted with the Case 1240 planter out yielded his Flexicoil 5000 with 5-inch openers and spreader tips by 10-bushels and acre. Even with a margin of error, Darren managed to save $25 an acre on seed costs and generate an additional $120 an acre in yield. You could half that yield increase and still be $85 an acre on the good side. If canola revenues continue to be as good as they are I think it’s time to start treating it like a high value row crop. The upside in putting together a row crop canola system pencils out quickly when you put the numbers to it. Just nail down the residue management, fertilizer pass and seed sizing first and then you’ll be on your way to higher returns. SL

If you’ve missed my previous articles on vacuum planters go to:
http://www.beyondagronomy.com/newsletter/20_7_2010.htm
http://www.beyondagronomy.com/newsletter/12_7_2010.htm
http://www.beyondagronomy.com/newsletter/19_10_2010.htm

For in-season photos of Fieitsma’s system, see http://www.thecombineforum.com/forums/members/2088-dudyou2-albums-h-feitsma-farm-ltd-crop-guard-services-ltd.html

Picture: Canola on 15-inch row spacing 40 days after seeding May 16th, 2011.

Does barley respond to zinc?

A friend from New Zealand Chris Dennison sent me a few photos on some trial work he did with foliar zinc and manganese in barley. Foliar applied zinc is not a common practice in our soils even though it may provide an economical response. Here are Chris’s notes:

I’ve had a problem this year with yellow strips in winter barley, every 12 meters which is how wide we spread lime. I tested the poor strips and found a pH of 6.3 compared to 5.9 in the rest of the paddock. Soil tests also showed low levels of zinc and manganese in the poor strips. I sprayed on 7kg (6.2 lbs/ac) Zinc sulphate and 7kg (6.2 kg/ac) manganese sulphate to the hectare.
While I had this brew in the tank I sprayed a couple of old lime stockpile sites that never grow very well. I have attached the results which are outstanding, looks as though the main response is from zinc as I did some zinc only trials as well. You don't really need the red pegs to see where the sprayer stopped.

Zinc deficiencies can occur if:

Zinc deficiency commonly occurs in acidic soil as it is tied up by aluminum and , highly weathered soils however Zn deficiency may also occur in high pH, calcareous soils due to Zn adsorption to lime particles. Plant available Zn exists as exchangeable Zn+2, dissolved Zn+2 in soil water, adsorbed Zn to Mn oxide and organically bound Zn. Soil test labs often use a critical level of 0.5 ppm DTPA extractable Zn, but research in western Canada has found this level too high for predicting cereal response and that DTPA is an unsuitable extractant. No further work has been conducted to find a more suitable extractant and calibration for cereals and oilseeds on the prairies.