A: Last year was a challenge due, in part, to drought, but 2022 brings its own challenges with supply chain issues from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. These supply chain constraints may negatively affect the shipping of herbicide quantities for use in 2022. 

What does this mean for weed management? Weeds are always the constant on the farm, so there is a need to be more strategic with product choice and efficacy. 

One product that may be limited is glyphosate. To manage this potential limitation, growers can use add-on products, with the most abundant options in the pre-seed application. The majority of crop types can be treated with a variety of products that are added to glyphosate as a way to reduce the amount of glyphosate needed. Easy additions of products like florasulam, tribenuron and saflufenacil in cereal crops can provide a boost on tougher-to-kill weeds, like dandelions. Residual herbicide products that have flushing weed control, such as sulfentrazone, can provide multi-week benefits in addition to the initial glyphosate application. 

If plans contain an overall reduction of glyphosate rates on the farm, growers should be mindful of water quality such as pH and water hardness. These qualities reduce glyphosate efficacy and the effects are magnified when glyphosate rates are reduced — having less to overcome challenges in the tank. 

The first step is to identify water challenges through a simple water test. Adding a pH reducer or a water modifier are great simple solutions. 

There are also plenty of in-crop herbicide options that can achieve similar weed control. If growers are using products that are new to them, they should be mindful of new tank-mix orders, water volumes and tank cleanout requirements prior to the season. Using utility modifiers like Valid can provide drift control and enhance product coverage effects that will help maximize herbicide application. 

– Brianna Lummerding, PAg, CCA, is the manager of agronomic solutions in north-central Saskatchewan for Nutrien Ag Solutions. 

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A: Soil nutrition in a field can be looked at like a blanket — not the boring, white, duvet-type of blanket, but a more unique quilt with diversity in patterns and colours. This soil variability in the field changes nutrition needs and where they are best placed and utilized in the field. Hilly landscapes are the most obvious but often the flattest landscapes are as variable, just less so to the naked eye. To best manage soil and nutrition long term, we must investigate and identify the variability.

One of the simplest methods is to run NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetative Index) to look historically at the low, average and high vegetative areas. Once these areas are visual, it is easy to complete comparative soil tests in each of the areas looking at nutrient and salinity levels as well as soil texture.

Understanding the lower- producing areas can give guidance to place more or less nutrition in these areas based on the limiting factor(s). Is it soil texture and a sand ridge? Is it a saline area? Lacking a specific nutrient? Once this is understood, soil nutrition in a field can start to be managed in finer detail.

Use of variable-rate fertilization is the easiest way to do this. With sensing technology and satellite imagery, a base rate of nutrition can be adjusted to the areas of variability noted by NDVI and other scientific calculations.

Understanding the why provides the ground truth in nutrient placement. If each acre in the field does not have the same potential, why treat it that way? Increasing fertility rates in the areas of high potential matches best the uptake and removal.

By understanding variability across the landscape, we can make better decisions for where fertility is best placed to maximize crop potential. We can better understand the soil by using NDVI imagery along with soil testing to better place fertility with the use of variable-rate technology and nutrient placement.

Brianna Lummerding, B.Sc., PAg, CCA, is a manager of agronomic services for Nutrien Ag Solutions in north-central Saskatchewan.

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A: New grain varieties are constantly entering the marketplace. These varieties bring new innovations including updated disease resistance and yield improvements. But what makes certain varieties stand out over others and their names well known? It is the balance of all desired traits into varieties that perform consistently across diverse situations. Not an easy feat by any stretch, but each variety that comes down the pipeline desires to be the biggest and best on the market.

New varieties start from a diverse genetic pool allowing for specific choices of desired characteristics. Trends in varieties must adapt to the characteristics most desired by growers, which change as their needs change. Some examples of variety trends tailored to meet growers’ needs include the following:

• Current changes in harvest styles, with increased acres being straight cut, have led to breeding more semi-dwarf wheat varieties and shorter-stature barley and oats. Shorter stature helps to combat lodging issues, which lead to yield loss if the plant cannot support the seed head under environmental or higher fertility.
• Canola is trending to be bred with pod shatter and harvest management features, which ease the pressure of swath timing and ability to straight cut.
• Pulse crops, such as peas or lentils, have desired traits to remain upright for ease of harvestability with breeding focus around improved vine strength and disease resistance.

Keeping ahead of disease in fields is important. The breeding of the newest disease packages into varieties will allow for preventive disease management and staying ahead of resistance. This is especially important in canola varieties with respect to clubroot and blackleg.

Top cereal varieties are those with increased resistance to leaf and head diseases. Pea yields are challenged by disease, specifically with aphanomyces, which is a soil-borne disease that has long life in the soil. The creation of a resistant variety would be a game changer in the pea seed market.

Varieties that can encompass trends in desired characteristics are the seeds that will be at the top of both acres and minds for many growing seasons.

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A: Farming operations are becoming more diverse with increased interest in adding new crop types into rotations. Adding a new crop type may be as simple as adding a different cereal crop or may be as diverse as adding soybeans, coriander, caraway, hemp or quinoa. Adding new crop types on the farm can provide different market opportunities and improved soil and crop health.

Why should we become more diverse? Tighter rotations put crops at higher risk for disease and insect pressure. Positive yield gains are seen when we provide a break in continual cropping to slow the cycle of certain disease and insect pressures. Many crop diseases reside in the soil and some can last in the soil for up to 20 years. Rotating out of a host crop for at least two growing seasons can begin to reduce disease pressures in the soil. This is especially important as we deal with increasing clubroot pressure in canola and root rots in pulses. Diverse crop types can introduce different rooting systems and above-ground material composition to the soil. Alternating plant types can provide benefits to soil health including building organic matter and moisture conservation and drainage.

What things should you consider? Consider what would best fit the soil and climatic region your land is in. Examine the crop’s suitability to your soil type, the amount of heat units and average precipitation your area receives. Also, consider whether effective weed and harvest management is possible in your area for that crop type. Crops such as quinoa tend to grow best in the northern half of the Prairie provinces as too much heat in the south can cause failed flowering. Some varieties of corn and soybeans require more total heat units and do better in the southern areas of the Prairies. Also consider the end-use market and marketability. Many specialty crops require a closed-loop contract.

Growing new crops requires significant planning. It’s not a simple decision but considering major disease threats with current crops, it is one we should regularly examine.

Brianna Lummerding, B.S.c, PAg, CCA, is a manager of agronomic services for Nutrien Ag Solutions in north-central Saskatchewan.

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A. Soil testing pastures and hayfields should be routine. Often these fields get an initial fertilization and then, after a few years of establishment, growers ask what could be missing to maximize output. Forages are big users of nutrients. In hay crops much of the nutrients taken up are removed from the field when the crop is hauled off.

Best practice is to sample a pasture or hayfield in at least 15 to 20 varying spots across the field in a zero- to six-inch depth. The zero- to six-inch depth is important because most of the nutrients will be concentrated in the top layer of the soil as these fields are not tilled. Nutrient movement will be less than in a tilled soil, so staying at shallower depths will better represent soil nutrient amounts. In addition to testing for soil nutrients, it’s important to analyze soil factors such as pH and soluble salt measurements. These factors can affect success of grass and alfalfa stands — different varieties are better suited to a different range of pH and salinity levels.

Monitoring nutrients is important for maintaining an adequate supply of nutrients in an established pasture or hayfield. Nutrients can be top dressed throughout the year to feed deficiencies. The main nutrients of interest are the macronutrients nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and sulphur (S). Fields that are predominantly alfalfa will fix their own nitrogen. In these cases, P, K and S are the nutrients to closely monitor. Monitoring N levels in pastures or hayfields is important because stands dominated by grass are high users of nitrogen fertilization for yield. Requesting micronutrients on the soil test is also good practice in assessing overall stand health to watch for any other limiting factors.

Brianna Lummerding, B.S.c, PAg, CCA, is a manager of agronomic services for Nutrien Ag Solutions in north-central Saskatchewan.

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A: If you’re thinking about a new seed variety on your farm, don’t let yield be the only deciding factor.

Selecting a top yielder is important but remember to look at other agronomic factors as well.

One of the factors that should be considered is the overall disease package. With differences in disease pressures based on year and area, selecting the variety that best suits the risks will help with achieving overall yield. For example, some canola varieties have genes with sclerotinia resistance and some cereal varieties have enhanced defences against fusarium.

Selecting seed varieties with extra defence against insect pressure is also a consideration. Many cereals have added protection against wheat midge or sawfly which can affect yield and quality.

Seed varieties normally fall within a short, medium and long season zone. Selecting varieties that fit into your growing zone is important to managing risk against fall frosts and getting the harvest into the bin in time. Selecting more than one variety with different maturity ratings can be used as a harvest management technique. Early-season varieties can be combined sooner which spreads out your harvest.

Have you considered the suitability to straight cutting or swathing? Seed varieties can differ in shatter and lodging resistance. This is key in situations of delayed harvest or heavy nitrogen fertilization where lodging can be a concern.

Achieving high yields from a variety requires the consideration of all the above factors in seed decisions each year on the farm.

Brianna Lummerding, P. Ag, is a manager of agronomic services with Nutrien Ag Solutions in north-central Saskatchewan.

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A: Seeding into warm soils ensures the best start for the crop. Proper crop emergence is the fundamental start to reaching the crop’s yield potential.

Seeding into cold soils may result in slower emergence. This places crops at risk of infection by soil pathogens. Pathogens can cause seedling diseases, which can result in poor or staggered emergence or even seedling death.

If seeding into colder soils, one way to lower the risk is to use a seed treatment. A seed treatment will help protect the seed against disease if it has to sit for a longer-than-desired period of time and gives the seed and seedling the best chance of survival. Some seed treatments also provide plant health benefit additives that can help with the pop-up effect of seedlings to encourage faster emergence. Poor emergence may cause lower-than-desired plant stands. Reduced plant stands create an environment more favourable for weed and insect pressure as well as staging issues when timing herbicide and fungicide applications.

Planting at the optimal soil temperatures will help ensure the best crop emergence. Where possible, cereals, peas and lentils should be planted at a minimum soil temperature of 5 C, canola at 7 C and soybeans at 10 C.

If soil temperatures are cooler, seed shallower if adequate moisture is present to access a warmer seedbed. Other considerations include bumping up the seeding rate to compensate for lower seedling survival and use a seed treatment whenever possible. Planting into cooler soils cannot always be avoided but agronomic practices can help to mitigate risk.

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