MORSE, Sask. – This was the first year Bart Wilson tried a new fertilizer treatment offered by Olynick Agro Supply.
“I signed up all our acres for Avail,” Wilson said. “From what I know about phosphorus, it gets tied up and it could limit your yields. It doesn’t matter how much you put on if it’s all getting tied up. Then it’s not making your bucks for you that year. So I liked the science of how that worked.”
Wilson uses a paired row Morris Maxxim II drill, with three compartments in the cart. He’s set up for granular fertilizer and doesn’t have liquid equipment.
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While he could put high rates of nitrogen with the crop when seeding, he has also used a second pass of liquid nitrogen as a top dress application.
“The ESN – a guy put on a presentation in March and I thought that was a pretty good deal. Putting both on a blend, at 150 pounds, it was costing us about five bucks an acre more.”
So for 2007, Wilson used Avail on all his crops and ESN on his wheat.
“We always put wheat or canola on our pulse crops and we’ve noticed that soil tests are saying that the pulse crops are sucking out a lot of phosphorus. We don’t have a stockpile of available phos in the ground, so you need this to use it right away,” said Wilson.
“I was debating whether to use the ESN on canola or wheat this year. But we had trouble moving our low protein wheat the year before, so I thought even if the benefit was the same for the wheat or canola, having high protein wheat moves a lot nicer than a couple of extra bushels of canola. So I put it on the wheat. Everybody’s protein was good this year because of the heat, but our average is 15.5 (percent) this year.”
Rather than adding extra liquid nitrogen as a top dress, Wilson said he’ll be able to put all his fertilizer down with canola right off the bat.
“I have put liquid fertilizer on before, but it was an extra operation or I was paying for custom application.
“I think ESN is a great option for canola. It doesn’t matter what kind of drill you’re using. Even if you’re single shooting, you can put so much down with your seed that’s safe. I know a lot of guys pushing the limits already with safe rates and this will help them even more. If I was going to another drill, I’d think of going back to a single shoot and put it all with the seed.”
This year Wilson used Avail on spring wheat, barley, chickpeas, field peas and canola. For 2008, he plans to use Avail and ESN on all his crops, with the exception of ESN on malting barley.
“The guy at the presentation told me not to use ESN on malt barley because it will affect the protein and it won’t get accepted.”
Kelvin Glydon also farms near Morse.
“We’ve got a Flexi-Coil drill with a three inch spread that’s only single shoot. I wanted to put enough N down with my seed. The only way I could do that is if I went with this ESN fertilizer, rather than going back and top dressing,” he said.
In previous years, Glydon had used his sprayer, equipped with special nozzles, to top dress the extra nitrogen.
“As soon as we were done seeding I’d try to get at it, usually in the middle of May. The canola was up, but just, maybe the three or four leaf stage.
“We were putting so much down with the seed, then going back and top dressing with liquid. Last year, we put down all our N with the three inch spread at the time of seeding. I thought it worked great. It looked good, then the heat hit, but it looked better than when we were putting the liquid down.”
What Glydon liked about the ESN was that the nitrogen started off right with the seed.
“It didn’t have to move through the soil. That’s where I see the benefit. You don’t have to depend on rain to wash the nitrogen down,” he said.
In 2007, Glydon used the ESN only on his canola. For 2008, he’s planning to use it for all his wheat, as well.
“We’re thinking of buying a new drill and I’m hoping this works so we don’t have to go to double shoot,” he said.
“What I liked about it is you don’t have to drag that double shoot point around the field. You can go single shoot and I like that. If you want to put lots of N on you can, and you don’t have to worry about burning the seed.”
