It started out as nothing more than a pipe dream.
Brothers Ben and Greg Hudye were sitting around one cold February day in 1999, idly speculating on how big a crop they could grow if they pulled out all the stops. They were talking no-holds-barred, all-out top yield, the stuff dreams are made of.
Then the talk took a serious turn. They had enough quarter section fields on their jointly owned 15,000 acre farm near Norquay, Sask., that they could pick two quarters of wheat and two quarters of canola and treat those fields to all the inputs a crop could want.
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Their jointly owned supply company, Hudye Soil Services, was in the input business, so they had ready access to the latest technology.
“This Field of Dreams idea was never intended to demonstrate economic viability,” Ben Hudye said.
“It was intended to find out how far we could push these soils in northeastern Saskatchewan and northwestern Manitoba. What level of production might we possibly achieve on wheat and canola if we gave the crops everything they needed with no regard for cost whatsoever?
“We would use the best available genetics, the best chemistries and precisely the right amount of fertility required for the available moisture and heat. Water and heat would be our only limiting factors.”
Hudye said their Field of Dreams concept ignores economic thresholds. Maximum yield is the only goal. He stressed it’s an experiment designed to satisfy their curiosity and not a management scheme he recommends. As well, the Hudyes don’t use the fantasy strategy on their other fields. It’s too risky.
“Even in the best of years, Mother Nature remains the limiting factor. A farmer cannot grow more crop than rainfall, sunlight and heat will allow.”
He said it works out well if they budget a dream field for 300 millimetres of rain and Mother Nature co-operates. However, if Mother Nature only gives 50 mm of rain, the dream field with all its expensive inputs becomes a financial nightmare, which is why the concept should not be viewed as a whole-farm management system.
“Many people think that if you just keep pouring on the fertilizer and other inputs, you’ll get a top yield and a good financial return. Not true. The environmental conditions in each growing season are always your chief limiting factors.
“In northeastern Saskatchewan and northwestern Manitoba, rainfall historically runs from eight to 12 inches (200 to 300 mm) and our growing season historically runs from May 1 to Aug. 15. Ideally, if we get three-quarters of an inch (15 mm) of rain per week, we can hit the high end of our historic crop yield average.
“But with the management we have developed, we know how much more our soils are capable of producing if we actually get that 12 inches (300 mm) of rain. If you very studiously, very diligently, use the best available technology, it is possible in this area to produce 10 bushels of wheat with one inch (25 mm) of water and nearly seven bu. of canola with one inch (25 mm) of water. But it requires perfect weather and perfect management.”
Hudye said that’s why they call it Field of Dreams management. They use everything at their disposal to hit 120 bu. wheat and 75 bu. canola, and then wait to see what caps Mother Nature will impose on the crop.
To be realistic on a real-world farm, he said wheat can go eight bu. per 25 mm of water and canola can go five bu. per 25 mm of water. Those, he said, are goals that can be reached today by most producers if there are no weather disasters.
What about the lofty Field of Dreams targets? Does Hudye think they will ever be met?
“If we hit a target, then that means we didn’t set it high enough. In 1999, we started with a 100 bu. target on wheat. When harvest came, we hit 104.5 bu. average for the field. So we bumped our wheat target up to 120 bu.”
Hudye said plant genetics are a main component of their dream field strategy, especially in canola. If the plants do not have the genetic ability to obtain high yields, then high yields will not happen regardless of nutrients and moisture.
Mother Nature must have read their wish list for 2004, because the dream fields received the desired 300 mm of rain in a timely manner. It looked likely that they would need to bump up their target goals again.
Then, on the night of Aug. 19, Mother Nature changed her mind and painted the Prairies with frost. The Invigor 5020 in the low spots took a noticeable hit but in the higher areas it still looked good.
“When we combined that canola in mid-September, our Greenstar was giving us 90 bu. to the acre. Not just small pockets. Not just blips. We’d be rolling down the field a quarter mile all in the 90s. Then we’d get to a low spot and yield would drop to 20 bu.”
Might this have been the field to hit the magic 75 bu mark? Hudye said maybe, but adds that nobody can really make such a claim until the crop is safely in the bin.
They weren’t as fortunate in the wheat dream fields. The crop was excellent where frost passed it by, but the frosty spots took a bad hit.
“The wheat kernels in some areas were gorgeous. They looked like little pearls. Just beautiful. ”
But, he said, at other spots in the field the kernels looked awful.
The rationale behind the Field of Dreams concept is that farmers sell bushels, not acres. The fixed costs of production such as land and equipment remain the same whether a producer grows an average crop with conventional methods or a high yielding crop with intensive management.
Variable costs such as crop protection products and especially fertilizer increase with intensive management.
Hudye said math shows that the unit cost of production goes down as the bushels per acre go up. But can the yield increase outweigh the higher cost of inputs?
“When we started this project, we never expected these fields to be economically viable. That wasn’t the point. The point was to break through the pre-existing notions of what wheat and canola crops should yield on the Prairies.
“But when we put the numbers to it, the economics were wonderful. Our fixed costs on those fields always remain the same as our conventional management fields. The extra fertility costs us more money and we often use two fungicide passes because of the growth we encourage.
“But here’s the huge surprise. At the end of the day, our unit cost of production – our cost per bushel – on the experimental fields was lower than on our conventionally managed fields.”
Dream field wheat cost $322 per acre to grow, penciling out to a cost of $2.69 per bushel. That cost includes 197 pounds of nitrogen, 72 lb. of phosphorus, 77 lb. of potash, 27 lb. of sulfur and 0.38 lb. of copper. Seed varieties for the two quarters were Superb and Harvest, and both seed lots were treated with Synergise Cu/P and Raxil T.
Dream field canola cost $348 per acre to grow, penciling out to a cost of $4.65 per bu., which includes 247 lb. of nitrogen, 81 lb. of phosphorus, 63 lb. of potash, 61 lb. of sulfur and 2.1 lb. of boron.
The quarter with Canterra 1852H received seed treatments of Helix and Action 5S. The quarter with Invigor 5020 received seed treatments of Prosper and Action 5S. Hudye said they always use one Roundup Ready canola variety and one Liberty Link variety.
To get the kind of unique data they feel they need for dream world fertility recommendations, the Hudyes use A&L Soil Labs in Ontario. They do soil samples in the spring and fall, along with tissue samples throughout the growing season.
“If we can get those tissue tests done quickly enough, we can address any deficiencies or micronutrient problems when we make a second pass over the fields.
“The Field of Dreams project is tied into the Strategic Crop Management package with Agri-Trend. I don’t think we could do this without Agri-Trend and A&L labs. I have four research agronomists on staff full-time and they’re all Agri-Trend agri-coaches.”
The Hudye Soil Services Field of Dreams is a high risk proposition. There’s no doubt high input fields such as these are positioned to take a significant financial hit if there’s drought or hail. But what about the type of ordinary dry weather Norquay has seen this summer?
“Today (July 18) we’re sitting at less than eight inches (200 mm) of rain. So, we know for sure that isn’t enough to hit our high target. But I’d have to say that right now it looks like the wheat will go about 96 bu. and the canola about 56 bu.
“You cannot consider running the whole farm this way with low commodity prices. But if we could see sustainable prices with wheat above $5 for a period of years, then this system can work. It can become a reality.”
