November 20, 2013

Agronomist Notes

Hello Reader

We just wrapped up an another excellent Advanced Agronomy conference and took home some great nuggets of information. We discussed everything from record setting wheat production to cover crops, controlled traffic farming, precision ag, spray technology, residue management as well as integrated pest management strategies. We even had a chance to share our -25C, blowing snow, nostril freezing weather with our Aussie and Kiwi guests.

We’re seeing more fall 2014 pricing on wheat, canola, peas and malt barley lately. Oddly enough, malt barley returns are looking more handsome than wheat at the moment. Time will tell. Urea prices are still hovering around $460 a tonne with talk of some slight movement upwards after December. With falling commodity prices, fertilizer prices in general look to remain stable in the coming months.

In this issue, we’ll look at a cool technique used to reduce neck break in barley using PGR’s. Next, we’ll look at a new concept in variable rate technology that addresses soil texture and seeding depth. Last, we’ll look at a plant growth regulator trial in wheat with soon to be registered product called Manipulator. We’ll finish with technical grain market news.

Have a great week.

Reduce head loss in barley

A New Zealand lesson

Every year growers who plant barley last in the rotation are forced into a compromising situation at harvest. Late tillers delay maturity and the crop is left to stand and mature. When the barley is ripe enough to straight cut the wheat is ready, canola is being swathed and barley is ignored just a little while longer. Meanwhile, barley heads are quietly breaking off and falling to the ground. The combines are still harvesting wheat but your gut is telling you tell to go grab that barley before you lose more yield. Well, I just discovered a technique used in New Zealand to reduce head loss (neck brake) in barley.

Farmers in New Zealand grow two-row spring barley much like us and have the same issues with head loss or neck brake close to harvest. To reduce neck brake they apply a plant growth regulator called Terpel (mepiquat chloride) at the very beginning of awn emergence. The PGR shortens and strengthens the stem between the flag leaf and the head, which keeps the head upright until harvest.

The pictures you see here show the untreated barley on top and the PGR treated barley on the bottom. You’ll notice the head on the PGR treated barley is standing straight up with the flag leaf tucked right underneath the head. The untreated barley is bent over with the flag leaf roughly an inch and a half below the head.

Terpal (mepiquat chloride): 750 ml/ha or 303 ml/ac

To read more about Terpal by BASF go here.

Now there is a risk of yield loss if a PGR is applied during a period of stress or just prior to a period of stress. The timing of awn emergence is a very tight window and hard but not impossible to scale. That said it could be an excellent option to not only reduce lodging but also straight cut barley more often without worrying about head loss by letting it stand. I know I’ll be watching in my barley trials next year. Big thanks to Graeme Jones of PGG Wrightson in New Zealand for letting me in on this great idea. SL

Photo credits: Graeme Jones, PGG Wrightson

Managing seeding depth with variable rate technology

At this week's conference, I was listening to agronomist Andrew Newall of NewAg consulting based in Horsham, Victoria tell me about his discoveries using GreenSeeker technology. Long story short, he showed me an NDVI image that revealed a large area of a field with low biomass. The yield map confirmed this area was lower yielding, which baffled the farmer because the area had good slope and excellent sandy loam soil texture so there was no reason it should be lower yielding. A quick check of the field, which was planted to barley at the time revealed a difference in seeding depth inside that lower yielding area. They concluded that the seed drill was hitting the sandy loam soil and dropping a half inch deeper in that area. That got me thinking!

When we build zone maps for variable rate, we typically build prescriptions for nutrients and seed. In this case and likely for many others, a change in seeding depth was all that was needed to increase the yield potential in this area. What if you could EM map this field to determine where the sandy areas are and where the drill is prone to sinking deeper? From there you could build a variable rate prescription map that controls frame or packing pressure to help keep seeding depth consistent. Of course this option is only available to drills with hydraulic driven on-row depth control.

What Andrew brought to my attention was the need to ground truth NDVI images and zone maps. Many people make assumptions that a lower biomass area is lower yielding so we look at varying the rate of seed and fertilizer. All along the issue might be a seeding depth issue caused by a change in soil texture. Even precision drills that control hydraulic frame pressure sink down in mellow, loose soil.

So, even with precision hoe drills, are we over-packing in low, wet or heavy clay areas or under packing in lighter, sandy textured soils? Could we improve crop emergence by managing frame pressure on the go to avoid deep seeding or packing pressure to avoid over-packing? If we can vary the rate of seed and fertilizer, there is no reason we can’t vary the packing or frame pressure on today’s precision hoe drills. This alone could be a game changer in variable rate. Food for thought. SL

Picture: EM38 zone map by Point Forward Solutions with sandy areas marked in red and low wet areas marked in blue.

Manipulator PGR in HRS wheat

PGR's look promising in W Canada

Several plant growth regulator trials have been carried out in Western Canada over the last few years with a product called Manipulator. Manipulator is a PGR that contains chlormequat chloride (620 g/L) with a different surfactant technology than similar products containing chlormequat like Cycocel Extra. The results so far have been very promising in wheat with its ability to shorten straw, reduce lodging and increase yield, even under cooler, single digit temperatures.

In 2013, Craig Shand of Farmer’s Edge in Crossfield, AB and his client Grant Budgeon applied Manipulator to a field of AC Harvest spring wheat. The original plan was to apply Manipulator at 700 ml/ac at growth stage 30 (first node). After a few rain delays and an calculation error by the custom sprayer operator the PGR went on at early flag leaf (GS39) at a rate of 480 ml/ac.

Results
AC Harvest
PGR: 117.7 bu/ac
Check: 103.1 bu/ac

The photo above displays a 6-inch height difference between the Harvest wheat treated with Manipulator on the right side and the untreated wheat on the left.

The yield increase in this trial was a remarkable 14.6 bu/ac. The Manipulator did not delay maturity, improved harvestability, and generated $95.00/ac in revenue for a treatment cost of $6.86/ac plus the extra cost of a sprayer pass. That’s a 15:1 return on investment in less than idea conditions, with a lighter than recommended rate at a later than recommended timing. Not bad! To be fair, there have been a number of trials with Manipulator that have had average results but none the less, it does show some serious promise.

Engage Agro is offering product to producers to conduct research trials in 2014 for those who show interest and do a good job of yield mapping. If you didn’t know, Engage Agro is a smaller company that focuses on developing, registering and marketing niche crop protection and pest control products like growth regulators in Canada. They are based out of Guelph, Ontario.

For more information on Engage Agro click here.

A big thank you to Grant Budgeon, Craig Shand of Farmer’s Edge and Phil Bernardin of Engage Agro for sharing this data.

Photo source: Craig Shand, Farmer’s Edge