Late harvest | With a small window for applications, Keystone Agricultural Producers challenges provincial legislation
A late harvest and wet conditions in the western half of Manitoba mean farmers will have a narrow window to apply fertilizer this year.
As a result, Keystone Agricultural Producers president Doug Chorney wants the province to extend or eliminate the Nov. 10 deadline for fertilizer applications.
“I, on my farm, have been able to band anhydrous ammonia right until the end of November,” he said.
Provincial regulations that took effect in 2011 ban fertilizer application between Nov. 10 and April 10.
The province established the deadlines, under Manitoba’s Water Protection Act, to prevent farmers spreading fertilizer on frozen ground.
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The fertilizer could wash away during spring runoff and end up in waterways and lakes, particularly Lake Winnipeg, which is overloaded with nutrients.
Chorney said the regulation is unnecessary because farmers aren’t going to apply nutrients worth tens of thousands of dollars on frozen ground.
“In my opinion, we don’t need deadlines. Farmers aren’t going to apply fertilizer or manure when it’s impractical or unsafe to do,” he told a KAP meeting in Portage la Prairie.
“You can’t incorporate fertilizer or manure into frozen ground. So why would you do it?”
Chorney said Manitoba farmers plant 1.4 million acres of corn and soybeans a year, and they aren’t typically harvested until October. It means growers have limited time to fertilize fields before Nov. 10.
“That’s a lot of acres of late crop,” he said. “It’s getting up there.”
Dan Mazier, who farms near Brandon, said western Manitoba growers were still harvesting in the middle of October because the wet, cool spring delayed seeding. As well, 50 to 75 millimetres of rain fell on the region in the second week of October and fields remain soft.
“Not only can’t the guys get on there, it’s the supply companies,” said Mazier, who is a vice-president at KAP.
“All of a sudden your two month window (for fertilizer application) goes down to a two week window.”
If the province wants to regulate fertilizer application, the deadline should float based on conditions rather than be a fixed date, he added.
The province waived the April 10 deadline in the spring of 2012 because snow had melted by the third week of March, and fields had thawed by early April. Farmers were eager to go.
“We had that early start to seeding in 2012 and they gave us an exemption that spring, so we applauded the government for being reactive to the weather conditions,” Chorney said.
“It speaks to the fact that fixed dates don’t work well.”
Gary Martens, a University of Manitoba plant science professor, said applying fall fertilizer too early can have environmental consequences because the nitrogen will convert from ammonium to nitrate If the soil is warm when fertilizer is injected.
