Glacier FarmMedia — It’s possible to make more money from oats by reducing fertilizer rates, according to research done at four sites in Saskatchewan.
But like most things in farming, a lot depends on the weather. Less nitrogen equalled more profits in trials done in 2023 because it was a dry growing season.
“When you are reducing your nitrogen rates… by 15 per cent, we did find it was economical to have those reductions,” said Jessica Enns, research manager with the Western Applied Research Corporation, which is part of the Saskatchewan Agri-ARM network.
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In 2023, researchers from the East Central Research Foundation at Yorkton led a project looking at oat profitability at four locations in Saskatchewan: Outlook, Melfort, Prince Albert and Yorkton. The trial at Outlook was irrigated, while the others were not.
The research project was supported by SaskOats, which wanted trial data on reducing rates of nitrogen fertilizer by 15 and 30 per cent and what that means for profitability.
Most oat growers apply about 90 pounds per acre of nitrogen fertilizer to the crop annually, Enns said.
That delivers about 120 lbs. to the crop, assuming the soil contains 30 lb. of residual nitrogen.
Over the last few years, there’s been more discussion about cutting the amount of nitrogen per acre because the federal government has set a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer by 30 per cent by 2030.
That target was one reason for the SaskOats project: to understand the implications of reducing nitrogen rates on oats.
Unfortunately, 2023 was an abnormal growing season in Saskatchewan, so the results were a bit wonky. One of the trial sites, in Melfort, normally receives 228 millimetres of moisture from May to the end of August.
In 2023, 124 mm of precipitation was recorded.
“It was a very dry year … so we didn’t see a huge response to nitrogen,” Enns said.
The economic analysis was based on a price of oats of $5.25 per bushel and a fertilizer cost of 82 cents per pound of nitrogen.
Using those numbers, the researchers found:
- Cutting nitrogen by 15 per cent at the dryland sites increased net revenue by $17-$28 per acre, depending on the evaluation method.
- At Outlook, revenue jumped by $4-$9 per acre.
“In conclusion, reducing 125 lbs. (soil + fertilizer N) by 15 per cent was economical at all sites under the conditions of this study,” the research report says.
However, the results also showed cutting nitrogen rates by 30 per cent was not beneficial at Outlook.
“(It) reduced net returns by about $20 per acre at the high-yielding Outlook site.”
The results suggest growers could cut fertilizer rates and possibly increase profits if they know the growing season will be drier than normal.
However, it’s difficult to predict the growing conditions for a particular year.
“There isn’t a farmer out there that wouldn’t want to reduce their costs and make more money,” Enns said.
“There is a lot of research going into… where can we find those cost savings. Is it varietal-specific? Is it region-specific?”
Decisions around rates of fertilizer often boil down to risk management.
If prices for a particular crop are high, a grower might be reluctant to cut rates. No one wants to compromise yield and profits because the crop ran out of nitrogen.
“If you receive quite a bit of moisture, then you’re missing out on $20-$30 per acre (or more).”
Enns will present the full results of the Oats N Response study at the Prairie Oat Growers Association annual general meeting and conference, scheduled for Dec. 4 in Banff.
