January 28, 2014

Agronomist Notes

Hello Reader

Conference season is pushing on full steam ahead with an annual client meeting last week and a couple of presentations at FarmTech this week. On Saturday, I’m off to Australia for three weeks. I can’t wait to catch up with the Aussies but I’m unsure of the 40C degree weather that awaits this Canuck who’s into his fourth month of winter!

Producers are still wrestling with the final tweaks on crop rotation with very few if any crops penciling out very well in 2014. The futures prices are still decent but the basis levels are extremely wide, which is taking some serious margin off the bottom line. I’ve just heard a urea price paid now picked up spring for $630 a tonne, which also is hard to believe given natural gas prices and commodity prices falling. We were staring down poor margins this time last year so time will tell.

This week in Beyond Agronomy News, we’ll start by looking at a new herbicide group aimed to battle Group 1 and 2 resistant wild oats in Western Canada. Next, I’ll show you how an Aussie company is using drones and NIRGB cameras to map weed densities and generate VR herbicide prescription maps. Last, we’ll look at the impact of CTF on soil bulk density and how that impacts our bottom line. We’ll finish with technical grain market news.

Have a great week.

Pictured above: It's awesome and humbling to see a full house when I present, this time on the Barley 180 Project at FarmTech. Photo credit: Pete Stahl

Fighting herbicide resistant wild oats

Group 15 herbicide introduced 2015

In a recent survey, Dr. Hugh Beckie from Ag Canada announced that 29% of agricultural land in Canada is occupied by herbicide resistant weeds. Alarmingly, 41% of surveyed fields had Group 1 resistant wild oats, 12% showed Group 2 resistance and 8% showed resistance to both Group 1 and 2 herbicides. This trend is likely not going to end unless we manage resistance before it begins.

FMC is introducing a Group 15 herbicide with the active ingredient called Pyroxasulfone, which has excellent residual activity on wild oats. This active is only registered in front of corn and soybeans right now but FMC plans to register this product in front of wheat, winter wheat, lentils and peas. With the introduction of this herbicide, we now how a fifth herbicide group option (1, 2, 3, 8, 15) to combat wild oat herbicide resistance.

Here are the details on Pyroxasulfone:

Applied as a pre-seed or pre-emergent herbicide ahead of wheat, winter wheat, lentils and peas.
Focus is on wild oat control but does have activity on Downy and Japanese Brome grass, Lamb’s Quarters, Cleavers, Green Foxtail, Barnyardgrass, Redroot Pigweed and Wild Buckwheat.
Rates to be determined but may be 45 g/ac to 60 g/ac.
Trails show 90% control of Japanese Brome in winter wheat.
Efficacy is dependent on organic matter levels and moisture. Need moisture to activate. High organic matter ties up active.

When you couple higher seeding rates with a diverse crop rotation, proper crop establishment and a herbicide portfolio that includes five herbicide groups, you’ve got yourself a strong arsenal to compete against wild oat resistance. Mark my words, it can and will happen to us if we don’t take preventative measures now. It is reassuring to see companies like FMC bring in new chemistry to help fight the battle. SL

Photo credit: Steve Larocque, wild oats between rows of wheat.

UAVs map weed densities on stubble fields

eBee UAV maps Couch Grass in Western Australia

After last week’s article on UAVs I’ve had great emails and conversations about the use of UAV’s in agriculture. A great example came in from Quenten Knight and his group from Precision Agronomics Australia in WA. They are using UAVs to map weed growth in stubble fields to develop variable rate herbicide maps.

The image you see here was taken by an eBee fixed wing UAV with an NIRGB (Near infrared Green Blue) camera at 4cm pixel resolution. The yellow/green areas indicate the areas of dense weed growth, in this case, couch grass. The darker brown/red areas indicate the reflectance of stubble. From this image they have generated a prescription map to spot spray these areas with a sprayer that has sectional control. The area infected with couch grass is roughly 30% of this field so the innovative use of this technology will reduce herbicide costs by roughly 70%. Excellent!

The flight took about 30 minutes but processing the imagery took a few hours. Like I mentioned in last week’s article on UAVs, the scalability of this technology is dependent on refining the processing time and costs. The team at Precision Agronomics Australia feel they are up for the task and with the right processing hardware and software, they could generate quick turn-arounds while they’re still in the field. That’s where this technology has to go.

Thanks, Quenten, for sharing an excellent success story on the use of UAVs and real time imagery. SL

Image source: Quenten Knight, Precision Agronomics

Trimble enters the UAV market

A look at the use of UAV's to capture imagery

Last week I mentioned the eBee fixed wing and the AutoCopter rotary UAV units. Trimble introduced the UX5 fixed wing UAV this year and I thought I would include it this week to show you more options in this space. Here is a Youtube video on how the UX5 works and a spec sheet to show you what it can do.

UAV’s are all the rage in precision Ag right now but the reality is, many will spend a lot of time and money on pictures they can’t turn into money-making solutions. For now, I suggest you keep an eye on the development of UAV’s and wait for the solutions to come. SL

Drop your bulk density, up your yield

CTF builds a bigger gas tank

I was reviewing our Controlled Traffic Farming Alberta report that documented our field scale trials comparing CTF to random traffic from 2011 to 2013.See here. I discovered a little nugget that I never noticed before on the positive change in soil bulk densities from just one year of CTF. Bulk density is simply a measure of the amount of pore space inside a volume of soil. The reason it’s an important measurement is because it can give you an indication how well or poorly, water and air move through your soil. It is also a measure of how much moisture your soil can store.

In the fall of 2011, Alberta Agriculture staff took soil cores at each of our four sites. The bulk density measurements were taken down to 3 feet and measured from 0-6-inch, 6-12-inch, 12-24-inch and 24-36-inch depths. See page six of report for results on bulk densities.

The soil types are as follows at each site:
Site 1: Sandy loam
Site 2: Sandy loam
Site 3: Clay with 20% underlying solonetz
Site 4: Clay

In just one year of CTF, Site 1 decreased soil bulk density in the top 3 ft by 8%. Site 2, another sandy loam soil, decreased soil bulk density by 36%! Site 3 actually increased soil bulk density by 2.3% and Site 4 did not have a check. Site 3 has underlying solonetzic soil so random pockets of sodic soil, which is known for heavy bulk density may be skewing the data. It also may reveal how difficult it will be to change bulk density in certain soil types like solonetzic from simply removing random wheel traffic.

To put the changes in bulk density into perspective, let’s run a little scenario.

Steve’s quick math

Site 1: Sandy loam soil holds 5.3 inches of water in top 3 feet.
5.3 inch water x 8% x 6 bu/wheat per inch x $5.00 bu = $12.72/ac
5.3 inch water x 8% x 4 bu/canola per inch x $10.00 bu = $16.96/ac

Site 2: Sandy loam soil holds 4.96 inches of water in top 3 feet.
4.96 inch water x 36% x 6 bu/wheat per inch x $5.00 bu = $53.56/ac
4.96 inch water x 36% x 4 bu/canola per inch x $10.00 bu = $71.42/ac

In this example, by simply removing random traffic from these fields and increasing their water holding capacity, they could generate an additional $12.72 to $71.96 an acre from the increase in soil moisture storage. Not a bad return and it doesn’t include the revenue generated in extremely wet years when poor drainage reduces yield.

Another interesting point is the data on Site 4, which is our field, and was in CTF two years before the bulk density was measured. We have 10% more porosity than any of the other sites in the CTF Alberta trials in part to soil type and CTF. On average, our clay soil type should sit around 1.1 g/cc with 58% pore space. We were below 1.1 g/cc and between 2% to10% higher than average porosity in the top two feet. Even without a check in place, we can safely say our porosity is above average.

It was on my travels through Australia during the multi-year drought, that I realized the opportunity with CTF. Yes, soils drain better in CFT, but water holding capacity also increases. This results in higher yields and higher net returns. CTF provides great drainage in wet years and improved water supply in dry years.

Pictured above: Bulk density comparison on applied research sites for CTFA.

Speaking Event Schedule

My winter speaking schedule is below. Maybe we’ll have a chance to catch up if you’re attending one of these events.

FarmTech: Edmonton, AB, Jan 28-30
GRDC Update: Ballarat, Victoria, Feb 5
GRDC Update: Lake Bolac, Victoria, Feb 6, 7
ORM Meeting: Lake Bolac, Victoria, Feb 7
GRDC Advisor Update: Temora, New South Wales, Feb 11
GRDC Update: Corowa, New South Wales, Feb 12,13