‘Programmed’ seeds
Let the mercury plunge or skyrocket – ‘programmed’ seeds developed at the University of Guelph can handle it.
Environmental biology professor Austin Fletcher and colleague Mahesh Upadhya of India have developed a seed treatment to give corn, wheat, barley and rice seeds the moxie to withstand severe environmental and weather stresses. Research shows that under duress, seeds treated with the formula yield up to 30 percent more than non-treated seeds.
“This treatment doesn’t offer more yield than you’d get in a normal growing season,” says Fletcher. “But it will help ensure reasonable yield under adverse conditions.”
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It also means farmers might be able to plant earlier with less fear of frost damage or extend certain crops into zones that were previously inhospitable because they were too hot, cold, dry or wet. He predicts the discovery will have the biggest impact in developing countries, where growing conditions are typically more hostile than in developed countries.
The secret to this treatment is twofold and involves ingredients that are anything but secret. The first is the use of triazoles, a group of compounds manufactured by most chemical companies. Traditionally, they’ve been used mainly to control fungal diseases in plants or to inhibit growth where long, spindly plants are undesirable, as in certain ornamentals.
In 10 years of field observations and studies, Fletcher found that triazoles also enhance drought tolerance. When used on golf courses for fungi control, for example, they keep grass greener during dry periods.
Further research at U of G showed triazoles helped guard plants against heat and cold stress as well.
Fletcher and Upadhya, then a visiting scientist at Guelph from the International Potato Centre in India, collaborated on a method of soaking seeds in a solution of water and triazoles. They correctly predicted this would incorporate triazoles into the very heart of the seed.
At the genetic level, Fletcher says the triazoles are “telling” the seed’s DNA to produce stress-protection proteins to make it stronger. He’s adamant that he is not altering genes. “I’m simply allowing the genes to express their potential.”
– University of Guelph
Fertilizer and beef production
Beef production and forage fertilization go hand-in-hand. Why? Because fertilizer improves pasture productivity, and beef production is directly related to pasture productivity.
The purpose of pasture management is to convert forage to beef. In fact, a pasture is not truly productive until it has produced an animal.
Fertilizer improves beef production through increased forage production. Balanced pasture fertilization will increase forage yields, carrying capacity and animal liveweight gain.
A six-year field study in Alberta measured the beef production potential of yearling steers on several pasture crops. Dry matter yield, animal weight gain and carrying capacity all responded to fertilization.
- During the first three years of the study beef production averaged 186 pounds per acre for the unfertilized check and 220 lb. per acre when the pasture was fertilized with nitrogen (32 lb. per acre.) Liveweight gain of the beef increased to 252 lb. per acre when the pasture was fertilized with both nitrogen (32 lb. per acre) and phosphorus (92 lb. per acre.)
- Carrying capacity for the unfertilized check was 39 days per acre per year compared to 47 days per acre per year for the nitrogen treatment and 51 days per acre per year for the nitrogen plus phosphorus treatment.
- During the last three years of the study, doubling the nitrogen and phosphorus application rates increased average liveweight gain to 314 lb. per acre and carrying capacity to 60 days per acre per year.
Nutrient requirements of beef cattle differ greatly depending on their use, weight and desired daily performance.
The key to balanced fertilization is routine soil and plant analysis. Whether you are producing cereal grains or forages for beef production, regular soil and plant tissue testing is a management practice that shouldn’t be overlooked.
– Potash & Phosphate Institute
