September 10, 2013

Agronomist Notes

Hello Reader

Harvest continues with a few rain delays over the weekend. I’d say we’re nearing 25% complete with a 7-day forecast for temps in the upper 20’s and sunny weather. We should hit 50% complete by the end of the week if the weather holds. The west side of my territory (Calgary) is more like 10% complete.

Canola yields have been average to below average with the odd field performing very well. Wheat yields continue to be well above average but many reports of low protein (<11%). Barley yields are highly variable but seem to be slightly above average. Grain quality for all crops has been excellent.

This week in Beyond Agronomy News we’ll start with a unique solution designed to bale, pick and stack straw bales inside a CTF system. Next, we’ll look at faba bean production and what we’ve learned in 2013.

Mitch and I just started harvest so I’ll be taking the next two weeks off from publishing. You can expect the next issue of Beyond Agronomy News to be out on Tuesday, October 1st. Good luck with harvest and please stay safe.

Photo: Harvesting faba beans with our new-to-us JD 9750, September 9th, 2013, near Morrin, AB.

Crop Staging

(Calgary to Drumheller to Three Hills)

Harvest Progress
Yield Avg
Wheat: 10% 70-90 bu/ac
Canola: 40% 40-55 bu/ac
Barley: 45% 85-110 bu/ac
Peas: 98% 65-80 bu/ac

Baling straw and hay is possible in CTF

A straw baling set up on a 10M CTF system makes it look easy.

People are often deterred by the ability to manage straw bales in a controlled traffic farming system. How do you bale, pick and stack straw bales while remaining on the tramlines? Well, Julian Gold from Hendred Farm Partnership in the UK developed a system to bale, pick and stack square bales on a 10M (32.8ft) CTF system.

See the video here.

The system includes a large square baler that produces standard 3x4x8ft bales, a large square bale picker and a bale pusher mounted to the front of the tractor. The only modification Julian made was the bale pusher, which isn’t commercially available. The bale pusher slides the bale into position so the tractor can remain on the tramlines while the picker loads and stacks the bale.

The damage caused by wheel tracks, even with smaller tractors and baling equipment is significant. Julian has made a simple adaptation that opens up a world of opportunities. It is now possible to bale and remove straw inside a CTF system, a 10M (32.8ft) at that. Transfer this technology to forage production and there is no reason you can’t cut, rake, bale and pick hay on tramlines. I’m thinking of how the Aussie’s sell oats for hay and how Western Canada produces alfalfa and timothy. CTF and proper soil aeration would take hay production to a whole new level. SL

A big thanks to Julian and his team at Hendred Farms for sharing this great innovation.

To see Julian’s CTF system click here

Photo: A custom-made pusher bar mounted to an 8000 series JD tractor nudges the large square bales to align with the bale picker so the tractor can stay on the tramlines.

Faba beans give peas a run for their money

Faba beans are a relatively new crop to Western Canada with limited acres grown each year. In recent years, new varieties for feed and human consumption have come online making the pulse crop a profitable addition to the rotation. Mitch and I tried the human consumption variety called Malik this year with excellent results. The beans went roughly 60 bu/ac on some hilly, light ground with 10 inches of rain.

There are a number of good reasons to grow faba beans but here are just a few:

Flood tolerant
Straight cut very well
Deeper rooting helps break up compaction
Excellent nitrogen fixation
Leaves more nitrogen in the soil than peas
You can leave 5 to 8-inch tall stubble vs. peas at zero inches
Very good lodging resistance
Good weed control options

We contracted our fabas for $7.50/bu ($275.58MT) for pick-up in September, which is the same price you would get for yellow field peas. If you went the feed side, there is roughly a 10% discount in price compared to human consumption. The same applies to peas as well. Feed peas run roughly 10% below the value of human consumption. The marketability of feed fabas is the only unknown at this time but I'm told it is good.

The input costs for the Malik faba beans we grew were $191 for seed, inoculant, treatment, herbicides and hail insurance. AFSC will only provide hail insurance on faba beans; there is no production coverage.

To give you a few more heavy hints, I marked down the pros and cons of growing faba beans, based on our experience this season:

Seeding

With a 650 gram thousand kernel weight (3x pea size), we had to slow down to 2 mph and place the seed down the fertilizer tube behind the shank to avoid plugging. Even a new 60 ft air drill would struggle to get over 3 mph seeding fabas.
The only inoculant available is peat based and comes in a bag that you shake into the auger while your filling the drill. This is a very innacurate method of application and we must find a solution. Since the bags only cover 13 acres each, think about how many bags you’re shaking into an auger. Not fun!
The crop only needs some starter phosphorus and possibly some sulphur if you have low levels. The starter phosphorus is only due to the large removal of P, not because it responds much to starter P.

Spraying

The pre-emergent herbicide sulfentrazone (Authority) is not regitered but works well to provide flushing control of wild buckwheat, kochia, cleavers, red root pigweed and lambsquarters. If you plan to grow canola on bean stubble after Authority please contact NuFarm rep first as the recropping restrictions say 24 months but may be reduced soon.
Ethafluralin (Edge) is registered for use in faba beans which is nice rotational benefit to add a Group 3 herbicide.
In-crop herbicide options are growing with Basagran, Odyssey and Viper now registered. Choose Odyssey if you’re growing wheat the following year or Viper if you want to grow canola the following year.

Harvesting

The pod set was roughly 6 – 8 inches off the ground, which took the worry off the risk of picking up rocks while straight cutting.
The fabas dry down so much that all you’re left with are sticks and pods so you’re not putting much material through the combine.
You can straight cut easily up to 5 mph on flat ground, maybe higher. You’d have a hard time overloading your sieves with this crop. It turns into dust.

Now, if you can grow peas, you can grow faba beans. In fact, you’ll love them at harvest when your header is 6 inches off the ground and you’re going 5 mph on a 70+ bu/ac crop. For those who don’t grow peas and want a pulse crop, give faba beans a try. Everyone desperately needs another crop in their rotation and faba beans are scalable given the excellent harvest efficiency and the ability to straight cut. We stand to net a $125 an acre or a 38% ROI which is excellent for the quality of soil we grew them on. In my mind, fabas are an excellent fit across my region and I think everyone should consider trying them to see if they'd be a fit in their production system. SL

For more on faba bean trials and production click here.
For more on faba bean agronomy click here.