March 5, 2013

Agronomist Notes

Hello Reader

So long Australia and hello New Zealand! I finished up the Aussie leg of my journey last week. So many miles covered, so many new connections! It was great to meet innovative farmers and precision ag specialists from around the world at the controlled traffic farming conference in Toowoomba, QLD. What a great platform for bringing farmers from around the world to one spot to share the opportunities and challenges with CTF. Our local pilot on the ground, Tim Neale, did not disappoint.

I am currently en route to Methven, NZ to see Craige & Roz Mackenzie where we will arrive in the middle of wheat harvest. Then it’s off to see current two-time world record holder for wheat yield, Mike Solari, and former record holder, Chris Dennison.

This week I’ll run you through the agronomy that Craige Mackenzie put together to achieve 178 bu/ac spring wheat. Next, I’ll talk briefly about a solution for swathing within a CTF system and discuss disk seeding into stripper head stubble after watching a cool demo last week.

It’s been a whirlwind trip full of great ideas and innovations I can take home to my clients, farm and subscribers. Stay tuned!

A typical view of the landscape north of Riverton, South Australia, February 2013. S. Larocque

The nitty gritty on 178 bu/ac wheat

How to bring a combine to its knees in New Zealand

I had the opportunity to jump in the combine with Craige Mackenzie near Methven, New Zealand as he harvested the biggest spring wheat crop I’ve ever seen. Walking into the field I grabbed a head to do a kernel count. Sixty kernels per head, double what we produce in Western Canada. The yield monitor was hitting up to 208 bu/ac with a final average of 178 bu/ac on 80 acres. Jaw dropping!

Agronomy geek that I am, I asked Craige the details on his incredible spring wheat yield and he kindly obliged:

Agronomy for 178 bu/ac (12.5 T/ha)

Previous crop: Ryegrass seed
Soil type: Silty loam
Rainfall & Irrigation: 380 mm + 120 mm (20”)
Field prep: Plowed, cultivated twice and rolled prior to sowing
Planted: September 7th, 2012 with Sunflower double disk drill, 7.5” row spacing
Fertilizer pre-plant: 90 lb/ac urea broadcast applied
225 lb/ac of 0N-5P-15K-14S-13Ca applied pre-plant, broadcasted and incorporated
Variety: Morph
Seeding rate: 107 lb/ac aiming for 20 plants M2
Plants stand: 40 heads ft2
Post seed: 20 days, Firebird 140 ml/ac, 240 ml/ac Starane Extra
GS 30: Applied PGR, Cycocel 800 ml/ac + Opus 120 ml/ac
GS 31: 110 lb/ac of urea
Flag leaf minus 1: 110 lb/ac urea which was 12 days later than first app
Flag leaf: Commett (strob) 160 ml/ac + Opus Ultimate (Tria) 160 ml/ac
Boot stage: 135 lb/ac urea
Flowering: Commett 160 ml/ac + Folicur 160 ml/ha + Seguris Flexi 500 ml/ac
Total N: 205 lbs/N/ac
Harvested March 2nd, 2013 or 180 days

Notes: The field was under variable rate irrigation and the pre-plant fertilizer was variable rate applied.

Cost of Inputs: $1,000/ha NZ
Gross margin: 12 T/ha x $450/T = $4,500/ha
Net margin: $4,400/ha or $1,780/ac NZ

Achieving 178 bu/ac hard red spring wheat is incredible and gives me the confidence to know we can push a lot higher than we think. We can learn a lot about the timing of the inputs to achieve these types of yields from top producers like Craige and tailor them to our own context. What interests me most is the combination of multiple fungicides along with multiple nitrogen application timings. The nitrogen applications are applied to match peak demand periods to generate higher uptake efficiency. The use of multiple fungicides helps delay senescence, which keeps the plants greener, longer so it able to utilize the additional nitrogen.

You can see the margins are excellent at today’s prices even with an intensive input system. I believe we really need to review how we apply nitrogen and how we can improve uptake efficiency. Matching nitrogen demand in combination with maintaining a healthy plant is key to improving yields. To apply split applications of nitrogen alone or fungicide alone is futile. Applying them together is where the magic happens. After visiting with Craige, I’m itching to get started. SL

What a rush! Harvesting an average yield of 178bu/ac at Craige and Roz Mackenzie's, near Methven, NZ. Photo S. Larocque

Swathing in a CTF system

A Miller Nitro runs a double life

One of the biggest challenges in CTF is finding a swather with the right axle widths. Most axles on self-propelled swathers are wider than the standard 120-inch spacing used in CTF. I came across a farm in South Australia that uses a Miller Nitro for spraying with an adaptor kit for swathing and it works well.

The Miller Nitro can be brought down to 120-inch axle spacing and has an adapter kit that fits most swather fronts. The bottom photo shows a 30ft wide New Holland header, which is mounted to the Nitro when swathing canola. In North America, New Holland sells it’s own version of the Nitro sprayer, called the Guardian.

The Miller Nitro not only addresses axle spacing for CTF, it also reduces the amount of capital tied up in swathers. With swathers running upwards of $200,000 these days, the Nitro swather adaptor kit could save a farm over $100,000 for a self-propelled swather with no header. If you look closely, you’ll see this New Holland header has spray nozzles mounted across the entire width, which allows the producer to spray herbicide and swath at the same time. This technology saves an extra pass after harvest and offers control on late flushing weeds.

The Miller Nitro solves the 120-inch axle spacing issue with swathers in CTF, eliminates the need for a self-propelled swather and allows you to combine spraying with swathing. If you can get your head around a front mounted boom sprayer, the Nitro may be just the right fit for your farm. SL

The Miller Nitro (top), New Holland straight cut header (bottom). Photos S. Larocque

A disk drill demo on stripper stubble

A first hand look gets me thinking twice.

I visited a zero till farm in South Australia that is making the transition to controlled traffic farming. Although months away from seeding, the farmer fired up his MX270 tractor and JD 1890 disk drill to demo how well it plants into tall stripper wheat stubble. He also pointed out the machinery tweaks needed to get excellent seed placement in heavy stubble.

I took a short video from the top of the air drill as we went down the field. Click here to watch.

The top photo shows the disk drill seeding into tall standing wheat stubble that was stripped a few months ago. The middle photo shows the disks nestled into the stubble while the producer checked the depth of the furrow, which was quite impressive for the amount of residue on the surface (bottom photo).

The producer follows the advice of US consultant Phil Needam and purchased his brand name disks, crumbler closing wheels, seed firmers and narrow gauge wheels.

This is what I learned during our visit:

The crumbler wheel you see in the middle photo is a must to help close the furrow. A flat press wheel glides on top of the knocked down stubble and doesn’t close the furrow properly.
Stripper stubble is almost flat (top photo) after a pass with the disk drill. Some areas still standing under the drill and some flat but mostly flat.
It’s hard to keep stubble standing with a stripper header and disk drill on spacing 10-inches or narrower.
Disk drills wander a lot which makes it difficult to inter-row seed. Implement steering is a must if you want to keep straight rows and inter-row seed with disk drills.
The Phil Needam narrow gauge wheel that runs beside the disk is one inch narrower than the factory gauge wheel. It would help with inter-row seeding on narrower row spacing but you’re limited to 10-inch spacing or wider. See point above about wandering disk drills.
The stubble reflects a lot of light so areas with high evaporation rates from hot temperatures will benefit from keeping soil cooler [reference].
Stripper stubble flattened by the drill would be hazardous in cold springs like in Western Canada because it reflects light and keeps the soil cool.
Stripper stubble and disk drills do not leave tall standing stubble, which is the opposite of what we’re trying to achieve when inter-row sowing. Tall stubble equals higher yields.

It’s one thing to talk about stripper headers and disk drills but it’s another to see it in action; to see the impressive job a disk can do in tall stubble when set up properly, and to see the challenges it presents with flattened stubble. It was also very interesting to see how much the disk drill wanders, which has me thinking that tyne openers, if set up properly, may not be so bad.

In the end, disk seeding into stripper stubble works very well in this producers system. I don’t know that a stripper header would fit well in our CTF, inter-row seeding system unless we could find a way to keep stubble standing. Standing stubble is crucial to help us harvest pulse crops and improve moisture use efficiency by slowing wind speeds down at the surface. The wandering disk drill could be managed with implement steering but that’s another added cost. I truly appreciated the impromptu seeding demo. Its not often you get to see how things work first hand. SL

Photos S. Larocque