Growth regulators | Trials will examine benefits of shorter stem or stronger straw
Peter Johnson wants to see bigger returns for Ontario wheat producers and he’s looking to Europe for the answer, including the use of growth regulators.
Johnson, a cereals specialist with the province’s agriculture ministry, worked on trials that linked a “European way of producing” — higher nitrogen rates and fungicides — with increased yields. The trials involved mainly soft red winter wheat.
In a joint project comprising the agriculture ministry, Grain Farmers of Ontario and the University of Guelph, researchers increased nitrogen applications up to 150 pounds per acre in small plot and field scale trials over a three-year period ending in 2010.
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Johnson said the results were positive, with yields up by as much as 14 and 16 percent.
“That is quite easily putting at least another $20 an acre into a grower’s pocket and oftentimes as much as $50 an acre into a grower’s pocket,” he said.
They are intriguing numbers for Ontario growers who have watched corn displace wheat acres.
“We’re kind of, and have been for sometime now, in a bit of a quandary here in Ontario in that if we can’t significantly increase cereal yields in this province, we’re going to see a lot less cereal acres,” said Johnson.
However, higher input levels also increase the risk of lodging, which is why Johnson is examining the use of growth regulators, specifically Cycocel (active ingredient chlormequat chloride).
“We’re just kind of getting our feet wet trying to sort out where we could go with growth regulators and where that might fit in our production strategy,” he said.
Another two years of trials will be conducted after the first round in 2011. He said identifying when lodging will be problematic remains an issue. Previous tests that didn’t include growth regulators produced surprising results.
“It wasn’t the disaster we expected … but we still think that if we’re going to continue to push down this road, that we need to have that tool in the toolbox,” he said.
The goal is not necessarily to shorten the plant because growth regulators may only result in reductions of five to 10 centimetres. Instead, researchers are hoping to stiffen the straw.
Applications will ideally be made at growth stage 30-31, when the growing point is just emerging from the soil. He said the practice could have merit for prairie producers, but not in years when yields are limited by a lack of moisture.
“On the years where you get moisture, I think that some of this information we’re talking about probably has some potential to be utilized in Western Canada,” said Johnson. “But it won’t be every year, that’s for sure.”
The catch is the cost.
Cloromoquatte chloride is off patent but has been used almost exclusively by the greenhouse industry, which makes Cycocel much more expensive than in Europe, where it can cost as little as $5 per acre.
However, Johnson said there is interest in developing a generic product for Ontario.
“Then it won’t be $40 an acre,” he said. “I’ve been fairly adamant with those companies that I’ve talked to that if it ends up being double digits, that growers just won’t use it.”
Another product, Ethryl, is cheaper and could be applied in Ontario, but it faces increased restrictions.
Cycocel isn’t new and the use of growth regulators on wheat was looked at in the late 1980s.
However, Johnson said it isn’t commonly used.
That could change as wheat prices rise and improved genetics increase yield potentials.
