Wet weather worsens salinity issues

Salty soil | Wet soils have added to millions of acres across the Prairies with a salinity problem

Long-lived.
Adapted to semiarid rangeland with 33 to 45 cm of annual precipitation.
Winter hardy.
Extensive root system.
Recovers rapidly after grazing.
Palatable to cattle.
Fine stemmed with low growth point.
Comparable to brome or orchard grass in yield.
Can displace foxtail barley under good conditions.
Suited to late fall seeding, although spring seeding is recommended.
Five to 10 lb. per acre seeding rate.
Three-quarter inch seeding depth.
Thirty to 60 lb. per acre of nitrogen recommended on mature stand.

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Natural hybrid between quackgrass and bluebunch wheat grasses.
Seed resembles that of quackgrass parent.

PICTURE BUTTE, Alta. — Seven million acres of land in Western Canada are classified as severely saline and another 17 million acres are moderate to slightly saline.

That shows the magnitude of the situation, says Agriculture Canada hydrology technician Ken Wall.

But it gets worse: another 10 million acres are at risk of becoming saline.

Wall, who works at the Semiarid Prairie Agricultural Research Centre in Swift Current, Sask., said strip farming and summer fallow practices in previous generations worsened soil salinity on the Prairies.

“With everybody moving to continuous cropping, it has really helped a lot of the salinity problems,” Wall told a salinity session organized by the County of Lethbridge.

“I think a lot of the farmers were thinking we’ve got this thing solved.”

However, he said recent years of wetter weather have given rise to salinity problems in places where they hadn’t previously been seen. As well, farmers may have even more to deal with because of snow conditions across much of the Prairies that indicate high runoff and a potentially high water table.

Wall said not all salinity problems will be immediately obvious.

“If you can’t see it, often people think it’s not there, but those slightly saline to moderately saline areas, they do affect growth … especially your wheats and your pulses.”

White residue on the soil surface is a sure sign of severe salinity, but it seldom appears on soil that is only slightly saline. Barley and canola are more salt tolerant than wheat and pulse crops, but Wall said farmers with irrigation have wider crop choices because they can leach salt downward until the crop becomes established.

“As with any crop, once it’s emerged, generally the tolerance increases a bit. With the perennials, it increases an awful lot, but with the annuals, if you can get it going, it’s got a better chance.”

Wall said tests involving cropping in moderate saline conditions show canola is as tolerant as barley, and hybrid canola handles it better than other varieties.

However, he cautioned against choosing a canola variety based on salt tolerance.

“Pick your highest yielding crop under no salt, and even if it might be a little less tolerant … it will probably translate into a little more yield in a moderate saline area.”

As for severely saline areas, Wall and three other soil and salinity experts agreed on one thing: a perennial forage is the answer to a perennial salinity problem.

“We’re looking for more intensive water use, so perennial forages are always going to be the best,” said Alberta Agriculture land management specialist Rob Dunn.

“Continuous cropping is always going to be the best scenario. We’re taking advantage, using as much of that moisture as we can.”

It may take years for perennial forages to improve saline areas, but there is little to lose when nothing else will grow.

Dunn said saline land seeded to alfalfa for three to five years showed higher yields on subsequent annual crops for up to eight years.

Jane Holzer, program director for the Montana Salinity Control Association, also recommended planting alfalfa and other salt tolerant forages.

Alfalfa and pubescent wheatgrass roots can stretch far deeper into the soil than those of cereal crops.

Both are efficient at using water and lowering the water table.

Holzer recommended using a simple water table monitoring well if salinity is a problem. A simple length of PVC pipe, installed with a posthole digger and affixed with a cap, is an easy and low cost way to monitor water table levels, she added.

Dunn said severely saline waterlogged areas can be candidates for subsurface drainage, but that has its own challenges related to expense, topography and neighbours.

“Nobody downstream wants your salty water,” he said.