There’s a parallel between early prairie pioneers and prairie soil scientist John Harapiak.
Both overcame major obstacles as they made their visions ripen to reality.
Although the former chief agronomist and prominent researcher with Western Co-operative Fertlizers Ltd. is credited with a string of innovations, the Certified Crop Advisor (CCA) program was just about the only one that was greeted with immediate acceptance.
As government backed away from agriculture extension in the 1990s, Harapiak quickly saw the need to standardize credentials of people selling crop input products.
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So it was fitting last week that Prairie CCA renamed its annual award that recognizes people who made significant contributions to prairie agronomy.
It is now called the John Harapiak Prairie CCA Pioneer Award.
Don Flaten, a soil scientist at the University of Manitoba, said the way Harapiak envisioned the need for CCA typified the way he envisioned the future of soil and fertility.
“He could look into his crystal ball and foretell a specific line of research he knew would be vital in the future,” said Flaten.
He would fish around until he had the right combination of topic, grad student and funding partners, and then get the project rolling.
Westco operates in all three provinces, so Harapiak was able to make the research relevant prairie-wide.
Flaten said Harapiak was generous with his ideas. He would find funding, provide guidance and then step back to let the student take the credit.
“When it came to getting his name on a published paper, it just didn’t seem important to John,” Flaten said.
“The most important thing was to get it done and advance the body of knowledge. He was just happy to see good things happen.”
Harapiak has been fighting cancer for a number of years and has been in palliative care in Calgary since the end of July.
“Even today in hospice in hospital, he’s so interested in following the research and what’s happening in farming. It gives him a big smile,” Flaten said.
Cindy Grant, an Agriculture Canada soil specialist in Brandon said she has discovered during her world travels that western Canadians are the most advanced in terms of efficient fertilizer application.
“I pin that directly on John Harapiak.”
She said another unique feature in Western Canada is that even the most fiercely competitive fertilizer companies work together if there’s a benefit to farmers.
“You don’t see that anywhere else. Fertilizer people in Western Canada seem to view each other almost as partners. They share ideas and research results. That’s due to John Harapiak’s influence. His motivation has always been to get everyone working together to improve practices for farmers, regardless of who you work for. His positive attitude has gone a long way in shaping the industry.”
Ray Dowbenko, a senior agronomist with Agrium, visits Harapiak weekly. The two have been close friends since Dowbenko was doing copper deficiency work at the U of M in the 1980s.
“Here’s what John did. He’d call me once in a while to get an update on my work.”
Dowbenko said it was a boost to a young student’s ego to have an icon of the industry calling to check on his progress.
“But here’s what he’d do next. He sent the information out to farmers and fertilizer dealers and agronomists all across Saskatchewan and Alberta. He felt my copper deficiency work was important and the word wasn’t getting out further west, so he took it upon himself to do it. That’s just the way John is. He didn’t benefit. Westco didn’t necessarily benefit any more than other fertilizer companies. But the farmers benefited. That’s all that matters to John.”
Jim Halford, a Saskatchewan farmer who is best known for his Conserva Pak seed drill, recalled the day Harapiak phoned him in 1993 with the idea of using a Conserva Pak to put anhydrous ammonia down at seeding time.
“In those days, it was common knowledge that if you seeded within five days after applying anhydrous, you’d kill the crop,” Halford said with a laugh.
“John had already done a little work on this before he called, so he was sure it was worth pursuing.”
Halford built a plot drill with the standard Conserva Pak opener, which they used extensively in trials throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan for two years.
Banded anhydrous ranged from zero to 100 pounds per acre in all crops. When the data cruncher spit out the final analysis, side banded anhydrous was the winner.
“That whole thing about banding anhydrous while seeding happened because John knew he could do it.”
Guy Lafond, a prominent zero till researcher at Indian Head, Sask., worked with Harapiak on numerous trials, which were eventually published in 1997 under the titleNo-Till Spring Wheat and Canola Response to Side Banded Anhydrous Ammonia at Seeding.
“I really saw John at his best, in the sense of trying to find a better method of farming,” Lafond said.
“John was very much opposed by some academics of the day, but after it was all said and done and the data was analyzed, he was so thrilled in proving that we can place seed and anhydrous ammonia at the same time.”
Lafond said the report was a huge leap forward in advancing one-pass farming. Nobody doubted the potential benefits, but without guidelines, farmers wouldn’t risk it.
“Now here we are, seeding and fertilizing in a single pass. It just doesn’t get more efficient than that,” he said.
“John and his crew tried all kinds of different combinations and permutations, looking at all the different responses and curves. Anything he could think of. It wasn’t sexy research, but it was so critical in getting us to where we are today.”
Adrian Johnston, best known for his work with the Potash and Phosphate Institute, said isolation may be a problem inherent in advancing new agronomic thinking.
Scientists located at a particular research facility are naturally isolated by the geographic mandate of the station. More significantly, they are isolated by the goals of the organization.
But Harapiak had access to many sites and was able to leverage them to further expand his list of research sites.
“John could partner with an unprecedented number of other research facilities across the Prairies to gather a truly large volume of multiple trial sites,” Johnston said.
“That let him cover a broad range of soil and environmental conditions.”
The large number of sites allowed Harapiak to come up with fresh agronomic thinking validated by good scientific numbers from across the Prairies.
“Since Rigas (Karamanos) took over as (Westco/Viterra) chief agronomist, he has been able to publish the vast majority of the research in journals. I think that speaks to the integrity of John’s work.”
A FERTILE CAREER
Here are some of John Harapiak’s more significant contributions:
• Harapiak’s early notion that banding fertilizer is more efficient than broadcasting met strong opposition from industry and academia. After years of perseverance, his idea prevailed
• He was the first person to recognize the potential of air seeders for applying pre-plant fertilizer
• He worked with equipment manufacturers to ensure that systems were being developed to effectively apply fertilizer
• He initiated research to determine safety limits for higher rates of fertilizer in the seed row for all soil types
• Despite opposition, he developed guidelines enabling farmers to apply anhydrous ammonia at seeding time
•He developed the NH3 Detection Kit to help an operator determine separation between seed and ammonia band
• He developed the first guidelines for wheat growers wanting to gain extra protein by top dressing nitrogen in season
• He played a key role in establishing the prairie region Certified Crop Advisor program
• He established and administered a fertilizer checkoff that evolved into a major funding source for fertility research
