Freeze them out
Last year’s tough, low-grade feed grains were plagued by insect problems. Their legacy may still be with us.
“It seems the 1993 insect problems may be a potential problem for this year’s stored grain,” says Lloyd Harris, provincial entomologist, Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food. “So farmers should be checking for these insects now, and using the cold weather to freeze them out.”
Harris says common insects in stored grain, the rusty grain beetle and red flour beetle, will be destroyed if the grain cools to -6¡C for at least six weeks. The colder the temperature, the less time needed to kill the insects. It only takes two weeks if the grain can be cooled to -15¡C. However, the larger the grain volume, the longer it takes to cool.
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“If a bin holds 3,000 bushels or more of grain, aeration with cold air is a good idea. The grain may also be cooled by augering out one or two truck loads – which will remove the centre grain, the warmest part of the bin – cooling it in another bin, and augering it back into the original bin. Either method is less expensive than fumigating.”
Fumigation for stored grain insects is not recommended when grain temperature is below 10¡C: it’s more hazardous and takes longer and may not be totally effective, said Harris.
The presence of insects in stored grain can be checked by taking a coffee-can-size sample from the top centre portion of the bin, as this is where the insects are most likely to be located. The sample is poured over a screen placed on white paper. The insects, which are 1.5 mm to three mm in size, are reddish brown and will show up clearly.
Now is the time to check for these insects because there’s still time to use the cold air to kill them Harris said. After mid-February, the only option may be to wait for spring to use the more costly fumigation method.
– Saskatchewan Agriculture
Copper limiting cereal yields?
Plants need copper. Insufficient copper can be just as limiting to cereal crop production as insufficient nitrogen, phosphorus or potassium. Copper is not required in as large amounts as the major nutrients, but it is just as important.
Copper deficiency in Canadian prairie soils and the U.S. northern Great Plains may be more common than once thought. Six years of field studies in Alberta have shown wheat and barley grown on light textured, high organic matter soils can be highly responsive to copper fertilization. Yield increases in deficient soils can be dramatic – responses in excess of 30 bushels per acre have been observed.
Copper deficiency can also influence other nutrient responses. Response to applied phosphorus in one of the Alberta experiments was only possible after the copper deficiency was corrected.
In addition to yield increases, copper fertilization helps control several diseases common in prairie cereals. Ergot, take-all root rot and melanosis can be markedly reduced or even eliminated when copper is added to deficient soils.
At one Alberta site, copper fertilization of spring wheat reduced ergot numbers from 11 to two per square yard and increased yields from 13 to 43 bushels per acre. The copper treated plots also had 72 percent less take-all and no melanosis compared to the untreated plots.
Learn to recognize copper deficiency symptoms – they are numerous. The first signs often appear as areas of poorer growth within an apparently healthy crop. Deficient plants look limp and wilted, even when soil moisture is good. With severe deficiency, plants are short, leaves are thin and spindly and may appear pale yellow. Leaf tips are “pig-tailed” and often die. The cereal head may bend, can abort or may appear normal but will be empty. Individually, symptoms are easily confused with other problems.
Copper deficiency is easily corrected with a small amount of fertilizer. Foliar copper applications are effective, but are short lived; that is, they’re only good for that growing season. Soil application of copper is usually the best way to correct the problem. Five to 10 pounds of copper per acre broadcast and mixed in the soil can control copper deficiency for many years.
Watch for deficiency symptoms, use soil testing to monitor soil levels, and apply copper fertilizer as needed.
– Potash and Phosphate Institute
