October 22, 2013

Agronomist Notes

Hello Reader

The fieldwork is nearly finished for the season with a touch of fall banding NH3 and broadcast elemental sulphur and sulphate fines left. Soil sampling is underway and the results are just coming in. You won’t be surprised that soil nitrogen levels are low on wheat and barley stubble and slighted higher on canola stubble.

In this week’s issue, I’ll tell you a little story about the power of Twitter. Next I’ll provide my top five canola picks for 2014 and I’ll fill you in on a new strategy to control cleavers in canola, a problem that’s on the rise. Last, I have details on the upcoming Advanced Agronomy Conference happening November 19-20th so mark your calendar. We’ll finish with technical grain market news.

Have a great week.

Photo source: Richard Maisonneuve pulling heavy harrows with the sunset behind him near Donnelly, AB.

A lesson in the power of social media

Twitter solves grain movement problem

Farmers around the world are embracing social media outlets like Twitter as a means to gather information and connect with other producers and industry groups. I’ve seen discussions run the gamut from the economics of beef implants to what’s this weed to a rent-to-own scenario for young farmers. Whatever the topic, you can probably get an opinion on it with Twitter. And did you know that Twitter can solve problems over grain movement? Let me tell you a story about how.

A producer I’ll call B-Train finds himself in a bind because Company A will only take 30% of the grain he contracted to them off combine. This put the farmer in a situation where he had no room to store grain, his drier was full with no room in the bins so he was forced to pile tough grain on the ground. There were phone calls to the Company A rep asking them take full delivery but with no avail.

In frustration B-Train sends out a tweet to Company A saying how disappointed he was in them for reneging on their contract, using hashtags like cooperation, yourefired, contractedwheatpiledonground. Company A immediately tweets back to B-Train asking what the details are as head office manages the Twitter account. There may have been a couple of quick calls behind the scenes because the very next day Company A took delivery on all the contracted wheat piled on the ground, plus the tough canola he couldn’t dry because his bins were full. Case closed. Feathers smoothed.

The power of Twitter and social media is incredible. You can ask agronomy questions from professionals, talk to farming peers about equipment settings or in this case, draw the attention of a major corporation and within 24 hours have a local elevator make good on their contract. No one likes bad publicity.

If you have a smart phone, I strongly urge you to connect on Twitter. A simple tweet to @Cargill, @BayerCropScience, @Syngenta or @BASFAgro may get you to someone at the top pretty quick should you be satisfied or unsatisfied with the product/service you’re receiving. We have the power to make our voices heard around the world in an instant. Twitter is a tool that can be used in many ways. In B-Train’s case, it worked for problem solving and accountability. SL

Send me a tweet @BeyondAgronomy and I’ll retweet you to the 3,500+ tweeps who follow my account.

Image source

My top five canola varieties picks for 2014

Dekalb 7444: This variety is matched by high yield, comparable to 5440 and L130, stands well and has medium maturity. This crop swaths and harvests very nice and has yielded in the top three among varieties I manage.

InVigor 5440: This variety is very well suited to all my clients from east to west. It has high yield potential, awesome standability and is a treat to harvest. Many varieties are catching up to 5440 but it still holds the top five spot for an all around good variety.

InVigor L159: This variety is similar in yield as L150 but has the standability of L130. It is a high yielding variety with medium to late maturity. This variety is only sold through CPS.

InVigor L252: This variety is new, looks tvery good in the plots, yields a touch better than 5440 and stands like L130. This is a medium maturing variety that is shorter than 5440 and stands almost as well. This variety is one to watch.

Canterra 1990: This variety came out of nowhere for me and has been competing well against L130 and Dekalb 7444 the last two years. It has excellent standability, a little taller than 5440 but has excellent harvestability. It is suited for the medium to long season areas. SL

Photo: S. Larocque

Manage cleavers in herbicide tolerant canola

Cleavers are a growing concern in many canola fields across my territory. Driving around this fall prior to swathing, there were cleavers crawling on top of canola canopies everywhere. Aside from controlling winter annual cleavers in the spring with a healthy dose of glyphosate (.75 L/REL/ac) prior to seeding, there is another option. Edge (ethalfluralin) is not a new product by any means but it’s making a come back. Being a Group 3 herbicide it’s coming back to fight against weed resistance from Group 1, 2 and 9 herbicides.

The level of cleaver control you can expect with a surface application of Edge followed by a mid or heavy harrow is about 80%. It’s not a one shot bullet but it does help thin out the population enough to reduce selection pressure and allow you to nail them in-crop with your Liberty, Clearfield or RoundUp Ready herbicides.

I normally recommend the 20 lb/ac rate in sandy, low organic matter soils and 25 lb/ac rate in loam or clay soils with 4% OM or higher. The cost of the treatment at 20 lbs/ac is roughly $16.00/ac. If you’re going to follow up with an in-crop Liberty or glyphosate application you can stick with the lower rate of Edge in either soil type knowing you’ll hit the cleavers in-season again.

The added bonus with applying Edge is the additional weeds you suppress or control. For example, volunteer barley and wheat, Japanese Brome, wild oats, green foxtail, chickweed, kochia and wild buckwheat to name a few. In the black soil zone, Group 2 resistant chickweed is on the rise and Edge provides decent control.

So if you find yourself with a cleaver problem like I just mentioned, be proactive this fall or early next spring and add Edge to your herbicide arsenal. Giving those flushing cleavers a one, two punch from the ground and above with a soil active and foliar herbicide will keep you ahead of this troublesome weed. For the first time this harvest I actually heard some canola was downgraded to sample due to cleavers. That is an extreme case but eye opening none the less. SL

Photo source

Advanced Agronomy Conference

Don’t miss it!

Our 6th annual Advanced Agronomy Conference will be held in Leduc, AB on November 19 and 20, 2013. We have a great line-up of local and international speakers including Graeme Jones from New Zealand, Blake Vince from Ontario and Andrew Newall from Australia. 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