This year, in the February 8 issue of Grainews on precipitation cycles, I wrote, “The long-term cycles are the climate, but farmers must manage what the weather throws at us in any given year. As the winter rolls on, I have a few tips I will offer about managing around Mother Nature by using all the facts we can lay our hands on.” Here they are on March 8, in time to think about using my tips — or not.
This piece is an update to my columns in the July 2 and February 2, 2021, issues of Grainews, which discussed snow and its effects on crops.
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As regular readers know, I have never been a big fan of snow. The big thing about snow is it blows wherever the wind can take it. It piles up all over the yard and fills the poplar bluffs to great depths and can generally be a nuisance. But 2021 changed all of that thinking.
The current drought cycle began on July 9, 2020. From then to freeze-up 2020, there were large areas of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan with almost no rain. The drought was broken by the big snow and blow of Nov. 7-8, 2020, and smaller amounts in December and January. The tap turned off again.
All that got me thinking about snow, so I went back and reviewed the literature on snow management from the 1940s to 1990s, and I found one very recent reference from the University of Calgary.
Literature review
Decades of literature was reviewed, and the take-home message was 1) tall stubble of canola or other crops will be the best snow-catcher and variable stubble height can be an added benefit and 2) dry soil at freeze-up will allow snowmelt to infiltrate with little or no runoff.
What follows are a few photos and observations of the 2021 crop on my Dundurn farm. I have the land cash rented, so I do not have any direct skin in the game but still keep very close track. Our rental agreement is written so I have access anywhere anytime to do what I want. All cropping decisions are left to the renters.
Most of the snow last year came in November, December and January, with a dab in February but little in March or April. Some years March can bring a lot of snow.
Soil moisture probing
Soil moisture probing showed significant soil moisture recharge in some areas. I was uncertain about some probes, so I went to an adjacent pasture field where I knew the soil was bone dry at freeze-up 2020. To my amazement, the soil probe went in like butter to the full depth of four feet. There was tall standing bromegrass that obviously trapped a lot of snow, and the melt went straight into the soil.
When the crop year was over, I was wishing I had done more detailed soil moisture probing before seeding.
The wheat crop
The crop was seeded May 5, 2021, at 120 pounds of seed per acre with fertilizer in a band to the side and below the seed using a Seed Hawk drill. Actual nutrients were 70 pounds per acre nitrogen (N), 30 pounds per acre phosphate (P2O5), no potassium (K2O) and seven pounds per acre sulphur.
Before soil probing, my idea was low seed and fertilizer rates was the thing to do. In the end, what my renter did worked out very well for the year. A lower seeding rate on dry knolls would have been a benefit. In some areas, the main weed in the wheat crop was wheat (i.e. the plant population was too high for available water).
Significant growing season rains were 1.75 inches on May 23-24 and 0.9 inches on June 10. The May rain was very timely for later-seeded crops that were sitting in the dust. For crops seeded after about May 10, especially canola, the effective seeding date was May 24 when the rain came. No need to tell readers what effect the extreme heat had on that bit of rain.
In early July there were other parts of the field where I could get nice videos of the wheat waving in the wind. On the dry hilltops the crop went back very fast, and I expected no wheat up there. The extreme heat pushed the crop along very fast. By July 23, it was in mid-dough with better areas filling four row to the top with decent-looking kernels.
When I plug the 3.25 inches of growing season rain into my yield equations on pages 115-166 of Henry’s Handbook, I get a yield of four bushels per acre. To get 20 bushels per acre would require an additional 4.7 inches, which had to have come from the soil, compliments of the big snow and blow of Nov. 7-8, 2020.
Seven tricks to try for 2022
In farming, every year is different so I will adjust as the year unfolds, but based on what we know now and what I learned in 2021, the tricks I suggest for 2022 include the following:
1. About mid-March, have a look at the snowfall data to date and check out the forecast for the next two weeks. Forecasts have improved greatly in recent years as to general timing.
When the time seems right, fire up the snowmobile and take a run around with any kind of probe and check out snow depth at many locations. Sloughs, etc., will have lots but flats and even hillsides can have significant snow. If you want more facts, take a few six-inch cores of snow to melt down and find out exactly how much water is in it.
2. Observe snowmelt closely. If you had no late October 2021 rain, it is likely the ground never froze and there may be little runoff. If there is a fair amount of snow and no runoff, it has gone into the soil to grow the crop.
3. About mid- to late April, take a proper soil probe and do lots of soil moisture probing. If the soil is not frozen, then the depth of moist soil will be known when the probe will no longer penetrate. The mistake I made last year was not doing enough soil moisture probing.
5. Seed early. If you can do variable rate, reduce seeding rate in the high and dry areas.
6. Seed early.
7. Seed early. Forget about the calendar.
Having said all that, I repeat, in farming every year is different. Perhaps this year I will still be digging snow out of the yard on May 5 as has happened in the past. We could be wishing the rain would quit so we can get seeding.
However, if spring 2022 breaks anything like spring 2021, my seven tricks are worth considering.
Good farming for 2022.
