Agronomists Notes
Hello Reader,
Another great week of weather has passed allowing producers to finish up harvest. Sprayers and heavy harrows have been zipping across the fields. Regrowth on perennial weeds has been excellent and temperatures ideal for control but that may be interrupted. Starting tomorrow the forecast calls for flurries, rain, and temperatures below zero. A nice hors d’oeuvre before winter sets in, don’t you think?
In this week's issue, we’ll be reviewing a canola seeding rate trial and a vacuum planter trial on seeding rates and row spacing. I’ll follow up with tips on post harvest weed control and the use of granular herbicide. Have I mentioned that I’ll be flying to Africa in 15 days? Right. The whole family's going to Kenya and I'll talk a bit about it below. We’ll finish with technical grain market news.
Have a great week,
Pictured above: Aerial shot of the Currie home half.
Harvest Progress
(Calgary to Drumheller to Three Hills) Yield Avg
Wheat: 100% 50-60 bu/ac
Canola: 100% 30-40 bu/ac
Barley: 100% 80-90 bu/ac
Peas: 100% 40-50 bu/ac
Optimizing canola seeding rates
2012 trial data
With the cost of canola seed increasing each year and the improvements in seed drill technology, we’re starting to ease up on canola seeding rates from the traditional 5 lbs/ac recommendation. Seed costs range from $55.00 to $65.00 an acre which makes canola seed the number two input cost beside fertilizer. Precision drills with on-row depth control do improve canola emergence from better seed placement, and that has allowed us to reduce seeding rates. The big question is how low can we drop seeding rates without sacrificing yield and maturity?
Beyond Agronomy News subscriber, Adam Gurr from Brandon, Manitoba shared his replicated canola seeding rate trials with me that compared 2.5 lbs/ac, 4 lbs/ac and 5.5 lbs/ac. The field scale trials were 80 ft x 1 mile long replicated twice with a 35 ft strip harvested inside each rep. The plots were seeded with an 80 foot SeedHawk drill on 12-inch spacing. Here are the details:
Brandon
Seeding date: May 12
Fertility: 100-25-0-10 sidebanded at seeding
Previous crop: summerfallow
Seeding speed: 4.5mph
Variety: Invigor L150, TKW 4.4g, Germination 95%
Results Trial 1
5.5lbs = 13/ft2 = 40.5 bu/ac average
4.0lbs = 9/ft2 = 37.25 bu/ac average
2.5lbs = 6/ft2 = 37 bu/ac average
Field notes: Emergence was excellent, approaching 100% of viable seeds. Seed depth was 0.5-0.75-inches. Rain was required to get all seeds to germinate as mud on packer wheels caused some seed to only be placed 0.25” deep. Rain occurred 2 weeks after seeding, so plants ended up being about 2 leaf stages apart to begin with, but this was deemed to be the same across the treatments. The 5.5 lb rate had the best yield at Brandon site. The 2.5 lb rate had more weeds, in particular, a second flush buckwheat and pigweed. There was no lodging in any of the reps.
Rapid City
Seeding date: May 18
Fertility: 140-25-0-10,110lbs N fall banded as NH3, 30-25-0-10 sidebanded at seeding
Previous crop: wheat
Seeding speed: 4.5mph
Variety: Invigor L150, TKW 4.4g, Germination 95%
Results Trial 2
5.5lbs = 13/ft2 = 42.6 bu/ac
4.0lbs = 9/ft2 = 43.4 bu/ac
2.5lbs = 6/ft2 = 41.9 bu/ac
Field notes: As with the Brandon site, emergence rates approached 100% of viable seeds. Seed depth was 0.75 inches; all seed germinated and emerged about the same time rain was not required for even germination. The 4.0 lb rate had the best yield at the Rapid City site. The 2.5 lb rate replications did not have any severe lodging, the 4.0 and 5.5 lb rates did in some places. There were no noticeable differences in weed control between treatments.
Let’s do some quick math on Adam’s results to distill the economics using the average of both trials, seed cost at $9.60/lb and canola priced at $13.00/bu.
Steve’s quick math
5.5 lbs: $540.15 - $52.80 = $487.35/ac
4.0 lbs: $524.23 - $38.40 = $485.83/ac
2.5 lbs: $512.85 - $24.00 = $488.85/ac
At first glance, the highest plant density and seeding rate yielded the highest. However, when you combine the savings in seed cost and yield, the 2.5 lb/ac seeding rate provided the highest return on investment, though only by a fraction. It will be really great to see multiple years of data to see whether the lower seeding rate can deliver consistently despite the increased risk. Naturally, we’d all like to see seed savings and significant yield advantages. Kudos to Adam for taking the time to investigate lower seeding rates on his farm. He plans on repeating the trials for a couple more years. That will go a long way in helping us nail down how low we can go. SL
Trial results on Monosem vacuum planter
Row spacing & seeding rates
Vacuum planters are making their way into Western Canada as a precision canola seeding tool. Understandably, those trialing vacuum planters are at the bleeding edge of the curve as we’ve yet to figure out how they fit in our direct seeding, one-pass fertilizer and seeding system. Craig Shaw is one of those who spear headed a group to start development work with planters and Monosem was quick to step up with a demo planter for Craig and Lacombe research station to use in 2012.
The trials were set up to determine optimal row spacing and seeding rates using a Monosem vacuum planter compared to a Salford single disk on 10-inch spacing and Concord air drill with 5-foot low draft openers on 12-inch spacing. The results shown here are from Craig’s side by side plots comparing 12-inch, 18-inch, and 24-inch row spacing with low and high plant density targets. At first glance, the maturity across all plots looks even given the seed moisture content ranging less than 1.8% of which could be due to topography. The green seed count was also very close aside from the 24-inch row low seeding rate plot which was slighter higher at 2.5% green. It makes sense that a wider row with reduced plant densities would take longer to mature and the green seed count reflects that. The yield results were variable and with only one year under Craig’s belt, there’s more to learn about wider row spacing and the use of vacuum planters in canola. I’ve included some of Craig’s comments below in his own words from this year about the use of a Monosem vacuum planter.
Thoughts from the plots
Seed plates
From what we had heard we assumed more holes in the plate were better. That is not necessarily correct. You need to match plates to row spacing’s and intended seeding rates. The wider the row spacing the closer the seeds are in the row and then seed plates with more holes makes sense. On our 12-inch spacing a 120 hole plate max’s out at 1.8 inches between seeds and that gives you a higher seeding rate than you may want to run. The 72 hole plate with our current sprockets would only come down to about 2.5 lbs per acre.
Seed size
The original thought was that we wanted large seed size as it was insurance with low seeding rates and experience had suggested the planters worked better with bigger seed. The problem is that larger seed brings up your seeding rates (lbs per acre). In other words, it costs more to maintain seed populations. After my short experience with the Monosem, I am thinking that maybe we need to go the other way a little bit. I am quite comfortable that the planter can easily handle all seed sizes. While larger seed may have a benefit when seed placement (depth) is an issue, when you can fine tune all seeds at a shallow depth then vigour maybe less of an issue. Our Invigor seed lot was 5.52 grams per thousand kernels.
Seeding speed
With the Monoshox system http://monosem-inc.com/pdfs/manuals/ng+alt/monoshox.04.09.pdf on the Monosem I would be comfortable suggesting we could be seeding up to that 7 mile per hour range.
Seed placement
I would suggest this unit will give you the most uniform seed placement likely you will find. We were set at about ¾ inch and that’s where the seeds were. One issue we did see was behind the tractor tires and with our lighter sandy soil we were seeing seeds exposed in the lug imprints. We did discover one issue with the packing system and Monosem is going to rectify. With the narrow row spacing, they elected to go with more upright packers which meant there is a wider space between the packers than normal. In our sandy conditions if we pushed packing pressure to hard there was a tendency to actually push seeds up as the force was more beside the seed than over top. By moving the packers a little closer to the row we should help do and better job closing the furrow and allowing more leeway in packing pressure.
Seed singulation
With our light soils we did have some problems finding seeds in the row. You can tie the packer assembly up on a unit and in normal conditions that will keep the furrow open and then should be better able to see seeds in the row. For the most part we think it did a very good job.
There is no doubt that field variability had quite an impact on the yield results. As was evident in all of our fields, the low ground was greatly impacted by the excess moisture we experienced in the spring and the yield variation in the field was greater than normal. Second observation was that the earlier seeding date of the Salford resulted in better yields with our border yield results coming in at over 41 bushels to the acre. We had no issues swathing any of the trials but the 24-inch rows did have tougher straw going through the combine. There would seem to be some indication that the green counts in the 24-inch row were slightly higher. The first Salford trial ended up in slightly lower ground and the second in higher ground which reflects in yield. The lower yield from higher seeding rate would also reflect field variability.
My comments
I have no doubt the vacuum planter will be adapted to fit our direct seeding system but not as it’s currently designed. With many producers seeding between 1,000 and 3,000 or more acres of canola each year, a second drill/planter as I’ve presented in the past makes economic sense. At this time, we’re trying to discover the agronomic benefits of wider row spacing and how to match them with specific plant densities. Based on these trials in the Lacombe area, perhaps somewhere between 12-inch and 18-inch row spacing’s may be the optimum. Lacombe research station is also conducting randomized replicated trials which should provide us with more data to narrow down how vacuum planters and row spacing will fit. SL
Pictured above: Justin and his combine pilt Dawna harvest the 24" wide row canola.
It's time for Africa
Beyond Agronomy goes abroad
What comes to mind when you consider a country like Kenya? I think scrubby desert, Maasai warriors, coffee and long distance runners. I hadn’t thought of fields of wheat, barley, canola, peas and corn until recently. I’ve had the privilege of being asked to visit a farm group in Kenya and join them in looking at solutions and innovations to help boost production and profitability. They receive 40 inches of rain each year and at 1 degree south of the equator, the sun rises at 6:00am and sets at 6:30pm, everyday, all year round.
My young family and in-laws will be making the adventure too. Stuart and Annie Barden have graciously offered to host us on their farm near Nairobi. Stuart, a fellow Nuffield scholar and good mate, and Annie moved to Kenya a year ago from New South Wales, AUS. Can you imagine leaving a 30,000 acre farm to begin a new one, in Kenya no less? To get a glimpse of their experience and the trials and tribulations of life and farming in Kenya be sure to check out Stuart’s blog http://stuartbardeninkenya.blogspot.ca/
I will be writing from the road, air or atop a giraffe from Oct 18th to Nov 9th. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on what I find along the way. SL
Post harvest spraying tips
Over the last few years, I've had a few producers apply glyphosate and Pre-Pass at the end of September and early October, even after a few killing frosts. The results have been excellent; great control of fall germinating weeds like narrow-leaf hawk's beard, dandelion, flixweed, and foxtail barley, and the elimination of a pre-seed application in the spring. With the spring work load reduced, seeding can commence early without having to wait for the right conditions to spray or the right number of days to seed after spraying.
With excellent weed regrowth this fall and warm growing conditions, a successful post-harvest spray season is now upon us. Here are a few tips for fall weed control:
- Heavy harrow soon after combining to allow weeds more time to recover before spraying.
- If a frost up to -8°C occurs, wait at least two days for the plants to recuperate and then check for frost damage. Make sure to check all areas of the field as low-lying areas tend to receive more frost than higher ground.
- Ensure weeds are actively growing. At least 60% of the plant must be green for herbicides to work effectively.
- The best time to control winter annuals is in the fall when the plants are still small and have not had enough time to store sugar for spring regrowth.
- For good control, there must be several warm days (10°C or above) after application for the glyphosate to translocate to the root buds properly.
- Dow AgroSciences is offering a guarantee on fall applied PrePass. If you have to do a spring burn off even though you sprayed PrePass in the fall, they will refund the glyphosate. Call rep for details.
Common weeds in order of frost tolerance (highest to lowest)
1. Dandelion
2. Winter annuals
3. Quackgrass
4. Perennial Sow Thistle
5. Canada Thistle
6. Toadflax
7. Annuals
Post-harvest control tips for perennial weeds
Canada thistle
A few days with 10°C temperatures during and after application are needed for optimum control.
Frosts of -5°C or colder greatly reduce herbicide effectiveness for thistle control.
Apply 1 litre per acre to actively growing thistles.
If you are using a generic glyphosate add LI700 to improve uptake at this time of year. (Add 0.06% v/v for spray water between 6.5 and 8pH and 0.125%v/v for spray water for pHs above 8).
Foxtail barley
Post-harvest glyphosate gives the best root-kill of established foxtail barley if soil moisture conditions allow the plants to remain actively growing.
Optimum uptake and movements of glyphosate into foxtail barley roots occur at temperatures above 10°C.
Apply 1 to 2 litres per acre. Use the higher rate with heavier infestations and mature plants.
Quackgrass
At least 75% of the plant must be green and actively growing for effective spraying.
A light frost (-2°C to -3°C) will not effect quack grass control using glyphosate, providing temperatures rise to the mid-teens during the day.
A heavy frost (-5°C or colder) requires at least three days delay prior to spraying to determine if the quack grass has recovered.
Apply 1 litre per acre.
Dandelion
Fall is the best time of year to control dandelion.
Glyphosate, Express SG and PrePass give better control when applied in the fall rather than spring. A higher application rate is required in the spring to match the level of control of fall glyphosate treatments.
Source: Clark Brenzil, Provincial Weed Control Specialist, Manitoba
Beyond Agronomy launches Apps for Apple and Android smartphones
I’m excited to announce the launch of our new smartphone apps for Apple and Android!
The seeding rate calculator app allows you to enter your desired plant density, thousand kernel weight, germination, seedling mortality and instantly provides the correct seeding rate in lbs/ac.
The herbicide tank mix and rainfast guide app tells you what order to mix each herbicide and how long you have until it rains. This quick and easy to use app is tailored to Western Canadian farmers.
These apps will make your life easier and who doesn’t need a little ease? Hop on over to www.beyondagronomy.com to get yours today. Then tell your friends!
Advanced Agronomy Conference 2012
Register today!
Our 5th annual Advanced Agronomy Conference will be held in Edmonton on November 19 and 20, 2012. We have a great line-up of local and international speakers including our keynotes Clay Mitchell from Iowa and Roberto Peiretti from Argentina. We’ve put together leading edge topics and content you won’t find at a typical agronomy conference. Be sure to register today!
Topics & Speakers
Keynote: Argentine farming systems - Roberto Peiretti, Argentina
Keynote: High residue cropping and seeding systems - Roberto Peiretti, Argentina
Keynote: Telemetry and mobile device interconnectivity on the farm - Clay Mitchell, Mitchell Farm, Iowa
Keynote: CTF, intercropping, strip tillage and other benefits of aligned farming systems - Clay Mitchell, Mitchell Farm, Iowa
Optimizing crop production with precision planters - Brian Sieker, Monosem Inc., Kansas
Optimizing tires for traction, weight bearing and reducing the impact on soils - Ken Brodbeck, Firestone Ag, Iowa
Soil Compaction: What you can't see can hurt you - Jodi Dejong-Hughes, University of Minnesota
Field of dreams: high yield agronomy - Dan Owen, Hudye Soil Services, Saskatchewan
Late season foliar nutrition and nutrient densities - Jarrett Chambers, ATP Nutrition Ltd., Manitoba
To register go to: http://www.areca.ab.ca/aac-home.html
Market News
Canola Nov12: The long term trend is up and the short term trend is down.
HRS Wheat Dec12: The long and short term trends are up.
Corn Dec 12: The long and short term trends are up..
Soybeans Nov12: The long term trend is up and the short term trend is down.
CDN Dollar Jun12: The long term trend is up and the short term trend is down.
USD Jun12: The long term trend is down and the short term trend is up.
