CANORA, Sask. – Rachel Oystryk is organizing a flatbed littered with signs. One says Dribble Band, another is labeled Richlea 0. Each sign will soon be planted in front of a different research plot at the East Central Research Foundation.
Oystryk is gearing up for the 1999 agriculture tour, which will be held July 28 at the Canora, Sask., research farm. This year’s tour includes hemp research plots, corn fertility trials, regional adaptation trials for pulse crops and other variety and agronomy trials conducted on specialty crops.
She hopes to attract 150 people to the one-day event, doubling last year’s attendance. And for the first time, Oystryk will be able to give some research results to tour participants.
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Three years into its five-year mandate, the Canora specialty crop research facility, one of seven such sites across Saskatchewan, has reached the point where it can publish some of its results.
The foundation’s first newsletter was mailed to 8,100 farms and homes in and around Canora this spring. One of the preliminary findings published in the newsletter is about an adaptation study of six different species of pulse crops that was conducted at all seven sites in 1997 and 1998.
In terms of yield, field peas were by far the best-adapted pulse species to all the test locations, which in addition to Canora include Indian Head, Melfort, Outlook, Redvers, Scott and Swift Current. The field peas consistently outperformed lentils, chickpeas, dry beans, faba beans and soybeans at all sites.
However, at current prices, peas would have to yield more than five times what a farmer could get from dry beans to make the crop a better moneymaker.
That’s why price/yield ratios are taken into account in this five-year study that intends to quantify the risks and benefits of growing each of the six pulse species in the test site regions.
Knives versus sweeps
Another trial focuses on low disturbance versus high disturbance seeding. Preliminary results indicate there is no measurable difference between knives and sweeps when it comes to plant population, maturity and seed mass.
But low disturbance seeding appears to produce a higher yield in the crops being studied – dry beans, lentils, peas, fenugreek, mustard, coriander and barley.
Other trials include hemp and corn fertility. Both are crops that farmers in the Canora district have expressed interest in, said Oystryk, who manages the East Central Research Foundation.
It is growing is a new early maturing variety corn that may give southern Saskatchewan growers another feed crop.
In addition to measuring days to maturity, Oystryk and the Canora foundation’s other two full-time employees will evaluate how well this new corn grows in Saskatchewan and experiment with different fertilization rates.
Hemp results
This year’s hemp research will explore fibre yield, seed yield and oil quality responses to different nutrient balances. Last year’s research trial comparing different hemp varieties was wiped out before harvest. The crop had to be burnt because tetrahydocannabinol levels measured twice the allowable limit of 0.3 percent.
Other ongoing experiments include variety trials for sunflowers and beans, herbicide use trials on a number of specialty crops and research on herbs and spices like dill and coriander.
The foundation, which gets the bulk of its operating money from the Canada-Saskatchewan Agri-Food Innovation fund, also conducts joint research with a variety of commodity groups such as the Saskatchewan Forage Council.
Oystryk encourages people to contact the East Central Research Foundation with research proposals for specialty crops. The facility is eager to work with area producers on projects of interest to them.
