Developed by Crop Growth Sciences, PhoSul combines natural rock phosphate with elemental sulphur but also adds amorphous silica.

“It’s a new take on an old idea,” said Darcy Lepine, president of Crop Growth Sciences.

The silica addition is the patented component of the product and plays a key role in freeing up phosphorus for plant use.

Lepine said traditional synthetic fertilizers such as MAP (monoammonium phosphate) rely on water solubility to make phosphorus available. However, that also makes them prone to rapid tie-up in the soil, typically within 30 days.

PhoSul, by contrast, is designed to mimic natural soil processes, relying on microbial activity to create sulfuric acid as it breaks down the sulphur component. This acid releases phosphorus from the rock phosphate.

What makes PhoSul different is the silica, which binds with calcium — a byproduct of the reaction — before it can re-bind with phosphorus. Lepine said this allows up to 90 per cent of the phosphorus to remain plant-available, despite being a non-water soluble product.

Because of its low salt index, PhoSul can be safely placed near seed, even sensitive crops such as canola. Lepine said the product works particularly well in high pH or sodic soils, where synthetic fertilizers often struggle.

The fertilizer also offers environmental benefits. According to Lepine, PhoSul requires five times less carbon dioxide to produce than MAP or DAP. Since it’s not water soluble, it’s less prone to runoff or loss into waterways.

PhoSul can replace all or part of a farmer’s typical phosphorus fertilizer blend and is designed to blend seamlessly with common products such as urea, MAP or MEZ. Lepine emphasized it’s not a silver bullet; rather, it’s a tool to improve soil biology and maintain fertility over time.

PhoSul is now available in Canada, after an initial launch in the U.S. in 2024.

The company has four years of research from Montana State University and about 20,000 acres under use so far this season.

The post New fertilizer product aims to reduce tie-up, improve soil health appeared first on Grainews.

However, it is not an inexpensive fix, nor is it a simple solution, and it won’t work for every farm. That’s why farmers and agronomists need to do their homework and be mindful of important considerations when deciding whether tile drainage is a good fit.

How tile drainage works

Essentially, tile drainage works by removing water that exceeds a field’s water-holding capacity. It does this by lowering the water table.

A typical tile drainage system has three components:

• Lateral lines of perforated pipe that collect excess water from a field;
• Tile mains or headers that transport that water below ground; and
• Outlets operated by gravity or mechanical means that pump the water into a ditch or other collection area.

Drainage can be installed in different ways. One is through pattern tiling, where every acre of a field is tiled, and another is through selective tiling, which involves tiling only certain areas of a field.

Tile drainage can be also used to artificially set water levels in a field, which ensures water is available when needed to nourish crops and removed when there’s too much.

This is done through controlled tile drainage systems. These require water storage areas such as holding ponds, as well as additional infrastructure, such as risers, gates and valves that regulate water flow within the system.

Lay of the land

A key factor when deciding whether tile drainage is a good fit for farms is the suitability of the land itself.

Tile drainage is generally more straightforward and therefore simpler to install on level or gently sloping farmland. However, there are times when tile drainage can be a good solution for fixing water problems in areas that are anything but flat.

That’s been the case for Dustin Williams, who farms near Souris, Man. In an interview with Grainews, Williams described his land as particularly well-suited for tile drainage. It has a fair amount of elevation and slope in spots that cause problems with saturated soils and water ponding in low areas. Because the soil is sandy, water can move through it relatively quickly, which can cause groundwater deficits in drier conditions.

Williams opted to start installing tile drainage on his farm in 2020, after a two-day downpour drowned one of his canola fields the previous year.

“It just rotted out,” Williams said, adding it was the fourth time in 10 years the low-lying field had produced either a suboptimal crop or no crop at all.

“It was just due to the water ponding and soil staying saturated for too long. We made the decision to start improving the land.”

Williams contracted NextGen Drainage Solutions, a tiling company in Pilot Mound, Man., to install 150 acres of subsurface tile in the problem field. Waterlogging wasn’t an issue after that, he said, adding he plans to add drainage tiles to more acres in the coming years.

Fix for saline soils

Farms with salinity problems are another place where tile drainage, in the right circumstances, can work wonders.

Saline soils can have quite a negative effect on crops by reducing root development, plant growth and ultimately yield. In severe cases, they can kill crops and make the land unsuitable for agriculture.

By removing excess water and lowering the water table, tile drainage systems can prevent salts from being drawn into the rooting zone.

Olaf Boettcher, president of Saskatoon-based Precision Drainage Solutions, has been installing tile on Saskatchewan farms since 2017. He said in a recent interview that soil salinity is a problem across Western Canada and a big driver behind the growing interest in tile drainage.

For many of Boettcher’s customers, high water tables have contributed to waterlogged fields and made flooding more likely, and also led to large salt accumulations in the soil. Tile drainage addresses both problems by lowering the water table.

“High water tables drive the salts up. And then, even in the dry periods or later on in the growing season, that creates problems,” Boettcher said. “A lot of guys are looking at tile drainage for that reason.”

According to Boettcher, tile drainage works best in areas with higher rainfall because there is more excess water, which flushes salts downward in the soil profile.

Boettcher said many of his customers stick with their tile drainage projects even during drought years because they see it as a long-term solution to salinity problems.

Irrigation recharges groundwater in fields and can cause water tables — and sometimes salinization — to rise. This is another area where tile drainage can address problems.

Craig Millar farms 5,000 acres of dryland and irrigated grains and oilseeds near Birsay, Sask. The farm is in the Luck Lake Irrigation District near the Diefenbaker Lake reservoir in south-central Saskatchewan.

Millar said he opted to have drainage tiles installed on 30 acres under one irrigation pivot a few years ago. He hoped it would stop the spread of soil salinity that seemed to expand a bit every year, and he’s been pleased with the results.

“We were pleasantly surprised to see after a few growing seasons that the saline area is actually decreasing in size,” Millar said. “The tile drainage is helping carry the salts away.”

He noted that nearly all the land under irrigation pivots on his farm would likely benefit from some amount of tile drainage. Millar now has his own tile plow, with which he plans to treat more problem spots under more acres in the years to come.

“I’m really excited about tile drainage. I believe it could benefit much of the land within the Luck Lake Irrigation District.”

Aaron Hargreaves, a Manitoba producer, said tile drainage could be the best tool in the toolbox for managing saline soil in fields.

As part of a panel discussion at the 2024 Manitoba Ag Days, Hargreaves spoke about how he and his farming partners tried several practices to fix salinity issues on their 17,000-acre operation near Brandon.

None were as effective as tile drainage, which he said has had a positive effect on many problem fields. Yields have increased dramatically, and the reduced saline has allowed the farm to plant crops that would have fared poorly in the past. One of those crops is pinto beans.

“Pinto beans are extremely sensitive to salinity, but they are growing well in that area of the farm now. We couldn’t even grow canola in the field four or five years ago,” said Hargreaves.

He offered this piece of advice to Prairie producers who have installed tile drainage or are considering it: Be patient.

“It can take time (to have an effect). In an area like Nesbitt (about 30 km south of Brandon), we’ll see results lots of times in one or two years to fix the spots where the salinity isn’t too strong. Where it’s really bad, it’s still going to take a long time.”

Hargreaves said one unexpected benefit of tiling has been the “huge” effect on weed control, especially kochia. The invasive tumbleweed thrives on saline soils.

“Roundup-resistant kochia is prevalent in our area. In a tiled area in our field, we are reducing the amount of kochia in that field by 75 to 90 per cent easy. It’s a hugely effective tool in the management of kochia,” said Hargreaves.

More benefits of tile drainage

A group of farmers interviewed by last fall identified fixing soil salinity as a key benefit of tile drainage, but listed numerous others.

A big one was boosting a farmer’s bottom line. They noted improved soil and field conditions should translate into higher yields and improved crop quality.

Also on their list:

• A tile drainage project removes standing water or waterlogged conditions, making it possible to put more acres into production.
• Tile drainage can improve the timeliness of field operations. Farmers can seed or combine sooner, for example, after heavy rain.
• With tile drainage, farmers are better equipped to manage through extreme weather conditions, providing important peace of mind.
• In some cases, municipalities might see reduced damage to infrastructure, such as roads, because flooding conditions are better managed or prevented.

One of the producers, Owen Orsak, said improved efficiency is the greatest benefit he’s seen after installing tile drainage on his farm in southwest Manitoba.

“It is more efficient time-wise, fuel-wise and input-wise. I’m not steering around potholes to get the field seeded. I’m not spending three hours trying to get the seed drill unstuck because the operator got too close to a wet spot, and I’m not trying to turn the sprayer around these wet spots and creating a lot of overlap,” said Orsak.

“It used to be a 260-acre field with 28 wet spots, so I would seed 240 acres and probably combine 220 acres. Now I can seed 260 acres and combine 260 acres.”

Gord Unger is plant manager at Advanced Drainage Systems, a tile manufacturing plant in Carman, Man. As acreage managed under tile drainage systems has grown over the past 25 years since the plant was built in Manitoba, he’s seen how it can make it easier for producers to work their fields and reduce wear and tear on farm machinery.

“They don’t have to go around wet holes in the fields (and) because the soil is easier to till, it’s easier on the equipment and it uses less fuel,” he said.

According to Boettcher, an important agronomic benefit of tile drainage is that it reduces surface runoff and can increase water filtration.

“It improves your soil tilth and soil structure, so your roots go deeper, sooner in the season and make more (drought-resistant) plants. You get a deep root system early and it gives the plant access to more nutrients and water,” said Boettcher.

Ed Froese, owner-operator of Innovative Agri Tiling, a tile installation company in Reinfeld, Man., noted drainage tiles installed in the right areas and at the right depth remove excess water that is harmful to root growth but will still maintain adequate soil moisture levels.

Froese said by regulating water levels in a field this way, tile drainage enables young plants to develop good root systems and become better equipped to deal with potential stressors such as disease and drought. It also helps crops grow longer roots that can tap into a lower water table during the hot summer months.

Tile drainage economics

Many believe the biggest upside of tile drainage is improved productivity. Higher yields usually mean more money in the bank for producers.

Unger said he believes that on average, farmers can expect to see about a 20 per cent yield improvement on tiled land.

Some studies from Iowa, Ohio and Ontario have shown increases in yield of four to 45 per cent for corn and soybeans grown in fields with subsurface drainage. Another study in Minnesota showed yield increases of 10 to 30 bushels per acre for corn and four to 15 bushels per acre for soybeans.

Williams said it didn’t take long for him to realize the value of tile drainage once he started using it on his farm. All he had to do was look at the yield monitor on his combine.

“With my land, it’s very apparent where I have water issues, and the more I watch my yield maps, the more I realize that the vast majority of my (yield) losses in a given year are actually because of poor water management,” he said.

“I know that it’s because water is sitting here. It’s causing salinity, it’s causing kochia, it’s causing a decline in plant health, an increase in root rots — all of those things. They all have a big influence on the final numbers.”

Tile drainage can help farmers looking to increase productivity and profitability without expanding the land base. Producers can increase the number of arable acres within their farms rather than buying additional farmland.

Froese said that is the case for many of his customers, who are opting to improve their existing land rather than purchasing more acres because “land prices have jumped up so high.”

One way a producer or agronomist can determine whether tile drainage will increase profitability by identifying and assessing the main yield constraints on the farm.

If the biggest yield-limiting factor is something like disease, saline soils, delays in planting or a lower-than-expected grade, for example, that’s often the result of not enough water or too much of it at the wrong time. That is the central problem tile drainage is meant to fix.

David Whetter, a Manitoba soil scientist and agricultural-environmental consultant, touched on the economic benefits of tile drainage during a seminar at 2024 Manitoba Ag Days show in Brandon, Man. He said it’s hard to quantify the effect tile drainage can have on yields in the Canadian Prairies because there’s so little regionally specific data.

“A sad story is that we don’t have a lot of good local data, at least not that’s out in that public realm. We have to lean on other regions to look at data, and even then, there’s not a lot of data out there. Manitoba or Prairie region results are really needed here,” said Whetter.

The biggest downside of tile drainage is cost. It can carry a hefty price tag. However, costs vary widely depending on the size and complexity of projects, as well as a farm’s terrain and the type of tiling being installed.

Unger said the cost of installing tiling systems on farmland typically runs somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500 per acre. Froese pegged the average cost at about $1,200 per acre.

Pattern tiling typically costs more to install than selective tiling systems because it involves a larger area. According to Hargreaves, its advantages include allowing a field to be seeded earlier, leading to more uniform crop maturity. Machinery is also less likely to get stuck on hilltops.

In most years, farmers will find selective tiling is generally adequate in fields that have good natural drainage, he added. Because the overall cost per field is usually less with selective tiling, he also believes it can provide a faster return on investment.

Froese said tile drainage systems generally cost more when lift systems are needed to transport excess water from fields lacking natural drainage.

It’s generally less expensive to install drainage tiles during dry periods. There’s no mucking around and soils are generally easier to work with.

As far as return on investment for tile drainage systems, it differs from farm to farm. Unger said he believes it has generally improved with rising prices for agricultural land.

“They used to say the number on average was 10 years to pay the cost for drainage tiling back,” he said. “But as land prices have increased, and as farmers are also finding they can be more productive with their land, that time frame has definitely shrunk. I know of some who have paid their tiling bill back in three to four years.”

Unger added that because tile drainage is such a large capital expense, most farmers will start with one field or area that would benefit the most and then add acres over time rather than going all-in right away.

“They’ll do a certain area that’s giving them trouble because it’s so wet and they’re not getting any yield on it. They might start with that, and then after that, they’re kind of hooked. They will keep going for the most part, adding more and more acres every year.”

Planning tile drainage projects

Deciding whether tile drainage makes financial sense is an important first step, but there are numerous other factors to consider. Whetter said that’s why it’s important to do the homework before embarking on any tile drainage project.

“It’s a big investment and producers know their land the best. My advice is to make sure that you’re part of the design process in terms of that kind of gut feel. Does the design make sense? Are the right areas being drained? Seek advice where there’s any uncertainty just to make sure you can optimize your investment.”

According to Whetter, a key consideration should be the drainage coefficient — that is, the number that describes the maximum rate of water removal for which a tile is designed.

For example, a drainage coefficient of a quarter inch of excess water in a day is the typical design standard. What this means is if there’s one-inch excess rainfall event, it will take four days on average to remove that excess water from a field. The higher the drainage coefficient, the higher the cost of the drainage system.

Whetter said another design consideration is depth of tile or pipe. A minimum depth of 2.5 feet is typically required to maintain pipe integrity, he said. In Manitoba, for example, tiles are typically installed at three to four feet.

It’s also important to consider any restrictive layers in the soil, Whetter said. This can include areas where sand is located on top of clay, or where there is significant compaction that can make installation more difficult and affect tile performance.

In some parts of the Prairies, farmers sometimes must contend with excess water and drought in the same growing season. Whetter said that’s why getting the water table at just the right height is so important with a tile system.

“The golden rule is to drain just enough water for crop growth but not a drop more,” Whetter said, adding variable soil landscapes throughout Western Canada also complicate decisions around tile drainage.

“The takeaway here is the snowflake analogy. Every field is unique, and it really requires a field-specific solution, particularly when we get into these variable landscapes.”

Hargreaves said he and his partners found that in cases where selective tiling was installed, narrower spacing of the perforated pipe is more effective. In most cases they have spaced the pipes 25 feet apart rather than the standard 50 feet.

He also suggested it can be better to err on the side of caution when installing tile drainage. In instances where a saline problem in a field is quite narrow, for instance, he recommended that tiling be extended well past the outer edge.

“We found it definitely works better, way better, if you go well beyond where you see crop loss to make it work as best you can,” said Hargreaves.

Boettcher stressed water from a drainage tile system must have someplace to go, so access to a suitable outlet, such as a natural waterway, ditch or on-farm retention pond, is a must. If a farm lacks an outlet, or if it’s near a protected wetland or some other area that makes drainage problematic, it’s probably not a good candidate for tile drainage.

Permitting

Proper planning also includes ensuring projects don’t just transfer a water problem to a downstream neighbour or have an adverse effect on the environment or wildlife habitat.

Consider where the water will drain and who will be affected. Also note what water bodies will be affected. This is where permitting comes in.

Brandon Leask is an agricultural water engineer with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry who provides technical assistance with respect to water management and helps educate farmers about provincial regulations related to tile drainage projects.

In an interview with Grainews, Leask noted Alberta has fairly stringent regulations around agricultural tile drainage, so he recommends that producers seek the services of a tiling installer.

“It’s not a minor process unless you’re really knowledgeable about it. Hire a contractor to assess the situation for you, to design it for you, to apply for the approvals and (do) everything else for you, because it’s not a simple process,” Leask said. “There’s a lot of pieces in the puzzle.”

Boettcher said it’s important for farmers and agronomists planning tile drainage projects to familiarize themselves with water stewardship regulations. They can be complex, he said, which is why many farmers prefer to have a professional tile installer deal with the permit process.

Permits are always an important consideration in Saskatchewan, he added, especially in certain areas such as the Quill Lakes region, where risk assessments can make it more difficult to get regulatory approval.

“We don’t really work in some of those areas because it’s pretty hard to get permits there,” he said.

To take the CEU quiz for this article, CLICK HERE.

MORE INFO: Controlled tiling systems

In a conventional tile drainage system, drainage occurs directly from the tiles to a downstream water body. In controlled tile drainage, the flow of water is controlled by mechanisms installed at the system’s drainage outlets.

Controlled tile drainage is becoming a more popular practice that can reduce agricultural run-off of nitrogen and phosphorus via tile drains, and provide agronomic and financial benefits to producers. Some research from Ontario and the United States suggests controlled tile drainage can increase corn and soybean yields by three to 11 percent.

A 2017 research paper from the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association stated controlled tile drainage should be considered a risk mitigation practice that can help protect producers from crop losses and could potentially stabilize yields over the long term.

Controlled tile drainage systems are more expensive to install and operate, however. The additional cost of controlled tile drainage depends upon the number of control structures per field. Additional costs can include lift stations to move subsurface water from a lower to higher elevation when natural gravity flow isn’t sufficient.

Hargreaves noted lift stations are expensive and most require an electrical source to operate. They also need to be regularly monitored and serviced.

“They increase the cost of the project a lot and sometimes that makes it not worth doing. If you’re just trying to do a 10-acre low area, it costs $40,000 or $50,000 to put in a lift station, plus the tile. Your costs start to go pretty darn high.”

Some jurisdictions offer financial incentives for installing controlled tile drainage systems. Under Manitoba’s Ag Action program, for example, controlled tile drainage qualifies as a beneficial management practice and is eligible for taxpayer support. If a farmer completes an environmental farm plan, the province will share the cost of installing control structures for a tile drainage system to a maximum of $50,000.

MORE INFO: DIY tile drainage

Gord Unger, plant manager at Advanced Drainage Systems, urges farmers to carefully consider what’s involved in installing tile drainage if they’re thinking about doing it themselves. He knows farmers who bought their own plows to install tile and have had great results, but he’s aware of other instances where it has gone the other way.

“There are so many things that someone would have to know to install their own tiling system,” he said. “You have to make sure to get everything right. You only get one shot at doing this, because you can’t dig it out and redo it.”

Unger said if slopes aren’t calculated correctly, for example, subsurface tiles may not drain the right way. He also noted it’s important to ensure rolls of drainage tile aren’t stretched too far during installation.

“Once the tile is stretched, that makes it soft and it will collapse,” he said.

Another key consideration around DIY tiling is time. Installation is typically done in spring or fall but that’s when farmers are busy seeding or harvesting.

“When farmers consider this, many realize they don’t have time for that and they’ll hire someone else to do it,” said Unger. “There’s just too much other stuff going on the farm to wait for a time when they can to do it themselves.”

The post Understanding tile drainage appeared first on Grainews.

“Historically, our two main risks in crop production long term have been excess moisture and drought,” says Curtis Cavers, an agronomist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, who spoke on water stress risks at the CropConnect 2024 conference in Winnipeg in February.

“Of course, that makes planning for and managing these challenges very tricky because you’re dealing with one extreme or the other on the moisture spectrum.”

Amenities such as tile drainage, irrigation systems or variable rate technology can help, he says, but they may not be affordable solutions for some producers.

Cavers, who is based at Portage la Prairie, Man., has some suggestions for managing water stress risks for farmers on a budget.

A good place for producers to start, he says, is to look for crop varieties that fare better than others in their given geographic location or risk area. He recommends referring to resources such as Seed Manitoba and other provincial seed guides, which contain valuable data on variety performance in moisture extremes.

You’ll also want to review your own records, he says, to see how different crop varieties performed under moisture stress conditions in the past.

“If farmers have yield maps of their fields, they can look to see what trends are in there from previous years,” he says. “This is probably the most helpful way to go.”

Water stress study

Cavers recently completed a research study examining whether data on varietal responses to different moisture regimes could help farmers in dealing with extremes. He shared the project findings with farmers at the CropConnect conference.

For the study, which took place at Portage la Prairie and Arborg, Man. between 2019 and 2021, multiple varieties of spring wheat and canola were grown to see how they responded to imposed excess moisture and drought conditions. This was done by measuring precipitation, monitoring moisture at different soil depths and collecting data on crop growth and yield at each field site.

Cavers collaborated with Nirmal Hari, an applied research specialist with Manitoba Agriculture based at the Prairies East Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (PESAI) Diversification Centre in Arborg, on the research project.

One significant finding was that crop type was more important than variety when it came to moisture stress responses.

Cavers says all of the varieties in the study tended to perform consistently relative to one another, regardless of the moisture conditions. In other words, if one variety was higher-yielding under normal or optimal conditions, it tended to remain higher-yielding compared to other varieties under more extreme moisture conditions.

“Conversely, from what we saw, varieties that are lower-yielding under normal conditions rarely excel in these suboptimal or unusual conditions,” Cavers says.

He views this as a testament to the work of Canadian plant breeding programs, which typically test new crop varieties over multiple years, at multiple sites, under varying moisture conditions.

“When the breeders do their selections, they’re looking at the whole scope of the data and they’re finding ones that are the most consistently high performers under a wide range of conditions, including moisture extremes.”

For this reason, he believes farmers are likely best off checking information they’ve always used, like yield potential and disease protection packages, when selecting crop varieties.

According to Cavers, understanding how different crops respond to moisture extremes can be useful when designing crop rotations. For instance, soybeans tolerate excess moisture much better than canola.

“You can see those kinds of general trends with your cereals, too. Oats do better under wet conditions, wheat and barley do better under dry.”

Cavers notes the wheat and canola in his study responded similarly and were generally in the mid-range for tolerating moisture extremes.

Strategic water management

The impact of excess moisture and drought on crops can be even more pronounced in fields with variable landscapes. As Cavers points out, farmers can take steps to reduce that risk through strategic water management.

The place to start, he says, is to gauge the topographic variability within a field and its impact on crop production.

Hilltops, for instance, tend to be droughty areas that produce generally lower yields. In lower areas where there may be excess moisture, problems like salinization or nitrogen losses through leaching and denitrification can arise.

Cavers says farmers can address these issues through agronomic actions that conserve water in high areas and use up water in low areas by such means as reducing evaporation, increasing infiltration, limiting runoff and adjusting the water table.

One such water management tool is tillage — but Cavers maintains it’s something that should be avoided in droughty parts of a field because of the erosion risk and potential loss of soil organic matter.

Farmers could consider strategic tillage in lower areas to help dry out soils, he says — and if some places are at risk of becoming particularly mucky, this has the added benefit of making fields more accessible for spraying and other timely operations.

Cavers notes cover crops can help keep evaporation down in droughty areas, though establishment can be a challenge due to lack of moisture. Cover crops that use less water are best, he says — and terminating them in a timely manner is key, because you don’t want them robbing soil moisture from a following cash crop.

In wet areas, Cavers recommends choosing a cover crop that uses a lot of water and is easily established. If it has an extensive root system as well, this can help increase moisture infiltration in the soil.

Redistributing crop residues is another way farmers can address moisture imbalances in fields with variable landscapes, he says.

“I’m going to try and put crop residues where I need them the most,” he says. That means “moving them whenever possible to those droughty areas to minimize evaporation and erosion and removing them from the wet areas to help dry those soils out a bit.”

Farmers could take this a step further, he says, and consider soil landscape restoration — a practice that helps repair eroded parts of fields through the physical relocation of topsoil from low areas, where it’s more abundant, to high areas where it’s needed most.

Cavers says using a combination of these practices should not only boost soil productivity in dry areas but also reduce nitrogen losses in wet areas.

“You’re doing this essentially with the intent of making your land productivity more uniform,” he says. “If we can better manage our carbon, our nitrogen and our water, then that will go a long way to helping us manage the landscapes in other ways on other fronts.”

The post Curb risk from moisture stress for less appeared first on Grainews.

Manitoba crop nutrition expert Don Flaten says while progress has been made on reducing excess P, it has been tough slogging on the other side of the ledger.

“Crops need phosphorus to grow and there are no significant atmospheric sources, so we have a challenge on our farms to make sure that we maintain our phosphorus supplies in the soil when that crop is harvested,” says Flaten, who was among the presenters at the CropConnect 2024 conference in Winnipeg in February.

“If we take a look at the production of canola, for example, 50 bushels of canola is going to require about 45 pounds of phosphate per acre to grow and 39 pounds of that will be removed when the crop is harvested.”

Flaten recently retired as a professor in nutrient management and crop nutrition in the Soil Science department at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg.

At the CropConnect conference and in a subsequent interview with Grainews, Flaten talked about how soil phosphorus deficits continue to rise in many areas across the Prairies. Importantly for farmers, he also offered some solutions for addressing P imbalances.

Flaten referred to a study by the International Plant Nutrition Institute that indicated 81 per cent of Saskatchewan fields and 64 per cent of Manitoba fields in 2015 had soil test P concentrations below the critical level for crop production.

“It is a little bit variable, but the majority of our soils are still testing deficient in phosphorus,” he says.

According to Flaten, a combination of higher yields and greater crop diversification has contributed to phosphorus deficits in many fields in the eastern Prairies.

“We have more crops that are sensitive to excess P in the seed row than back in the day when wheat was king. The cereals are quite tolerant to high rates of P in the seed row, but crops like canola and soybeans are not. So as the acreage of those crops has increased, we see more and more phosphorus imbalance within certain crop years,” says Flaten.

“If a farmer is growing canola or soybeans, that’s often a year when the phosphorus application rates are lower than the phosphorus removal rates. There will be a P deficit for that year, which doesn’t always get counterbalanced with more P going on in other years.”

Flaten says improved genetics and agronomics for crops such as wheat, canola and soybeans have improved yields dramatically — which means more phosphorus is drawn from the soil.

“We’ve seen pretty much a doubling of crop yields … over the last 40 years or so,” he says. “The amount of phosphorus that can be conveniently applied, say by placing it in the seed row at time of planting, is still pretty modest with some of our crops, especially P-sensitive crops like canola. This means there are some extra challenges to maintaining the P balance.”

Flaten says another difficulty in restoring P levels in phosphorus-deficient soils is that it generally isn’t a quick fix — and there may be economic disadvantages to doing so.

“If a farmer has rented land or is nearing retirement, for example, there’s not necessarily as much financial incentive in those situations for putting on phosphorus at high rates that match crop removal,” says Flaten.

“That’s a challenge that we struggle with, because the short-term economics don’t necessarily provide an incentive to maintain your fertility, especially on rented land.”

Flaten explains a short-term P approach that acts to maximize yields and optimize fertilizer investment for farmers will drive down the fertility of farmland over time. He says producers can help keep that from happening by taking a longer view and following 4R nutrient stewardship practices to make their phosphorus management more sustainable.

Sustainable practices

Flaten suggests farmers start by choosing a source of phosphate fertilizer that’s affordable and enables them, over the course of a three- or four-year crop rotation, to apply P in their fields at a rate that matches crop removal.

Springtime during planting is generally the best time for applying phosphate fertilizer, he says, and it’s important to place P precisely as possible to maximize its benefits and also reduce environmental losses. That can be done either in the seed row for crops that tolerate phosphate fertilizer well, or near the seed row through applications such as side banding or mid-row banding for crops that don’t.

These steps will help ensure crops have ready access to phosphorus at a time it’s most needed, when the plants are just beginning to grow in the colder soils of early spring.

According to Flaten, farmers who don’t have access to side- or mid-row banding equipment could consider a rotational fertilization approach. This involves putting on surplus P in the cereal phase of a rotation, as a way to offset P deficits in years with pulse and oilseed crops.

Flaten suggests another way to ensure proper P levels is to apply enough manure to meet a crop’s nitrogen requirements, which should also supply enough phosphorus to match a crop’s P removal for several years.

Flaten says Prairie farmers who have a typical rotation with a variety of crops should aim for phosphorus soil levels somewhere between 10 and 20 parts per million in an Olsen P test.

Considering how much money producers spend on fertilizer every year, Flaten contends they’d be wise to soil test their fields annually. “I know some people just check their fields once in a while or just check a few fields (but) I think every field should be tested every fall.”

Flaten says this way, anomalies in P levels within and between fields can be detected and addressed, “and that’s where soil testing can really pay off.”

Phosphorus recycling

Flaten maintains there are bigger, systemic reasons for phosphorus imbalances found in Prairie cropland, beyond farmers’ fertility practices. One is the way grain is marketed.

“I think we’re gradually evolving to a more sustainable approach to the phosphorus management issue, but it’s still in many ways a tough situation with an export-oriented economy,” he says.

“For our grains in particular, we are exporting a lot of phosphorus from the Prairie provinces into international markets. And that phosphorus doesn’t come back.”

Flaten notes utilizing human waste as a way to recycle phosphorus in areas where food is both produced and consumed may be an efficient solution — but our export economy complicates things.

“Feeding humans around the world comes with a consequence of creating a very challenging system for recycling nutrients,” he says.

Flaten points to struvite, a granular fertilizer made from urban wastewater or liquid manure, as a recent innovation that’s addressing this problem.

Struvite is an ammonium-magnesium phosphate mineral, which forms naturally in kidneys as kidney stones or wherever wastewater or liquid manure is stored or processed.

Crystal Green is struvite product available to Prairie farmers. Flaten says it has been shown to be a safe, effective alternative to conventional phosphate fertilizers, which are largely derived from mined rock.

Flaten acknowledges the higher cost for struvite products could be a sticking point for farmers. But he stresses there’s a price to be paid for over-dependence on geological reserves of phosphorus, which are limited and non-renewable and can be subject to wide fluctuations in availability and price.

There’s also growing competition on the demand side for phosphate — for electric car production and other uses that have nothing to do with food production — which doesn’t sit well with Flaten.

“For me, as an agricultural scientist, it just boggles my mind why people think that would be a good idea. Future generations will probably look back at us and wonder what the heck we were thinking,” he says.

“The short-term economics don’t always favour conservation. Recycling of P is a major public good, but that’s a public good for the benefit of future generations. And that’s something that we’re not all that great at, figuring out a mechanism to make the world a better place for future generations.”

The post How to make P management more sustainable appeared first on Grainews.

He succeeded his father, Edwin, who farmed the same land for nearly half a century.

One of the most enduring lessons Hardman learned from his father was the value of planting buffer strips near the waterways that criss-cross the family farm. Many of them have been around since his father ran the farm, and Hardman has continued the tradition while slowly growing the operation.

“They’ve been on our farm here all of my life,” Hardman says of the buffer strips on his property. “They’ve just always been there. I haven’t known any different.

“Some people seem to want to build a farm right to the edge and don’t want to think about losing any acres (to buffer strips). I don’t think of it as a loss of acres. I think it’s just a matter of farming the ones we do have better.

“Some things don’t always make you money, but it’s like the environment is thanking you for them. Because we farm small, we try to be good stewards of the land by not farming right to the edge.”

Protective area

A buffer strip is a protective area of permanent vegetation between a farm field and waterway or adjoining piece of land that serves to protect the quality of that water or land. It helps to slow and filter storm runoff while holding soil in place, thereby reducing erosion and preventing phosphorus from reaching nearby lakes.

Buffer strips can be established using a variety of plants, including native grasses and perennial crops such as hay.

When Hardman bought 80 acres of nearby farmland in the early 1990s, one of the first things he did — with some help from a local watershed program — was plant buffer strips on two sides of the property that had been previously farmed right to the edge.

Those kinds of environmental efforts earned Crooked Creek Farms a pair of Manitoba Conservation Awards in 1989 and again in 1999. Still, Hardman acknowledges not everyone is a fan of his buffer strips.

“I’ve had a lot of people question when we do leave strips around the edges, why we’re doing that. I guess it’s not normal around here.”

Normal or not, the strips have had a significant effect on Hardman’s operation. Soil erosion is rare on his 750-acre grain farm and chemical runoff has been greatly reduced.

Another benefit of the buffer strips is that they allow Hardman to turn larger pieces of equipment on those spots and reduce soil compaction in other parts of a field where cash crops are grown.

They can also be used to park gravity boxes for grain storage, further reducing soil compaction.

In addition to the environmental benefits they provide on his farm, Hardman says buffer strips also deliver logistical assistance by making it easier to scout his fields.

In most cases, Hardman has grown timothy or brome grasses, and in a few cases alfalfa, to build buffer strips on his farm. In some years, the strips have produced as much as 35 bales of hay, which he trades with a neighbouring farmer in exchange for mechanical services.

More attention

While buffer strips have been around for nearly as long as farming, they appear to be getting more attention of late, according to Trevor Wallace, a nutrient management specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation.

Part of the reason, he says, is that more growers see their value as a revenue source (livestock feed) or for environmental and societal benefits (erosion control or sanctuaries for pollinators).

“For some, buffers provide logistical benefits, such as equipment accommodation. Producers are seeing a number of benefits from buffers that at one time were not considered or perceived as a benefit,” says Wallace, who helped author the Nutrient Management Planning Guide for Alberta.

That said, preventing soil erosion remains a key benefit of buffer strips, according to Wallace. That’s especially true if they are designed to fit the geography of the area where they are planted.

“If they’re made to contour the land, they can significantly reduce (soil erosion). If not designed properly, you can be talking about potential losses of soil every year, which can be quite significant for the farmer.”

Wallace says it’s important for farmers to understand they shouldn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach to planting strips. Although 30-foot-wide strips are standard on many farms, that may be too wide or too narrow in many instances, he says.

“The problem with that is some parts of those 30 feet are probably way bigger than they need to be from an impact point of view. There’s no runoff crossing that point. And some parts of it might be too small because all the water flows through it,” he says.

Growers who contemplate buffer strips should first determine what they will be used for, says Wallace. Is it for erosion prevention or spray drift mitigation or both? Is creating a haven for pollinators the priority?

“That’s going to dictate not only how they design it and where they put it, but its size and then the appropriate vegetation for the area,” he says.

“From an economic point of view, I’ve taken less land from my crop production (because) we’re designing and putting the buffer where it provides the greatest benefit versus a uniform approach. It’s about looking at the landscape with a couple of different lenses.”

Farmers may want to hire someone to shoot aerial images of the farm so they can tailor buffer strips to the geography where they will be planted.

Wallace says that while most vegetation used in buffer strips is low maintenance, that doesn’t mean no maintenance. He suggests formulating a long-term maintenance plan for buffer strip areas to ensure they remain healthy and functional.

Hardman’s advice is to start small. Begin with one or two quarter sections. If that works out, expand to other areas of the operation.

He also suggests seeking help from organizations such as the local watershed district, which can provide technical advice and, in some cases, financial assistance.

Hardman says picking the right spot for buffer strips is important to ensure they achieve their ultimate potential.

“You don’t necessarily need to have a strip completely around all of your fields,” he says. “Look at where you’re seeing problems, especially erosion problems, and try to address those a little bit by putting a buffer strip in there. Target where you put them. That may not always be possible, but that’s how we try to farm here.”

Although Hardman doesn’t need convincing about the merits of buffer strips, he knows not everyone agrees. Some growers refuse to install them, which negates the positive effect of those around them who do.

He would like local governments to offer an incentive program to get more farmers on board.

“All of the farmers have to be on board and do our part. There needs to be some kind of incentivization or something along a waterway to get all the farmers on board where you have to keep X number of feet of them.”

The post Are buffer strips right for your farm? appeared first on Grainews.

A team of international researchers reported that some of the world’s most important freshwater sources — from the Caspian Sea between Europe and Asia to South America’s Lake Titicaca — lost water at a cumulative rate of around 22 gigatonnes per year for nearly three decades. That’s about 17 times the volume of Lake Mead, the United States’ largest reservoir.

Fangfang Yao, a surface hydrologist at the University of Virginia who led the study published in the journal Science, said 56 per cent of the decline in natural lakes was driven by climate warming and human consumption, with warming “the larger share of that.”

Climate scientists generally think that the world’s arid areas will become drier under climate change, and wet areas will get wetter, but the study found significant water loss even in humid regions. “This should not be overlooked,” Yao said.

Scientists assessed almost 2,000 large lakes using satellite measurements combined with climate and hydrological models.

They found that unsustainable human use, changes in rainfall and runoff, sedimentation, and rising temperatures have driven lake levels down globally, with 53 per cent of lakes showing a decline from 1992 to 2020.

Nearly two billion people who live in a drying lake basin are directly affected and many regions have faced shortages in recent years.

Scientists and campaigners have long said it is necessary to prevent global warming beyond 1.5 C to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. The world is currently warming at a rate of around 1.1 C.

Thursday’s study found unsustainable human use dried up lakes, such as the Aral Sea in Central Asia and the Dead Sea in the Middle East, while lakes in Afghanistan, Egypt and Mongolia were hit by rising temperatures, which can increase water loss to the atmosphere.

Lakes in Canada’s Arctic were part of the drying trend, the study found, “partially because of changes in temperature and PET (potential evapotranspiration), which is in line with broader climate changes toward increasing evaporative loss due to higher lake temperatures and reduced lake ice extents.”

Water levels rose in a quarter of the lakes, often as a result of dam construction in remote areas such as the Inner Tibetan Plateau.

Declines seen in naturally occurring lakes were in part offset, the study found, by “precipitation- and runoff-driven LWS (lake water storage) gains” in others such as the Great Lakes and Lake Winnipeg.

In all, the study said, between 1984 and 2015, satellites have observed a loss of 90,000 square km of permanent water area — an area equivalent to the surface of Lake Superior — whereas 184,000 square km of new water bodies, mainly reservoirs, were formed elsewhere.

Trends and drivers of global lake water storage have remained “poorly known,” the study added, which “impedes sustainable management of surface water resources, both now and in the future.””

— Gloria Dickie is a Reuters climate and environment correspondent in London. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

The post More than half of world’s large lakes drying up, study finds appeared first on Grainews.

Conditions have deteriorated in some areas, however, and the majority of Western Canada was still in some kind of drought state.

A north-south divide of precipitation saw central and northern areas of the Prairies receive above-normal moisture while southern regions of the Prairie provinces saw lower than normal precipitation.

Drought conditions generally improved in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but the area of extreme drought grew slightly in southern Alberta, according to the report.

Extreme drought regions were still found in central Saskatchewan and parts of Manitoba, but the coverage area was significantly reduced.

While the precipitation that did fall will not fully help the ground recover from long-term moisture deficits, “it has allowed for slight improvement across the region,” AAFC said.

The Prairie region was classified as 61 per cent abnormally dry or in moderate to exceptional drought as of Jan. 31, 2022. That accounts for 95 per cent of the agricultural area in the region. That was down from 67 per cent and 98 per cent respectively the previous month.

Saskatchewan’s Water Security Agency on Tuesday separately released a preliminary spring runoff outlook for 2022. Given average precipitation between now and spring melt, the report calls for “below-normal snowmelt runoff potential” for most of southern Saskatchewan and “above-normal snowmelt response” in central areas.

The spring melt rate is expected to have “significant” impact on runoff yields across the province’s south, the agency said. A slow melt would likely see the bulk of the snowpack go to recharge the soil column, while a rapid melt would improve surface water supplies — but “the current snowpack is not sufficient to satisfy both.”

Without more snowfall in southwestern Saskatchewan between now and spring melt, “surface water supply issues are likely to occur” this spring in that region.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

The post Drought conditions ease slightly across Prairies appeared first on Grainews.

Meanwhile, dry conditions are expected to continue across the Prairies.

AccuWeather’s report forecasts below-normal temperatures for B.C. and western Alberta going into spring. That could delay the snowpack from melting, leading to an increased risk of flooding.

“The result of this expected weather pattern will be above-normal snowpack and river levels that may lead to a higher-than-usual threat for spring flooding due to excessive runoff and ice jams in B.C. and western Alberta by late spring and into early summer,” AccuWeather meteorologist Brett Anderson said in a news release.

Anderson, a specialist in long-range forecasting for the private weather service, explained there are two storm tracks, with one helping stir up storms across B.C. and elsewhere in Canada, something quite typical during a La Nina.

The other track will veer south into the northern U.S. Plains, taking away opportunities for precipitation from the Prairies. In turn, that’s expected intensify the current dry conditions across the Prairies.

“However, it is still very early and conditions can change quickly in early spring, thus additional updates on the spring flood risk are likely through the season,” Anderson added.

There could be a risk of wildfires in southern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba, he cautioned, should the dryness become quite severe during the spring.

For Ontario and Quebec, as well as Atlantic Canada, AccuWeather forecasts above-normal precipitation during the spring. While that will replenish depleted soil moisture levels in a number of parts of Eastern Canada, the likelihood of more precipitation could result in flash flooding.

The post Wet or dry spring ahead? Depends on where in Canada appeared first on Grainews.

“We have seen significant departures from normal in terms of precipitation (on the Prairies over) a long period. The winter hasn’t been above average (for precipitation) so there hasn’t been a whole lot of recovery,” said Trevor Hadwen, agroclimate specialist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Regina.

AAFC’s drought monitor map, updated March 31, shows improved conditions compared to the month before. There are still extreme drought conditions in Saskatchewan around Weyburn and Regina; however, the area is smaller. Throughout most of southeastern Saskatchewan there are severe drought conditions and in other parts of southeastern Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba there are moderate drought conditions. Throughout central Alberta it is abnormally dry.

Abnormally cool conditions throughout the end of March and start of April have led to a slow snowmelt, with temperatures warming during the day, only to drop down below 0 C overnight.

The start of winter saw a parched Prairie. In many areas, above-ground water sources dried up, along with the soil. There are a lot of water supply issues for farms, Hadwen said, due to the drought last year.

“We’re looking for those dugouts to fill up with the spring melt. But depending how we melt this year, if we get a slow melt the water tends to go to the soil. If we get a quicker melt it might run off into some of those on surface water supplies.”

While the late-season snow has been welcomed by farmers across Western Canada, as it brought much-needed moisture, the cool temperatures are leading to a delayed spring.

According to meteorologists at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), the Prairies will see abnormally cool temperatures continue throughout April. Temperatures will start to hit above 0 C as of the week of April 15, but closer-to-seasonal temperatures won’t arrive until May.

“We have to get rid of the snow on the ground and then temperatures will have a chance to rebound. But in the meantime, for the next couple of weeks, below-average temperatures are forecast and really all the way through until the end of April,” said John Paul Cragg, warning preparedness meteorologist with ECCC in Saskatoon.

Southern Alberta still has a thick snow cover, meaning temperatures won’t start to rise until that melts.

Alberta “went into the winter very dry in the southern portions of the province. They’ve been through a couple of freeze, thaw, melt cycles with the chinooks through there, so a lot of the snow in the west is gone, but conditions have improved significantly,” Hadwen said.

In Manitoba there has been a low amount of snow accumulation. According to Hadwen, there has been about an inch of moisture across most of southern Manitoba, which equates to about 25 millimetres of rain, which isn’t very good for winter snow accumulations.

The situation is better in Saskatchewan; around Regina there are between two to three inches of snow.

“So certainly a little bit better and (there’s) more chance of improvement over the next month. But again (that’s) not near as much (snow) as we normally would get,” Hadwen said.

— Ashley Robinson writes for Commodity News Service Canada, a Glacier FarmMedia company specializing in grain and commodity market reporting. Follow her at @ashleymr1993 on Twitter.

The post Prairie drought conditions improve appeared first on Grainews.

Levels of spring flooding still depend on future weather conditions, Infrastructure Minister Blaine Pedersen said Friday in the province’s March flood outlook, but the risk of overland flooding is “slightly reduced” from the February outlook.

Flooding risk, he said, remains “moderate to major” across the province.

“At this time, the Souris River basin continues to be of concern while favourable weather conditions have eased expected flows in the Red River Basin,” he said, so the chance is low of closing Highway 75, the principal highway from Winnipeg to the U.S.

Right now, the province said, it’s anticipated the province’s major flood infrastructure, including the Red River Floodway and the Portage Diversion, would be activated under unfavourable weather conditions.

The province on Wednesday announced it’s increasing outflow from the Shellmouth Reservoir, a flood control structure on the Assiniboine River at the Saskatchewan border, to 600 cubic feet per second.

More increases in outflow on the Shellmouth are expected over the next few days to maintain storage in the reservoir for anticipated spring runoff, the province said.

With “unfavourable” weather, the province said, the outlook suggests “major” risk on watersheds in the southwestern region; “moderate to major” risk on the Pembina, Roseau River and Assiniboine Rivers; “major” risk in the eastern region and on the Winnipeg River; “moderate” risk in the Interlake region and on the Red and Fisher rivers; and moderate risk in northern Manitoba, around The Pas regions and on the Saskatchewan, Carrot and Swan rivers.

Pedersen, after a municipal tour of potentially affected areas in the southwest, said the province is planning for flooding based on unfavourable weather conditions and the scenario of highest flood risk.

The province said it plans to provide daily flood information to municipalities once runoff begins, to “fine tune” flood preparations. — AGCanada.com Network

The post Manitoba’s southwest expecting ‘well above normal’ runoff appeared first on Grainews.