October 9, 2012

Agronomists Notes

Hello Reader,

Farmers have been busy getting field work done from disking sloughs and headlands to fall spraying and the beginning of some fall applied Avadex. Fertilizer prices have softened somewhat with urea dropping back down to $585 a tonne, the original price from back in August. Urea has gone from $585 to $630 to $610 and back down to $585 a tonne. MAP, potash and sulphur prices have remained stable however. Last, although seed supply may be in adequate supply it may be a good idea to get your varieties selected for next year before demand drives price up.

This week we’ll look at how CTF is changing the architecture of our canola roots in just three short years. Next, I’ll give you an update on what’s behind our high yield wheat and barley trials. Last, I’ll give you the details on the results of a high yield malt barley trial. We’ll finish with technical grain market news.

Have a great week,

Controlled traffic farming improves canola root structure and yield

There was some research I discovered in the UK a while back that showed a strong correlation between rooting index and yield in canola (OSR). Simply put, the bigger the roots the bigger the canola yield and can be found on pages 14-16 of this report. Jump across the pond to the Prairies and I would say most canola is shallow rooted, with poor lateral branching. We do a great job of producing above ground biomass but very little below the ground to support it. After three years of controlled traffic farming and reducing wheel traffic to just 17% of our fields, we’ve started to change the architecture of our canola roots. The end result is a canola plant with three times the root biomass of random traffic farms in the area and a yield that went 30 bu/ac after hail claimed 50% of it five days before harvest.

To give you some background, we farm 60% 2:1 clay soils with magnesium levels between 20 and 30%. The high level of magnesium binds clay particles together tightly which reduces soil porosity and drainage. Wheel traffic across these soils creates compaction layers that are very difficult to repair, especially when you continue to drive over them each year. Rooting systems tend to be shallow as these soils stay wet for long periods of time, especially during wet May-June periods like we experienced (10 inches between May15-Jun30) in 2012. The nail in the coffin most years is excessive heat during flowering and grain fill in July-August. With soils that swell and contract, root systems are torn apart as the soil dries out during periods of hot, dry weather. Even under adequate soil moisture crops begin to wilt quickly and senesce during periods of heat stress because their root system cannot support the respiration required by large above ground biomass. The end result is a plant with lots of biomass and disappointing yield.

Now our canola varieties are highly adaptable to their environment and they do well to a certain degree. However, when push comes to shove, I think we all learned in 2012 that heat stress during flowering, even in the presence of adequate soil moisture isn’t enough to maintain canola yield. I would argue that our canola cannot withstand periods of heat stress because of shallow rooting caused mainly by compaction. Our canola plants put most of their energy into building above ground biomass and the root systems we build aren’t big enough to support it. We need to change the way we focus on yield and start looking underground for the answers.

If you were to go out today and start pulling canola stalks out of the ground, you would probably see one of a few things in a random traffic field. One) A short tap root with long lateral roots. Two) A short tap root with no lateral roots but a fibrous network of small roots attached to the tap. Three) A long tap root with very short lateral roots. Four) A root you can’t even pull out of the ground without snapping in half. All these root architectures are signs of soil compression or compaction. The fibrous roots are an adaptive mechanism by the plant to create surface area when growing in a compacted soil. You can see this in the photo above. If you were to grow a root in un-compacted soil a soil it would produce a long tap root, long lateral roots and very little fibrous roots.

The photos you see here were taken from a random traffic no-till field and a controlled traffic no-till field. You can see in the photo above the tap roots with long lateral branching. These samples were taken randomly across my CTF field and not selected for the biggest ones. Almost every plant had this root structure. The photo below shows shallow roots with a lack of lateral roots but highly fibrous roots along the main tap roots. These canola stalks were taken from an area in a random traffic field where I thought the least amount of traffic would exist. You can see the massive difference in root structure and I could tell you that just a few years ago, our canola roots looked exactly the same.

Although we don’t have the long tap roots yet, it will take time for our soils to repair and allow those roots to work their way down. What surprised me most were the massive lateral branches off the tap roots in the top four inches of the soil. The soil is now so mellow in this heavy clay, high magnesium soil having removed wheel traffic from it that we’ve totally changed the architecture of our canola roots. We’ve gone from short and stubby tap roots three years ago to thick tap roots with 6 to 8 inch long lateral roots and lots of them. The surface area of our canola roots has tripled since we started CTF. Today, you can walk out into a field and pull any canola plant out without snapping off roots. You give the stalk a shake and the soil just falls off the root exposing a nice milky white, healthy root.

There is a strong correlation between the root surface area and yield. The bigger the roots, the greater their ability to take in moisture and nutrients, especially when plant demands are high during hot weather. CTF and the reduction in soil compaction has allowed us to produce a 30 bu/ac crop with over a 50% hail claim five days prior to harvest. This year, many folks struggled to get to 30 bu/ac without hail in our area. Are canola crop pulled right along and I’m positive it’s due to the change in root structure we’ve accomplished with CTF. Yield is from the bottom up. Stop producing biomass and start harvesting yield.

The birth of high yield barley and wheat trials in Alberta

Two years ago I asked the question, how high could we push barley yields in Alberta? I’ve always felt like barley has been treated like the ugly step sister beside canola and wheat. If you look back on the research in Alberta you’ll find that 180 bu/ac and 205 bu/ac barley yields have been achieved in small plot research. With that knowledge and identifying barley’s weaknesses, I wondered what could be achieved on a field scale level. Some phone calls and emails later ACIDF kicked in the funds to cover our inputs costs over and above our normal input costs and ARECA managed the data collection. The first year saw five sites of feed and malt barley with some excellent lessons learned about nitrogen sources and application as well as PGR’s and fungicides.

Fast forward to year two and ACIDF decided to increase their funding to include the cost of cover additional inputs for a high yield wheat program. The aim was 130 bu/ac hard red spring wheat and 150 bu/ac Canadian Prairie Spring wheat. The program now includes funding to cover 8 barley sites and 8 wheat sites and includes three other agronomists and farmer co-operators. We’ve just completed year two and although the hot weather capped upper end yield potential this year, we’ve once again learned a great deal about intensive wheat and barley management.

If you’re interested in learning about what we’re doing, last years results or perhaps you want to begin a program of your own, feel free to contact Ty Faechner. The future is not in small plot research, the future is in field scale trials that utilize yield maps, zone sampling, grid sampling and statistical analysis to review the results. It’s amazing what you can learn when you take the financial risk away from pushing inputs to the limit. The information is priceless.

If you have any questions you can email me here.

Pictured above: J

High yield malt barley trial – AC Metcalfe

I’ve been trying to walk a fine line between maximum yield and malt quality. We normally sacrifice yield by reducing our nitrogen rates to produce low protein malt. I’m of the theory that if you can achieve high yields, low protein is normally the end result so perhaps we can achieve high yielding malt quality barley. With that, here are the results from one of this year’s high yield AC Metcalfe malt barley trials’ focusing on plant growth regulators and ESN nitrogen. Unfortunately, this site was on the dry side with a total of 7 inches of rain with just 1 inch of stored soil moisture prior to seeding.

2012 Agronomy Program

Seeding

Variety: AC Metcalfe
Seeding rate: 160 lbs/ac
Target plant density: 30 plants ft2
Seed treatment: Raxil WW
Fertility: 100 lbs as NH3 + 70-30-30-0 using ESN. Applied in one pass at seeding

GS 23: Herbicide timing

MP Copper 5% at 0.5 L/ac = $4.50 ac
MP Zinc 9% at 0.5L/ac = $4.50 ac
Axial + Prestige + Tilt at 200 ml/ac

GS 30-31: 6th leaf 3 tiller stage

Cycocel Extra 720 g/ai at 1 L/ac @ 10 gal/ac

GS 39: Late flag leaf

Twinline applied at 200 ml/ac

Results

Business as usual yield: 86 bu/ac, 11.5% protein, 88% plump
High yield barley yield: 99 bu/ac, 14% protein, 88% plump
7 inches in-season rainfall and 1 inch stored soil moisture going into spring.
12 bushels of barley produced per inch of moisture which is 50% higher than the Alberta average.

Plant Growth Regulators
The plant growth regulator we used was called Cycocel Extra and has the active ingredient chlormequat. The rate we used was 1 L/ac at GS 31 or the beginning of stem elongation. Unfortunately we were just a bit late on the timing because we didn’t get the product in until the last minute. The chlormequat did shorten the tillers by three inches but did nothing to the height of the main stem. The check strip where no Cycocel was applied did lodge so it did work well. It would have worked even better had we been on time (GS 30, 5 leaf 3 tiller) to reduce the height of the main stems. That said the treated areas with Cycocel Extra on either side of the check went 98 bu/ac and 102 bu/ac versus the untreated check at 90 bu/ac. An 8 to 12 bu/ac was an impressive yield increase considering we were a bit late on the timing. That said, the area without a PGR did lodge severely so the yield increase does make sense.

I went with Cycocel Extra this year because it offers some flexibility in the timing. You can apply it early in one dose at 1 L/ac at GS 30 or in two shots at late tillering (GS 30) and again at stem elongation (GS 31). The other PGR alternative is a product called Ethrel with the active ingredient called ethephon. In 2011 we used Ethrel on all of our barley trials and it did an excellent job of reducing lodging. It sometimes shortened barley up to ten inches as was the case with Champion feed barley. The down side of using Ethrel is the short window of application. Ethrel should be applied at late flag leaf with awns just emerging. This stage can come and go within a day. If you have several acres to do, you can miss your window pretty quick. That said, you can wait until flag leaf to decide whether a PGR is warranted. The rates of Ethrel we used last year was 300 ml/ac and I would even reduce the rate down to 250 ml/ac in barley the next time we use it.

Results of PGR vs Check

No PGR check: 90 bu/ac
PGR applied west side of check: 98 bu/ac
PGR applied east side of check: 102 bu/ac
PGR was applied to rest of trial: 99 bu/ac

ESN (Environmentally safe nitrogen)
To reduce the amount of nitrogen available in the early stages, we seed placed 70 lbs/N/ac using ESN on top of the 100 lbs/N/ac as NH3. The theory behind the use of ESN in this trial was to help reduce some vegetative growth earlier on and allow the slow release nitrogen to come available during grain fill. The end result was a 5-6 bu/ac yield increase over the check with no ESN. The ESN did a good job of releasing later in the growing season but unfortunately boosted protein by 2.5% over the check which made it unsuitable for malt at 13% protein. If you work the math on the nitrogen removed in a 2.5% increase in protein on a 99 bu/ac final yield at 52 lb bushel weight, you get 20 lbs/N removed. We didn’t use all of the nitrogen we applied and I suspect there will be roughly 50 lbs/N/ac remaining in the soil.

100 lbs N as NH3 no ESN check: 90 bu/ac
100 lbs N as NH3 + 70 N ESN on west side of check: 96 bu/ac
100 lbs N as NH3 + 70 N ESN on east side of check: 95 bu/ac

Recommendations

Barley sets yield potential very early (3 to 5 leaf stage) and pollinates before coming out of the boot. Provided all your other nutrients are balanced, having all your nitrogen available early in the growing season is a better strategy in barley than a slow release N program.
Have as much nitrogen available as possible by tillering whether you apply all at once or split apply and manage the vegetation with a growth regulator.
Ethrel is a great tool to use once you know you’ve had decent moisture and need a PGR. Apply in barley at 250 to 300 ml/ac alone at late flag leaf. Be sure not to apply if crop is under stress.
Cycocel Extra is an excellent product that give you flexibility with timing and rates but doesn’t have the shortening effect that Ethrel does. It strengthens the straw and reduces lodging but not like Ethrel.
Cycocel was successfully applied with herbicides in another trial so it can save you a pass if you delay herbicide application to 5 leaf 3 tiller or close to GS 31.
ESN is a finicky product that is controlled by moisture and temperature, two things we can’t control. It is for this reason I do not recommend ESN on high yield barley. Stick to NH3 or urea full shot up front or a split app with UAN prior to or at the beginning tillering.
AC Metcalfe is most likely not the best variety to try and push yield. It doesn’t seem to respond as well as other varieties like CDC Copeland and CDC Meredith.
Although I did not do a fungicide trial in this plot I do recommend either Quilt or Prosaro in malt barley. Prosaro is my top pick as it is very strong on septoria, net blotch and scald and did a fantastic job of disease control. In this plot we used Twinline and I must say I was a little disappointed.

I was impressed with the results of the yield trial given just 7 inches of rain during the growing season and a touch of hail on this 67 acre plot. I do plan on switching out AC Metcalfe to CDC Meredith on my malt trials in 2013. As a side note, the CDC Meredith grown one mile away produced 110 bu/ac with our standard agronomy program so I think I’m sold on giving it a try. I’m still undecided on which PGR I will use in 2013 as both Ethrel and Cycocel have their pros and cons. I may try a combination of Cycocel up front at tillering with a follow up Ethrel at late flag leaf if rainfall is adequate. Not to forget fungicides, I plan to apply a 300 ml/ac rate of Quilt at late tillering and following up with a 320 ml/ac rate of Prosaro at heading to help delay senescence.

To finish off, the economics of the trial required a 14 bu/ac increase over the check to break even. We produced a 13 bu/ac increase over the check. However, a big chunk of the cost came from the Cycocel which was purchased through the horticulture market and cost $41.60 acre!!! The Ethrel would have cost $5.00 acre and we could have reduced cost with cheaper N using NH3 rather than ESN. In the end, if I were to focus on two simple management strategies to help push yields higher in barley I’d focus on the use of plant growth regulators and a premium fungicide like Prosaro or Quilt. Those two inputs have the most promise in taking barley to the next level.

Advanced Agronomy Conference 2012

UPDATE!

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. Roberto Peiretti had to withdraw do to health reasons and we wish him all the best. We have put together some of the most leading edge topics and concepts you won’t find at a typical agronomy conference. Be sure to register today!

Topics & Speakers

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

On farm trials: High yield wheat and barley production, CTF and canola row spacing - Steve Larocque, Beyond Agronomy, Alberta

To register go to: http://www.areca.ab.ca/aac-home.html

Beyond Agronomy Apple and Android Apps

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!