LETHBRIDGE – The weather in southern Alberta may be less than perfect for crops this year, but conditions are proving ideal for fertility trials.
At a diagnostic field school held near Lethbridge recently fertility demonstrations showed everything from macro to micro nutrients.
Nancy Lee, co-ordinator for the diagnostic field school, with the Southern Applied Research Association, said it was a perfect year for these demonstrations because nutrient deficiencies stand out more with the amount of growth on the crops. Nitrogen deficiencies have been extremely visible.
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“I think a lot of it is production tips – this is what a good crop of barley looks like, this is what different cultivars grow like here. Some are very responsive to growing conditions. It’s a good look into a variety of agronomic practices and their results,” She said.
“We have control plots to compare all the different nutrient rates against, so it’s very visual. It’s a good comparison, because a lot of times, producers and ag reps never see those two side by side, something with no extra agronomics against all these additional inputs.”
For the past 15 years, Agriculture Canada, Alberta Agriculture and commodity groups in southern Alberta have run diagnostic field schools to teach producers and agrologists to identify different problems with crops.
This year’s field day focused on barley and canola.
“Some of the things we look at are different seeding rates, dates and what impact that has on crop staging,” said Lee. “We had a frost in April and lost all the canola that was seeded early. (We get to) see what it looks like and whether it’s capable of regrowth or not.”
The school in early July was broken into six modules: fertility of barley and canola, agronomy, weeds and herbicides, crop diseases, insect pests and an introduction to pulse crops.
“Close to 300 were registered. It’s quite a mix of people. There’s producers, reps from different companies in the industry and students.”
A dry April and May meant the diagnostic plots needed irrigation at the start of the year. A heavy irrigation program completed just before 300 millimetres of rain fell in June created a challenge to keep the plots in decent shape.
The school featured 26 barley and seven canola varieties. Plots showcased seed vigour and various seeding systems, including a hoe drill, disc drill and broadcast seeding.
It also included a herbicide course, with 15 different crops and 20 different herbicides, looking at various aspects of herbicide injury and weed control.
“For the insect plots, everything was growing so well this year there were lots of them available. There’s lots of opportunity to pick up insects on the canola. We’ve got good visuals of cabbage seedpod weevil and diamondback moth,” said Lee.
“Diseases are more difficult. Some of the plots were inoculated with common diseases, but it’s always an iffy thing whether you’re going to get the disease to occur. It’s difficult sometimes to see the pathology.”
The introduction to pulses included a wide range of lentils. Lee said there were even mung bean plots, along with chickpeas, lupins, fababeans and field peas.
Alex Russell, who farms south of Lethbridge, said these diagnostic schools provide a good opportunity to get experts in the different areas, like entomologists and soil fertility specialists, in a forum where a producer can talk to them about problems he is having.
“I’ve been to a few of them. They rotate different crops through. Last year we had winter wheat, peas and mustard there. They have different crops, so if you’re thinking of growing a crop, want to see how it performs, or see different varieties, it’s nice,” said Russell.
He thinks the researchers like to interact with the people who attend.
“Quite often I’ll have questions when I go there, but a lot of times the stuff that you see brings up more questions. I spent a lot of time talking about fertility, because we’ve lost the use of 34-0-0, which was a main fertilizer we use. It’s going to be a hard thing to replace. Nothing’s really out there that’s going to do what it did for us,” he said.
“There were different things on disease, and bug thresholds were important this year with some of the canola pests that are out there. I’m probably going to be out spraying for seedpod weevil right away. I do some hybrid seed production and it doesn’t take very many to be at the economic threshold. We’re well above that.”
Russell doesn’t grow barley so he wasn’t as interested in those plots, but he found some of the pulses interesting.
“There’s a big push on the red lentils and I was comparing them to the greens that we do grow,” he said.
The school provides an opportunity to see cutting edge stuff, Russell said. The session included information about seedpod weevil, the pea weevil that’s new and the wheat stem sawfly.
“I’m busy doing hay right now, but I make time to go out to them. That’s the sort of stuff that’s going to make you money without spending a lot of money. There’s small things you can do that are free, but make a huge difference on the bottom line. That’s the sort of forum you need to figure out some of that stuff,” said Russell.
“Even if it’s not a crop I’m growing, it’s still worth going to check it out. I think days like that is time well spent.”
