Flooding isn’t producers’ only headache in Manitoba’s Red River Valley this spring.
They’re also dealing with thousands of acres littered with corn residue.
Gary Unrau, who farms near Roland, Man., said an unusually wet fall and late harvest prevented many producers from working their fields, which will likely cause a time crunch this spring when the land finally dries up.
“The majority of the corn in Manitoba was probably done (harvested) between Nov. 15 and Christmas,” said Unrau, who has corn stover left on his land.
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He guessed that 75 percent of Manitoba’s 190,000 acres of grain corn are still covered with residue.
Unrau hopes to shred his stover and work it into the land when the fields dry up. However, a quick glance at the calendar tells him spring seeding will be late on his farm, 70 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.
“There’s nothing happening yet. A year ago at this time I was 10 days into seeding,” said Unrau, who grows corn, edible beans, wheat, oats, canola and flax.
His farm is 40 km from the Red River, but the soil in the Roland area and in much of the Red River Valley is saturated because of heavy rain last fall and another downpour in late March.
Zero tillage is less common in the Red River Valley than in other parts of Western Canada because of the region’s heavy clay soil. Even producers who practice zero tillage didn’t have enough time last fall to chop and spread stover.
As a result, producers will need to find time to manage their corn residue this spring.
Pam de Rocquigny, a feed grain specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, said burning the stover is an option but maybe not the best one.
“It’s up to every individual producer to decide if it’s a fit or not for their situation,” de Rocquigny said.
“It’s obviously a tool available.”
Manitoba Agriculture’s website advises against burning because of nutrient loss. It refers to a study by John Heard and Curtis Cavers of Manitoba Agriculture, which estimates that $47.20 per acre of nutrients are lost when stover is burned.
“I’m not considering burning myself …. It’s a huge amount of value these days,” said Unrau, who plans to plant beans on his corn fields.
“I’m hoping to shred it and work it in, cultivate it, if I have to. Just open up the ground and then try and disc it, weather permitting.”
However, discs tend to clog in heavy, wet soil, Unrau said, which is why some producers in the valley may use a coulter this spring to prepare their land.
Coulters shed mud more readily than a disc, but Unrau doesn’t own one.
He has rented coulters in the past, but this year he will wait and see how the land dries before he decides.
De Rocquigny said other options include planter attachments that keep residues out of the furrow and a seed treatment suitable for cooler, wetter soil.
She said she is confident producers will find a way to deal with their corn residue this spring.
“Farmers, they always seem to manage.”
