February 5, 2013

Agronomists Notes

Hello Reader,

My week at FarmTech was full of meetings, good presentations, and great conversations. Stuart Barden, my guest from Kenya, did an excellent job of key noting in front of 1,300 people on the last day. I’m back in the office now and ready to start building presentations before I leave for Oz in two weeks. All things are quiet on the agronomy front.

In this issue, we’ll look at the agronomy behind some record busting canola yields from my Kiwi friend, Chris Dennison. Next, we’ll look at a unique revenue insurance offer from a company called Global Ag Risk and then see my app pick of the week. We’ll finish with technical grain market news.

Have a great week.

Kiwi yields over 100 bu/ac winter canola two years running

Last year I reported that Chris Dennison from Oamaru, New Zealand hit the 100 bu/ac winter canola (OSR) mark, a very impressive yield even by New Zealand standards. The Kiwi’s enjoy a 10-month growing season, 20+ inches of rain and a Mediterranean climate. That said, its always interesting to see how they achieve such record smashing yields. On the other side of the planet in Western Canada, we have GM technology, precision seeding equipment, strong agronomy and longer daylight hours during flowering and pod fill. Can we do more in spite of a shorter growing season, GM varieties and less rainfall? I believe so. In the meantime, let’s look at Chris’s notes on the agronomy behind his big yields.

Agronomy for 108 bu/ac (6.1 T/ha), 2011-12

Field prep: cultivated, disked, & then sub-soiled down to 20 inches
Previous crop: two-row feed barley
Fertilizer pre-plant: 310 lbs/ac of superphosphate (0-9-0-11+ 20Ca)
Planted canola with a press drill at 2.7 lbs/ac, March 9, 2011
Bolting: broadcast 160 lbs of ammonium sulphate (55 lbs/N and 50 lbs/S)
Green bud: sprayed 140 ml/ac Folicur (tebuconazole) + 607 ml/ac Cycocel + molybdenum + boron
Green bud: broadcast 267 lbs/ac of urea (123 lbs/N/ac)
50% bloom: 160 ml/ac Proline (prothioconazole) + insecticide

Notes: This field had good background fertility and was planted after a barley crop that suffered from take-all, which left quite a bit of nitrogen behind. The crop grew 7 feet tall and lodged badly. It had to be swathed and harvested in one direction.

Agronomy for 120 bu/ac (6.7 T/ha), 2012-13

Previous crop: two-row barley
Straw was baled, disked, then cultivated prior to seeding
Fertilizer pre-plant: 400 lbs/ac of 0-7-7-19 + 4.45 lb/ac CuSo4 + 45 lbs/ac Mg Oxide
Planted with a press drill at 2.9 lbs/ac
Variety from the UK called “Flash”
Post seed: 2 L/ha Trifluralin + 220 ml/ha Magister (Clomazone) for weed control
Bolting and green bud: 178 lbs/N/ac + 18 lbs/S/ac broadcast by helicopter in two passes, one at bolting and one pass at green bud stage
Early bolting, 12-inches tall, applied 140 ml/ac Folicur + 600 ml/ac Borsolv boron
50% bloom: 160 ml/ac Proline fungicide
Pre-harvest: Applied 810 ml/ac of 540 glyphosate with helicopter
Harvest moisture was 10%

Notes: Canola was straight cut three weeks after pre-harvest glyphosate. The spring was very wet; the crop was water logged and turned purple for a spell but quickly grew out of it. Rainfall totaled 16 inches with 6 inches falling at once, flooding fields in the spring. There was no sub-soiling prior to seeding and molybdenum wasn’t applied with the crop as it had been applied years earlier.

Once again, I find it very interesting to see some familiar products like Folicur and Proline used on canola. In Chris’s situation, he is using a growth regulator like Cycocel (chlormoquat) plus Folicur at bolting, which we all know is a fungicide but it also acts like PGR. In 2011, his fertility rates equaled 170N-32P-0K-70S+71Ca + B + Mo and then in 2012 he applied 193N-28P-28K-95S + Mg + B. Those are serious groceries and needed in his high yield production system. I know you’re thinking, wow, is that economical? Well, at 120 bu/ac x $13.33 bu CDN, the $1,600.00 an acre gross should cover the $200.00 an acre cost of fertilizer and then some.

I believe with good rainfall or irrigation we could achieve yields greater than 100 bu/ac with our current canola hybrids. In Chris’s case, he managed to pull 120 bu/ac canola with 15 inches of rain, 6-inches of it coming in a downpour prior to bolting. We’ve hit 80 bu/ac and more on large acreages with standard agronomy practices in the past so adding another 25% to that does not seem far fetched. I think what we can glean from Chris’s experience is the ability to split apply nitrogen and sulphur efficiently at seeding and again prior to green bud stage before peak demand. In Western Canada, split applying N and S at green bud stage means we have to find a way to place it in the soil efficiently to avoid loss through volatilization and immobilization.

In our CTF, inter-row seeding system, our ability to side dress nutrients in season becomes easier. Side dressing canola makes a lot of sense and the research on split applying N with liquid 28-0-0 works, but only when it rains. Side dressing N and S in-season so it’s available at the right time and away from potential tie-ups and losses is key to boosting canola yields even further. SL

New option for crop revenue insurance

For the past two years, Global Ag Risk, based in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, has been offering a unique revenue based insurance plan to farms in Western Canada. I invited them to speak at our recent client meeting and the topic created some great discussion. The insurance product covers the cost of seed, fertilizer and chemical, plus up to $100.00 per acre coverage over and above the cost of the inputs. What’s unique is that coverage is not based on yield or price like crop insurance; it’s based strictly on revenue.

The folks at Global Ag Risk (GAR) recommend a combination of multiple insurance products to generate the highest net coverage. This would include revenue insurance, combined with hail and crop insurance. The three products together work well. To give you an example, I’ve used my own numbers to look at the costs and coverage levels covered with multiple products.

Steve’s quick math

GAR program: $11.00/ac for $175.00/ac + $75.00/ac above seed, fert, chem = $250.00/ac

AFSC crop insurance: 60% coverage canola = $7.66/ac for $205.20 but only if yield falls below my crop insurance area average of 18.1 bu/ac

Line company hail with 25% deductible is 3.5% = $7.00/ac for $200.00ac hail coverage

Total coverage: $250.00/ac revenue, $200/ac in hail and up to $205.20/ac if yield was zero.

Video on how it works

When I look at this program, I expect the Jack to come out of the box and say ha ha! just kidding! I will mention that GAR’s premiums are so low because they only pick the top producers by reviewing 5 years of accrual-based accounting records. If you qualify, then you can be insured. If you think about it, it’s kind of like selling insurance to people who don’t need it. Then again, the same can be said about AFSC crop insurance. We rarely collect crop insurance and many of us take it for the cheaper hail premiums offered through AFSC.

In the end, a bundle of insurance products makes sense and Global Ag Risk have even gone so far to say you can leverage against the revenue insurance. If you can guarantee a minimum revenue, like $250 an acre in this example, the banks may be more inclined to lend money to help you expand. Also, this may be the product we use to cover our inputs when we move to a more intensive crop management system that requires more expensive inputs. One of the reason farmers don’t aim for above average yields is because crop insurance won’t cover the additional costs of trying to do our best. Anyhow, check it and out and let me know your thoughts. SL

Steve’s App of the Week

Connected Farm by Trimble

Connected Farm by Trimble is a really cool free scouting app that does many things like allow you to trace field boundaries, scout for weeds, insects and diseases all with the ability to geo-tag the locations or take geo-tagged pictures. A really cool feature is the ability to calculate nitrogen rates in-season based on NDVI readings from your hand held GreenSeeker. The handheld GreenSeeker costs $500.00 CDN and it allows you to take NDVI readings anywhere in the field.

The coolest feature of this app is that it allows you to enter in an NDVI value, crop, nitrogen use efficiency estimate and yield goal. After entering this data it calculates how much nitrogen is needed to hit your yield target. I look forward to giving this one a try in 2013.

Calculating N rate based using handheld Greenseeker:

1) Click on flag, 2) Select NDVI_fp, 3) Select crop, 4) Enter NDVI value, 5) Enter NUE #, 6) Enter Max yield (bu/ac) and voila! it gives you the required N rate for that area.

Android
Apple