Farming smarter fall 2017

FALL 2017 Edition

What your soil says about your agronomy style »5 Zero-till can take the heat »8 Building better beans »22

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Contents Pg. 10

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Fall 2017 EDITION

Manager’s Report: Regionally Connected Agriculture — Apply, Adapt, Adopt. . . . . . . 4 Farming for Soil Health. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Wheat Streak Mosaic Makes Itself at Home. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 SARDA Stands with Farming Smarter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Zero-Tillage Shines in Hot, Dry Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Agriculture Drives Southern Alberta. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Timing is Everything. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 AIPA Welcomes Redelback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Tech Talk, Tech Talk — How Time Changed Irrigation Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Spot Cutworm Potential in Spring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2017 Field School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Federal Funds in Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Robotics Moving into Farm Fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Tricky Business of Better Beans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Dry Soil Hampers Corn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Rural Input Provides Focus for OWC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Deep Moisture Carried 2017 Crops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Grain Corn Offers Opportunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Support Comes in Many Ways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Phosphorus Filter Shows Promise in Alberta. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Keep Up to Date on Alberta’s Wetland Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Open Farm Days — Urbanites Love Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Opinion: Make Learning a Community Affair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Book Review: Landscapes Transformed: The history of conservation tillage and direct seeding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Farming Smarter is published bi-annually by .

Glacier FarmMedia LP for Farming Smarter, . #100, 5401 – 1st Ave. S., .

Lethbridge, AB T1J 4P4 . with the support from the Agriculture .

Opportunities Fund

Cover photo:

Editorial Board: Ken Coles, Jamie Puchinger.

Editor: C. Lacombe

Photo: farming smarter

At morning coffee during WheatStalk, participants played Headbands game.

We had a few laughs while at it.

Farming Smarter / Fall 2017

3

Manager’s Report

Regionally Connected Agriculture — Apply, Adapt, Adopt

P

ublic support for primary agriculture is changing, but that doesn’t mean the public doesn’t want to support it. People care about this industry and they want to trust that we produce our food safely and care for the land.

Sure, farmers may feel their backs are up against the wall and tensions are rising because urban voices and priorities seem center stage.

Relax! If there’s one thing I’ve learned it is that we don’t need the popular vote to have a voice!

Someone down south has made that very loud and clear. That’s not to suggest we copy that approach in any way shape or form, but the worst thing we can do is complain to each other and expect things to change.

Farming Smarter has its own challenges with voice as we jockey for government support, but I’m always impressed with the response from politicians, bureaucrats and stakeholders when we simply get out and talk to them. After all, it is rather crazy to expect support if we don’t muster up the courage to ask. Could it be our stubborn, do it ourselves farmer mentality is getting in the way?

I suffer from it too, but maybe it’s time we own our vulnerability, work together and garner support for the industry that we all love and cherish.

This is what we’re attempting to do this year by working with other applied research and extension organizations across the province and we have an ask of government. All of these organizations support a region and all of us play an important role in connecting the industry through applied research and extension. We propose that the provincial government leverage the Agriculture Opportunity Fund (AOF) with the new federal government’s Canadian Agriculture Partnership (CAP, replaces Growing Forward 2).

Alberta currently realizes over $100 million in returns annually from the $1.5 million investment it makes through the AOF that supports its hard-working agriculture research associations (ARA) and forage associations (FA). However, to meet the goals of the provincial and federal agricultural ministries at the local and regional level, base funding for the associations needs to grow.

A matching investment of $1.5 million from the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) would truly grow Alberta agriculture and result in a tremendous return on investment. This would be the first stable funding increase to the AOF program in 13 years.

Ken Coles sits atop a historic discer Farming Smarter brought in for Canada 150 at its Field School. Photo: Farming Smarter

We feel that a five-year program will help applied research and extension groups better serve the unique areas across this province, it will help connect both provincial and federal science efforts resulting in more relevant research and results that farmers can adopt on farms and/or commercialize.

Please help us be heard by talking to the right people in your circles. Have a great winter!

Ken Coles Farming Smarter General Manager

Message from the Chair

Through the Eyes of the Chair

I

stepped into the role of Farming Smarter Board Chairman in March and it’s a different chair than the Director’s one I sat in for a few years before. However, I relish the opportunity to help move the organization forward.

The Board made a decision this spring to reduce its size. We inherited 12 board seats from our two founding organizations — Southern Applied Research Association and Southern Alberta Conservation Association. As Farming Smarter since 2012, we began to see value in a smaller, more responsive Board.

Our goal is to create an organization that is nimble, has access to Board skills and uses working teams to address needs.

It takes people with vision, open minds, good planning and communication skills on the

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Farming Smarter / FALL 2017

team to get the job done and I’m confident that we have that on the Board and teams now.

Our goal is to enhance agriculture practices and help farmers’ foster healthy bottom lines.

Farming Smarter is busy growing its identity, partnerships and platform to provide farmers unbiased research and confidently bring new technology to farm operations.

We are crafting partnerships with other research and education institutions to bring more possibilities to our research and extension teams. We hope to elevate our reputation, expand our work and bring greater understanding to local challenges.

2017 was a great year for events. Even through the heat wave, Farming Smarter led tours and held events at our site for the public.

I find it rewarding as Chairman to watch the plans develop and unfold on the operation side of the business led by General Manager Ken Coles and his team. I have never seen a more dedicated group of people so passionate about their work. It is truly a pleasure to be the Chairman of Farming Smarter and work with a group of people so dedicated to the future of agriculture and the next generation of farmers.

I look forward to serving as Chairman and promise to work as hard as the staff to move us toward a brighter future. h

Doug Brodoway Farming Smarter Chair

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Stewardship

Farming for Soil Health

by Sarah Redekop

T

he land beneath us is why an agricultural scientist and extension specialist dig up clues to benefit our farming future. The soil can tell us a lot about our farming roots. Be it no-till, continuous cropping or more futuristic methods of growing, Dr. Bob Blackshaw and Rob Dunn are an agronomic duo on the case.

Both Blackshaw and Dunn have around three decades of experience in agronomy and are no strangers to soil science on the prairies.

At the 2017 Farming Smarter Field School, the pair explained how getting away from fallow and tilling is improving our soil and crops over time.

A high yield begins with quality soil according to Blackshaw and the three components to healthy soil are its water holding capacity, organic matter and microbes. “We don’t often think about what’s happening below ground with these crops,” Blackshaw said. Adding that methods like tilling and fallow remove vital components that contribute to quality soils.

Dryland crops under a no-till, direct seeding system, exhibit noticeable differences in their soils, explained Dunn. “The first five to 10 years as we move into that system, you really start to see the buildup of residue on the surface and the buildup of a lot more organic carbon.

That buffers the soil against the elements.”

Although, tilling decreased over the years, Blackshaw said it is still a common method used by many growers. By tilling, important fungal networks and beneficial microbes in the soil are destroyed.

“Any time you think about tillage, think twice,” he said. “You break up those fungal filaments in the soil and they’re good at suppressing diseases.” Fungi also play a major role in creating nutrients, increasing water infiltration and improving the water holding capacity of the soil.

Over the years, soil in the prairies improved due to the wider variety of crops grown. “Now we have a much more diversified system; we have 200 to 300 per cent increases in our pulse crops,” said Blackshaw.

This diversity produces a wider variety of microbes living in our soil.

“Different microbes like different systems.” He says cereals may benefit one organism, while oilseeds and legumes benefit others. “So, they need to be fed, that’s the bottom line, feed those microbes,” said Blackshaw. “Don’t kill them with tillage and fallow,” he added.

As the years of fallow and tillage move farther into our past, the soil in the prairies will steadily improve- although Blackshaw said we still have a long way to go. “I think when we move to no-till, you will see some of the benefits of soil structure probably faster than the benefits of soil microbial communities.” Blackshaw said it could take 15 or 20 years before earthworms start appearing in fields. “It takes a while to get there and that’s why we’re going to be much better 20 years from now.”

Along with the advantages that will occur over time, Blackshaw and Dunn wonder if no-till may pose future challenges with stratification and pH levels. As growers continue to add urea and ammonia based fertilizers to their crops, calcium will need to be reworked into the system. “It doesn’t always have to be a tillage solution,” said Dunn.

He believes planting deep-rooted legumes that bring nutrients to the surface could help solve the issue. “Legumes like alfalfa or sweet clover go down five to seven feet deep,” he said.

Looking farther into the future, Blackshaw and Dunn study intercropping. They are growing multiple crops in the same plots in the GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Rob Dunn and Bob Blackshaw pose with Rob’s signature shovel at 2017 Farming Smarter Field School. Photo: Farming Smarter

Farming Smarter fields. Reduced disease and insects are some advantages to these growing methods. However, due to the mechanized farming industry, Blackshaw doesn’t expect intercropping to become mainstream any time soon. “You have to have a crop you can seed together, it has to mature about the same time and you need to get it through a combine… so it’s not easy,” he said.

Relay cropping is a form of inter-cropping Blackshaw and Dunn believe may have some potential on the prairies. The idea behind these crops is to harvest them at different times and only maintain one as a cash crop. For example, growing spring wheat with an understory of annual rye grass and red clover. The wheat would be harvested for grain while the others, that mature later, can graze livestock. If not useful for livestock, it still builds organic matter and they may fix nitrogen.

Microbes also benefit by having a prolonged food source. “Moisture is obviously a limitation,” said Blackshaw. “If you’re in irrigation or in a wetter cycle, this may be an opportunity.”

Dunn said people often ask him if we will ever get back to our native soil conditions and if it is necessary to do so. “Probably not, to be real honest,” said Dunn. “Our soils are just going to reach a new equilibrium over time.” h Farming Smarter / fall 2017

5

Pest Control

Wheat Streak Mosaic Makes Itself at Home

by Jennifer Blair

Wheat streak on ceral leaves. Photo: Dr. Mary Burrows

A

s long as southern Alberta has favourable weather conditions, cereal growers will have to battle a devastating cereal disease that can decimate wheat and barley crops.

“Wheat streak mosaic can lower yields of winter wheat by 15 to 20 per cent, but you can get up to total loss in spring wheat and pretty severe losses in barley as well, depending on when it gets infected,” said Montana State University researcher Mary Burrows.

“These high yield losses are very concerning to growers.”

Cereal growers in the northern United States are no strangers to wheat streak mosaic; which is often confused with stripe rust said Burrows. But the virus has been largely absent from Alberta for the past decade, mainly because it can’t survive cold winters. However, where there is a green bridge between winter and spring cereal crops (including volunteers), the disease can spread rapidly through the wingless wheat curl mite transported from field to field on the wind.

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Farming Smarter / fall 2017

Last year’s perfect storm of favourable weather conditions resulted in a disease epidemic that spread into Alberta and specifically Lethbridge, Vulcan and Willow Creek counties. While this year’s drought conditions drove down disease levels, the risk of another epidemic remains as long as weather conditions are favourable Right now, there are very few management options for growers.

“When you have a widespread epidemic like we did in Montana, it wasn’t necessarily that one grower could control wheat streak — it’s that every grower had to control wheat streak,” said Burrows.

“We had a lot of guys that would leave the volunteer wheat because they wanted to graze cattle on it, and that really facilitated the epidemic.” Because the only way to manage wheat streak mosaic is through agronomic best management practices, producers need to decide how to combat the disease on a field-by-field basis.

“It really depends on the crop, the timing, the severity, and the neighbour situation,”

said Burrows. “It’s a combination of best management practices, economic drivers, and social concerns.”

For producers that have “a little patch here or there” in a winter wheat crop, “I usually say to just leave it,” said Burrows. “You won’t see much yield loss. You just have to be really careful of your green bridge next year.”

Producers that have high levels of wheat streak in spring wheat, however, might be better off terminating the crop entirely, she added. “They’re going to have barely any yield and they’re just creating a really bad situation for everyone.”

Right now, Burrows and her research team have a series of projects to develop some new management tools for the disease.

“We have a lot of data from five years of working on this as a six-state region that will be directly applicable to the Alberta situation if they’re dealing with wheat streak mosaic,” said Burrows.

“They can learn more about how to identify it, how to manage it, and then get the conversation going with some real facts.” h

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Partner Profile

SARDA Stands with Farming Smarter

By Kristi Cox

T

he Smokey Applied Research and Demonstration Association (SARDA) and Farming Smarter have developed a strong collaborative relationship over the past decade. They work together on projects and advocating for agricultural research. They also share knowledge on organizational management ideas.

SARDA started in 1986 when nine farmers got together with people from municipal governments that recognized a need for research in the Falher area. This model continues today with nine producers on the Board of Directors and municipality reps from the MD of Greenview, MD of Smokey River, Northern Sunrise County and Big Lakes County.

Variety testing was a driver in the beginning and that continues today. Wheat was a key area of focus this year.

“We had three different sites this year,” explained SARDA Manager Vance Yaremko.

“There’s been a lot of interest due to the changing of classifications for wheat, so a lot of (producers) are looking for the next best things for their wheat varieties.”

SARDA has a combination of research and extension programs. While Manager Vance Yaremko explains that the organization focuses more on research than extension, they are an excellent resource for producers in the area.

A few years ago, they pulled together workshops on wheat midge and ended up hosting 150 people over three days. This summer, they reacted quickly when clubroot showed up in Big Lakes County. SARDA organized an information session, and despite producers’ busy schedule, 120 came.

“We are able to react to different disasters,” Yaremko said. “If something happens, we’re usually able to respond on a pretty quick basis.”

Every second year SARDA puts on a trade show. This event usually sells out by Christmas and sees 3,000 people visiting 100 booths and a plethora of large equipment. The next one is March 2019.

Over the past 10 years, Farming Smarter and SARDA grew to value having good, collaborative research in different regions of the province. Innotech, based out of Vegerville, is a third organization that joins them in key research programs.

Variety trial of High Prairie Cereal.

Aerial View of High Prairie Cereal plots.

SARDA reseach site 2017.

“Currently we’re doing industrial hemp variety testing, seeding date trials and fertility trials,” Yaremko said. “The three of us have been doing that for the last three years.

“We’re quite excited about trying to expand some different crops here in the Peace.” One impetus is to find alternative crops for the Peace region is the presence of clubroot in Canola.

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

“It’s too bad because we have really short rotations and we don’t have a lot of cropping choices in the Peace,” Yaremko said. “We’re hopeful that industrial hemp or another crop will be viable here.”

Another project the three organizations collaborate on is hail research. They developed a hail simulator and use it to research recovery rates of crops damaged by hail. Studies include how timing of hail damage affects recovery and whether certain treatments affect yield in hail-damaged crops.

“We’re really hopeful that we can learn some things about damage and timing,” Yaremko said. “It could save everybody a lot of dollars if we can find something that works well.”

Ken Coles, Farming Smarter General Manager finds the partnership with SARDA beneficial and one based in a high level of trust that they’re doing solid work. This is beneficial when applying for project-based funding that is provincial in scope.

“I trust that they do good work and they’ve got good research going on up there,” Coles said. Farming Smarter looks forward to working with SARDA many more years .

“We’re partners in advocacy, partners in research and share peer support,” said Coles.

“It’s developed into a really good relationship.” h

Farming Smarter / fall 2017

7

Agronomy

Zero-Tillage Shines in Hot, Dry Conditions

By Madeleine Baerg

T

his summer’s unusually hot, dry weather across much of southern Alberta meant crops needed every moisture boost possible.

Zero-tillage maintains a thatch layer on the soil surface, reducing evapotranspiration and it decreases soil compaction allowing crops to root deep. But does zero-tillage increase plant access to moisture enough to impact yield in a hot, dry year? This year was a great one to find out.

“Heat and dry isn’t unusual for southern Alberta,” says Farming Smarter General Manager, Ken Coles. “Everyone knows that back in the early days, settlers said we’d never be able to farm the Palliser Triangle area. We’ve certainly proved them wrong, but it doesn’t mean we don’t have to contend with moisture challenges.

“The last eight out of 10 years have been quite wet. What that’s done is get people less excited about zero-tillage and particularly about ultra-low disturbance zero-tillage. A lot of people have started incorporating a little bit of tillage back on their farms, especially to manage ruts in wet fields. But that mentality gets us into trouble when you have years like this one,” says Coles.

This summer, Farming Smarter ran a trial incorporating corn into a zero tillage system. Though the trial was not specifically moisturefocused, the growth pattern in the tilled versus zero-tilled plots showed obvious moisture-related impacts.

“At the beginning of September, the zero-till plots were probably a foot higher than the tilled plots. Keep in mind the difference was just one single tillage pass before seeding. We don’t yet know how yield will be impacted, but the additional growth on the zero-till plots shows those plants held up to the heat and dry much better. In a wetter year, tilled and zero-till plots might grow fairly comparably, but differences really show up in a year like this,” says Coles.

Benefits of zero-tillage were not only obvious in Farming Smarter’s fields. In chats Farming Smarter recently had with farmers at field days, in phone calls and over fence lines, many of those who use zero-tillage report better than anticipated results.

“When we talk to zero tillers, we’re not seeing the terrible yields that we might have expected after this year’s heat and dry. Anecdotally at least, the benefit over tillage seems pretty consistent,” says Coles.

“Zero-tillage offers a buffering capacity and a resiliency that can make a real difference. In a year like this, the system really shines.”

Grassy Lakes area farmer Tim Willms, a long-term zero-till advocate, added 6,000 acres to his farm last year. The vast majority of those acres had been tilled for many years prior to his purchasing them; which gave Willms a great opportunity to compare growth and yield in zero-till versus conventionally tilled land.

“The acres I added last year matured faster this year than the acres I’ve no-tilled for a long time,” he says. “I think the roots in the new acres hit hardpan and couldn’t go any deeper, so those plants ran out of water much faster than the areas I’ve zero-tilled for years.

Of course, maturation speed is only half the story: the real proof is at harvest, and that calculation can be more challenging than you might first guess.

“In general, the yield was better in the no-till areas this year,” Willms. “But, when you’re switching to no-till from tillage practice, you’re not necessarily going to see huge differences. Half the land I purchased was fallow so it would have had deeper moisture from

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Farming Smarter / FALL 2017

Farming Smarter corn trials in Cypress County.

Photo: J. Puchinger

previous years; which makes it harder to assess how tillage did or didn’t affect things this year.”

Also, the later maturation that better moisture allows does not always work in a grower’s favour, he points out.

In 2016, Willms planted 1,000 acres of chickpeas on some of his newly purchased land. Of those acres, 600 to 700 including all of the lower-lying areas, had been conventionally tilled over the long-term.

The remaining 300 or so acres, mostly on hills and higher land, had been zero-tilled for at least a couple years prior to his purchasing it.

In 2016, the chickpeas Willms planted on conventionally tilled land matured about three weeks earlier than their counterparts grown on no-tilled areas.

“What was most interesting was seeing some of the low areas actually mature earlier than the higher hills; which is something I’ve never seen before,” he says.

Ironically for Willms, given how committed he is to zero-tillage, the harvest benefits swung in favour of tillage in 2016.

“I don’t think tillage versus no-tillage made that much difference in yield overall,” he says. “But, quality wise, the crop was better in the area where it matured earlier, since the slower maturing areas ran out of growing season.”

“I guess some would argue that, last year, tillage was actually a good thing. But, I will never go to tillage. No-till is like a belief system for me because it’s definitely better for the soil.” h GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

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9

Economics

Agriculture Drives Southern Alberta

by Trevor Lewington, CEO Economic Development Lethbridge Cavendish representatives and government officials, including Premier Rachel Notley, Cavendish Farms president Robert Irving and Lethbridge Mayor Chris Spearman toss a shovel of sand during the official groundbreaking ceremony for Cavendish Farms’ future frozen potato-processing plant. Credit: Lethbridge Herald photo: Ian Martens

W

ith another harvest season wrapped up, it’s a chance to take stock of the state of the agricultural sector in southern Alberta and its continued importance to the prosperity of our region and province.

Agriculture and agri-food continue to be core wealth-generating industries for southern Alberta and no where is this better demonstrated than in Lethbridge, where Cavendish Farms recently broke ground on its new $360-million state-of-the-art frozen potato-processing facility that will more than double its current annual production capacity.

In addition to being the largest private investment in Lethbridge’s history, the Cavendish project will be a boon to local farmers. The new facility expects to require an additional 9,000 acres of potatoes; which, at $3,500 to $4,000 per acre, is one of the highest-value agricultural crops grown in the province. It will also provide a boost to the valueadded agri-food processing sector that already contributes nearly $15 billion to the provincial economy and employs more than 22,000 people.

This type of project also creates value-added opportunities in other sectors such as manufacturing and construction. For example, at the height of construction, it is anticipated there will be 400 construction workers on-site and 750,000 person hours of work. This is a tremendous boost to an industry that is already anticipating GDP growth for 2017.

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Farming Smarter / FALL 2017

A major project like this also demonstrates the power of a longterm economic strategy that prioritizes investing in infrastructure today to attract development tomorrow. The City of Lethbridge has always done an exceptional job maintaining and expanding infrastructure to support economic growth. With a combined $20 million investment from the provincial and federal governments for municipal infrastructure developments through the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund and Alberta’s Capital Plan, the City of Lethbridge can continue expanding industrial land. Increasing the capacity of Sherring Business & Industrial Park will help Lethbridge build on its strengths in the manufacturing and agri-food sectors that are such a vital part of our local economy.

The Cavendish project is a prime example of the ways the agri-food sector contributes to the stability and growth of the area. Lethbridge has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of approximately $5.8 billion and an urban population of nearly 100,000 in a trading area of over 341,000.

With real GDP growth of 2.4 per cent anticipated for 2017, Lethbridge will outperform the wider provincial economy thanks in no small part to a 2.3 per cent GDP increase in the agricultural sector.

While GDP growth is an important measure in terms of understanding trends over time there are several other economic indicators where Lethbridge shines. For example, the annual unemployment rate continues to be among the lowest in the province, the housing market GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Farming Smarter Research

Timing is Everything

by Sarah Redekop

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hen hail hits a crop, there are a lot of variables that can affect its yield. A Farming Smarter project aims to determine if hail recovery products are able to come to the rescue. The timing of the hailstorm and type of crop seem to be the factors having the most impact, said Farming Smarter General Manager Ken Coles.

In 2015, Coles began a four-year project to evaluate fungicide and nutrient blend treatments and their ability to improve yield after hail damage. The project applied recovery products within two to three days after simulated hail damage. They assess the yield response based on damage levels at zero, 33 and 67 per cent on field pea, dry bean and wheat crops during the early, mid and late stages of growth.

Alongside this project, is a three-year study testing canola’s ability to recover from hail damage. The project evaluates yield responses after five damage levels during four growth stages.

This year concluded the second year of field tests and the results are currently being compared to the previous year. It is still too early to give any definite conclusions regarding relief products, however, Coles has already developed some interesting observations about hail damage.

Timing of the damage is the most crucial of matters, according to Coles. When wheat and canola crops are damaged in the early stages, they have a much higher yield response than those damaged in the mid to late stages.

Another observation is related to damage levels; Coles said whether damage is minimal or heavy, generally with wheat and canola, the yield response does not vary significantly. “When it comes to taking these to Continued from previous page

has remained relatively stable throughout the economic downturn, and there are more than $1 billion in construction projects planned or underway over the next four years.

These indicators support our continued claim to balanced growth and economic stability. As a bright spot in the province, Lethbridge continues to shine as southern Alberta’s hub for both traditional industries and emerging technologies. Lethbridge thinkers, makers and doers lead change in agriculture, food sciences, technology and manufacturing within a community that is propelled by innovative research and a spirit of entrepreneurship. h

Hail damaged beans – mid-season, 67 per cent damage, nutrient treatment. Photo: farming smarter

yield, the level of damage isn’t even as close to important as to when the damage was,” said Coles.

Seeding time is important for hail recovery potential, said Coles.

Since hail usually occurs around the end of June and early July, planning seeding time accordingly may be beneficial. “If you have an earlier seeded crop, in a really high-risk hail zone, and your plant is completely headed out- it’s way more susceptible to hail than it would be at an earlier growth stage,” said Coles.

“Some of the other interesting things we picked up is that the crops themselves have different tolerances to hail,” said Coles. “As far as the actual tolerance to the physical beating, canola is really tough.” He said in order to completely destroy canola; the destruction would have to be twice as much as what would destroy wheat — even at the later growth stages. Peas on the other hand have no tolerance to hail, said Coles. “It didn’t matter if we hit it once or if we hit it twice, peas cannot withstand hail.”

Until the results are completed from this year’s trials, it is still being determined to what extent hail recovery products work. “So far, our preliminary results are showing that it’s only the early hail damage where we have a chance of rescuing at all,” said Coles. h

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GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Farming Smarter / fall 2017

11

News Brief

AIPA Welcomes Redelback

M

argo Jarvis Redelback joins Alberta Irrigation Project Association as Executive Director. Redelback is a registered professional agrologist and holds a degree in Environmental and Conservation Sciences. She spent 10 years working in natural resources in British Columbia and, most recently, 10 years working with the Eastern Irrigation District (EID). Her time at the EID included positions relating to habitat development, irrigation development, internal policies and programs, assisting water users and corporate and public relations.

Redelback is looking forward to carrying on with the work that past Executive Director Ron McMullin did. She stressed the importance of maintaining the collaborative relations established with watershed planning and advisory councils and governments.

Ultimately, she wants to ensure that word continues to be spread about how valuable irrigation is to Alberta agribusiness, habitat and rural communities.

“Throughout my time in Alberta in the irrigation industry, I’ve always been in positions that have assisted the water users and advocated for the water users,” Redelback said. “I really like being able to interact with them and find their stories and teach other people about water users stories. Every water user has a different story and there’s some amazing things that water users do out there — especially to increase efficiencies and save water on their own farm operations.” h

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Technology

Tech Talk, Tech Talk — How Time Changed Irrigation Technology

by Kristi Cox Southern Drip brought one of the new drip irrigation systems for display at Farming Smarter Field School in June 2017. Photo: J. Puchinger

O

ver the past decades, Alberta Irrigators, Irrigation Districts and the Alberta Government increased irrigation water use efficiency aided by technological advances in on-farm irrigation and water conveyance systems and increased knowledge regarding effective irrigation methods. The net result is that, despite allocation freezes, provincial irrigation acres increased and overall diversions leveled off.

On-Farm Efficiency Improvements:

In the beginning, flood irrigation dominated the fields. This was extremely time consuming and farmers looked for something to make the process easier.

“Farmers drove these improvements by asking for something that was less labour intensive and less difficult to run,” said Shelley Woods, Soil and Water Specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. “The move from (hand move) to wheel move was a vast improvement for farmers. You used a motor to move the system across the field. So you weren’t out there all day, you were out there every eight hours or paying somebody to be out there.”

That was a vast improvement, but there were drawbacks. The system wasn’t very high off the field, and this would cause lodging.

The centre pivot systems offered higher clearance, giving improved

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Farming Smarter / fall 2017

clearance over the crop. It also moves in a continuous circle, needing less attention by the producer. The intake is stationary, unlike the wheel move systems where the intake needed to be moved along the field. But the system still wasn’t ideal.

“First of all, it had high pumping costs, as you’re probably operating at upwards of 60 p.s.i. or more,” Woods said. “Also higher evaporation losses because those water droplets are falling a large distance from above the pivot trusses to the ground.” This led to the low-pressure pivots with drop tubes. The decreased pumping costs were a major driver in farmers investing in this change.

“Some of the low-pressure systems operate as low as 20 p.s.i. and new systems are as low as 10 p.s.i.,” Woods said. “You can imagine that energy saving, but alongside that is less evaporation loss.” From 2007 to 2016, Alberta saw a shift from just 55 per cent low-pressure pivots to 75 per cent.

Upgrades can be expensive and an Alberta Government program, Growing Forward 2 provides producers with grants toward purchase of new equipment or upgrades of old systems to more efficient ones. Find information about these grants here — www.growingforward.alberta.ca.

Conveyance:

Improvements in getting water from the rivers to the farms created large efficiency improvements. There are nearly 8,000 km of canals and GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

pipelines in Alberta. Over the past decades, a combined effort by the province and irrigation districts converted many original dirt canals to lined structures or pipelines.

“Every year, the provincial government, on a cost-shared basis between the districts and Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, puts in money to improve that infrastructure,” Woods explained.

The current cost-sharing model for rehabilitation projects is 75 per cent provincial funding and 25 per cent district funds. Irrigators in the province directly contribute to these programs through the annual rates paid per acre for access to irrigation water.

The original dirt lined canals led to seepage losses into the ground and evaporation off exposed surfaces. Improving upon this was critical to improving the efficiency. Early attempts at this included lining canals with concrete in the 1970s.

“It worked beautifully in other parts of the world,” Woods explained.

“Unfortunately, here, with our freeze/thaw cycles, it was problematic.

There was heaving. They found it just wasn’t really suitable to our weather conditions.”

Not long after this, districts moved to impermeable membrane liners covered with rocks of varying sizes. The membranes prevent seepage and protect against erosion. The rock armour holds the liner down and slows the water flowing through the canals to diminish the energy of the water. This protects the canal banks from erosion and prevents weed growth.

Membrane liners are used today in areas where pipelines aren’t practical, but pipelines are the ultimate story when it comes to diminishing water loss along the delivery route.

“With a pipeline, it not only eliminates seepage of the canal, but it also eliminates evaporation from the surface of the canal,” Woods said. “The other benefit is once you take out that canal and put it into a pipeline, all that land above that previously wasn’t farmed can return to production.”

Long ago, but very nearby, this was how irrigators flooded fields.

Photo: C. lacombe

Other Improvements:

Research and improvements to technique also aided in improved efficiency for irrigators. Rate, application, and timing are all improving thanks to education and resources available to producers.

Alberta Agriculture provides the Irrigation Management Manual, fact sheets, irrigation conference and management workshops to producers. Find helpful data using resources like the Irrigation Management Climate Information Network or the Alberta Irrigation Management Model. These websites and apps help farmers stay on top of exactly what crops might need. h

On the Cutting Edge: There are numerous cutting edge technologies showing up that show promise of making even further revolutionary changes to irrigation. Most of these aren’t extensively tested for Alberta yet, but are worth considering as possible improvements in the future.

New sprinkler systems purported to have nozzle designs that create a droplet size less susceptible to evaporation.

Claimed also to hit the soil with less force resulting in less compaction and therefore less crusting.

Precision Mobile Drip System (PMDI) — a system where the pivot drags dripline tubes. Crops need to be farmed in a circle, rather than straight lines. Hoses must drag between rows to avoid lodging. Potential to lower pressure needs even further and avoid wetting the canopy.

Variable rate irrigation — a tool to change the rate according to soil conditions or lay of the land, among other factors.

Low Energy Precision Application (LEPA) — ‘bubblers’ drip water directly into furrows. May require farming in a circle.

Low Elevation Spray Application (LESA) — water applied below the crop canopy for almost the entire growing season.

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Higher efficiency and disease prevention due to the canopy remaining dry.

Continuous drive systems — the entire pivot moves more consistently instead of a stop and start system like most center pivots. Purported to ensure a more uniform water application.

Subsurface and surface drip lines — static drip systems that provide water directly to the soil.

Wireless moisture probes — installed annually into the fields. Connect to an app and alert producer to when soil moisture indicates irrigation needs.

It’s good to have an eye on what’s new and exciting in the world of irrigation, but Woods cautions against the assumption that every technology used elsewhere will work here in Alberta. However, as research comes in, producers might find some of these lead to incremental changes in how much water they require for crops. Any improvements to efficiency lead to more water available for other uses and that provides opportunities for growth in irrigated agriculture into the future even if allocations remain static.

Farming Smarter / fall 2017

15

Pest Control

Spot Cutworm Potential in Spring

by Alexis Kienlen

A

new cutworm guide can help farmers identify the pests and get rid of them as quickly as possible. That’s what Kevin Floate, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada in Lethbridge, wants producers to know.

“There are 10 or so cutworm species that we consider to be pests from time to time.

There’s always cutworms causing problems on the prairies in any given year,” he said.

The guide, created last year, was a four year project funded by the Canola Council of Canada and various producer groups. The guide covers identification and management of cutworm pests. The free, online guide is available in both English and French.

“We had 4,500 hard copies made up.

They’ve all been given away to producers in Saskatchewan and Alberta,” he said.

“We know a lot about the biology of the key pest species and this guide summarizes that information. It has general background on cutworms as a problem,” said Floate.

The guide also breaks down the information by species, and provides economic threshold numbers. The guide is a work in progress and there will be revisions in the future.

At the back of the guide are pictures where the main pest species of adults are side by side for handy reference. Other pictures feature the larva side by side.

Cutworms have been around since Europeans settled on the prairie. “The cutworms causing problems today include the same species that were causing problems 100 years ago,” Floate said. The guide summarizes research done during that time period and explains why producers have problems controlling the pests today.

“Part of it is that we changed our farming methods,” he said. Cutworms that were pests in the past, relied on crops that weren’t cultivated. Then crop tillage came along as a form of weed control. Cutworms didn’t do well under tillage and declined. Now, with no-till, people control weeds with herbicides. This means that cutworms have come back.

“So, we’re seeing some species of cutworms that were always present in low numbers increasing their numbers,” he said.

Researchers have no idea which cutworms will cause problems on the prairies in any

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Farming Smarter / fall 2017

given year. Quite often, weather influences a cutworm outbreak. Some of the species that are pests in Canada don’t overwinter on the prairies. Instead, they are carried on winds from the United States.

“A lot depends on what the winter conditions are like,” he said.

Some species of cutworms overwinter as larvae. If the winter is harsh, the larvae get killed and don’t emerge the following spring.

Meanwhile, other species of cutworms can overwinter as eggs and aren’t killed off.

Cutworms are truly a moving target; some of them have just one generation a year, while others have two or three. Also, cutworms appear in cycles.

“We may have a cycle of two or three years where there seems to be a heightened number of reports of cutworm outbreaks,” he said.

Then it subsides and cutworms will be present in low numbers until another wave of them appears. Outbreaks often include favourable winds that blow species up from the south and favourable winters that enhance overwintering survival.

Cutworms have some natural enemies.

Parasitic wasps are one, but they need large populations to combat cutworms. Also, during moist or wet springs, there can be outbreaks of fungal and bacterial disease that reduce cutworm numbers.

“I wouldn’t say this year has been particularly bad for cutworm numbers, although we had reports of cutworms this year,” said Floate. Cutworms can damage oilseed crops, cereals, pulses and sugar beets. It really depends, said Floate.

“I can’t think of any cutworm species that only feed on one type of crop,” he said. Crop rotation means that cutworms can lay their eggs on a wheat field, survive and feed on cereals, pulses or oil seeds.

“They do tend to have preferences,” he said. “They prefer to have cereals or they prefer to have broad leaf crops.”

Farmers need to know that in certain types of spring or early summer, their crops will be more at risk. “They need to be out walking in the fields, looking for indicator signs of potential cutworm problems,” said Floate.

The new guide also includes a large section on scouting to help farmers know what look for when scouting. h

The guides can be found at the following links: English: http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/ aac-aafc/A59-42-2017-eng.pdf French: h ttp://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/ aac-aafc/A59-42-2017-fra.pdf

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

ConferenCe & Tradeshow December 5 & 6 , 2017 Lethbridge Exhibition Park

Featured SpeakerS

full Conference $295

Jonathan Gill is a robotic engineer with Harper Adams University, UK and part of the research team at the National Centre for Precision Farming working on Hands Free Hectare.

dr. Joe schwarcz, a.k.a. Dr. Joe, a.k.a. Office for Science and Society Director- McGill University.

His strength is in teaching, interpreting and demystifying chemistry.

Brian Innes, Canola Council of Canada Vice President, Government Relations and President Canadian Agri-food Trade Alliance

Full details and Registration www.farmingsmarter.com aaron Pritchett, after dinner diversion

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403-317-0022

2017 Field School

T

o honour Canada’s 150 years of confederation Farming Smarter Field School participants looked at the past, present and future of farming in southern Alberta. Retired farmers and scientists along side current researchers encouraged participants to look at the past to get ideas for the future. Morning sessions offered insight on fertilizer history and current nutrient management strategies, history of irrigation districts and new technology available today, crop diversity and practices to improve soil health, conservation tillage evolution and the benefits we see today from past innovations.

Afternoon sessions were offered a-la-cart and included precision planter research, past and current pests, history of agriculture in southern Alberta and antique equipment that was considered revolutionary in its time. The beer gardens were a popular stop during the hot afternoons!

Dr. Wayne Lindwall demonstrated the volume of water needed to grow grain, which caused many raised eyebrows. Photo: Morton Molyneux

The Green Revolution session looked at fertilizer products and management including new options on the market with Dr. Tom Jensen. Photo: Jamie Puchinger

Roger Hohm, Shelley Woods and Adele Harding shared their vast cumulative knowledge on irrigation history, current funding available to upgrade on farm systems, and new technology including PMDI and subsurface drip.

Photo: Jamie Puchinger

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Farming Smarter / fall 2017

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Dr. Ben Ellert brought in soil cores to look at the difference in rooting depth in various crops.

Photo: Claudette Lacombe

Farming Smarter General Manager Ken Coles talks about the precision planter and current research trials involving corn and canola.

Photo: Jamie Puchinger

Lanny Aitkens a local enthusiast brought his restored antique tractors to give us live demonstrations of “breaking the land� with a plough and rod weeder. Photo: Jamie Puchinger

Participants got their hands dirty talking about crop rotations and diversity & how that affects soils health with Dr. Bob Blackshaw and Rob Dunn. Photo: Morton Molyneux

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Farming Smarter / fall 2017

19

Economics

Federal Funds in Change

by Madeleine Baerg

T

he federal and provincial governments’ newest ag policy framework, the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP), is set to replace Growing Forward 2 April 1, 2018. With just six months to go before the changeover, much uncertainty remains about how the new structure will support agricultural research capacity. As various government bodies finish up public consultations and work to hash out funding models, Farming Smarter and other applied research organizations have little option but to wait and see.

“To me, there are a couple big things that I see changing. Depending on how they go, we could see both some opportunity and some loss under the new framework,” says Ken Coles, Farming Smarter General Manager.

The Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund (ACIDF) is in its final days and no last-minute lifeline seems likely. The fund was largely shuttered as of almost a year ago and funded no new projects in 2017. Between now and the end of December, it will collect final reports on any multi-year projects it funded through this year and fully close in 2018.

“To date, there’s been no word on whether there will be a replacement for ACIDF or some kind of renewal; which is unfortunate,” says Coles. “ACIDF funded important work and its end will be a loss to the industry.”

The closing of ACIDF impacts several Farming Smarter projects and priorities. Among other research efforts, ACIDF funded multiple alternative cropping projects that do not fall under the research funding umbrellas or interests of specific crop commissions. ACIDF funds helped finance several Farming Smarter trials on new and emerging crops, including hemp and, more recently, dryland grain corn.

“I’m personally really concerned that there won’t be a way to fund new and emerging crop research,” says Coles. “It’s a really important area of research that needs to continue. Just think: canola was once considered a novel crop, but look at it now.”

Much of the Canadian Agricultural Partnership’s structure and fund distribution will mimic Growing Forward 2. Like its predecessor, CAP will distribute dollars in two distinct ways. The first distribution channel will be via industry and government partnerships called clusters. The application window for clusters closed and applicants await the decisions.

20

Farming Smarter / fall 2017

The second distribution channel will be via bilateral agreements with each province.

The parameters and shape of bilateral agreements are currently very in the air as the provinces negotiate with the federal government to determine dollar commitments and specific program outlines.

“There are just a lot of unknowns surrounding the bilateral agreements right now,” says Coles. “I met with the Deputy Minister and the Assistant Deputy Minister and they don’t have answers yet.”

Coles hopes the current uncertainty will translate to opportunity by the time CAP rolls out.

“I’ve met with several other research and forage groups and we’d all like to see a way to leverage our Agricultural Opportunities Fund (AOF) grants. The base AOF grants haven’t changed in 15 years, so any way to stretch those dollars would be welcome.

Ideally, we’d like federal dollars to match the AOF dollars. That would really help solve the problem of instability by making the funding reliable for a full five years. We

are really disappointed to lose ACIDF, but leveraging our AOF dollars with a federal match could offset that loss in research capacity,” he says.

The questions surrounding CAP and, on a larger front, ag research funding in general are disconcerting for applied research organizations.

“There is just tremendous uncertainty.

Where does Farming Smarter fit in the mix?

Are we a priority?” says Coles.

“Federal researchers for many years have felt that there is a really big lack of commercialization of their work. They’ve lost their connection to farmers. They used to rely on provinces to do the extension work but that’s been debilitated. That’s why we fill such a critical role. At the same time, good extension costs money. I’ve seen for a long time that there’s been a recognition of the need for extension but the governments haven’t put dollars towards it. That said, I do believe they’re working hard to come up with the best thing they can, given the dollars they have available.” h

Hemp is currently a novel crop that could become a high value crop for prairie rotations.

Photo: Farming Smarter

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

New Technology

Robotics Moving into Farm Fields

by Alexis Kienlen

A

tractor that drives itself? Sounds like something out of science fiction, but it could soon be coming to a farm near you.

“I personally think there’s a lot more potential for robotics and autonomous vehicles than there is in precision agriculture in general,” said Ken Coles, Farming Smarter General Manager. Coles, who has over 10 years of experience in precision agriculture, finds the potential of robotic autonomous vehicles exciting.

“It’s very simple things like not having an operator in the tractor anymore,” he said. Instead, autonomous tractors can drive and turn themselves.

“I think we’ll see some of that within the next five to 10 years,” he said.

Farming Smarter recently put in a proposal for a project called “the Autonomous Agronomist.” The project, if funded, will be simple and on a small scale.

“Obviously, with remote controlled tractors, there’s a fair bit of safety risk. You don’t want them going rogue and crashing into buildings or on the highway,” he said.

The reason Coles focussed the proposal on unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) is because there are fewer regulations than with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The use of aerial based autonomous vehicles requires a lot of training, as well as an operator in the field.

Ground vehicles can have a battery or a gas engine and some of them can go for hours on end, said Coles. The Autonomous Agronomist project would capture both quantitative and qualitative information.

“You can go out there and do soil samples. It could have a robotic arm and grab leaf samples to bring back. The idea is to throw a camera on top of it and get good imagery of the field,” he said.

The UGV can also get basic information like crop staging and weed presence and identification.

It can also support decisions around when to spray.

“We think it can do a better job of scouting fields,” said Coles. Humans don’t necessarily do the best job of scouting fields, because they are busy.

Robotics have made their way into many other industries, like the greenhouse industry, dairy and horticulture. At Agritechnica 2015 in Germany, Coles saw many robotic autonomous vehicles. Coles said that they are just starting to find their way into larger, mainstream agriculture.

At the Ag in Motion show near Saskatoon, a Saskatchewan-based company demonstrated autonomous vehicles that can seed and spray.

The University of Regina is working on a project using autonomous tractors and there is a new Canadian Agricultural Automation Cluster lead

by Vineland Research and Innovation Centre to support research.

“That’s a good example of what the future holds,” said Coles. He said that there’s a lot of interest from farmers in the Lethbridge area.

The technology has the potential to alleviate some labour stress once it’s proven safe and cost effective.

“Once it’s proven itself, a lot of people will be interested,” he said. h

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Farming Smarter / fall 2017

21

Novel Crops

Tricky Business of Better Beans

It’s a challenge to bring all production and quality characteristics together in one package

By LEE HART

I

n the world of dry beans, all the researchers at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Lethbridge Research Centre (LRC) have to worry about is coming up with early maturing, high yielding varieties, with good seed quality and improved disease resistance. It may sound simple.

But while the objectives are clear, researchers such as bean breeder Parthiba Balasubramanian and plant pathologist Syama Chatterton say its not easy developing new varieties that fire on all the important production and quality cylinders. But good progress is underway.

“Our primary objective is to develop early maturing bean varieties that are well suited to Alberta growing conditions,” says Balasubramanian. “There are very good bean breeding programs in Manitoba and Ontario and parts of the United States with excellent varieties, but they don’t grow well here in Alberta — they don’t mature in most years.”

He is looking for bean lines that mature within 95 to 100 days. That’s the first criteria.

Along with that a variety needs to have the yield — again he is looking for varieties that produce at least 3,000 pounds of seed per acre (that’s the minimum. He was pleased to hear producers reporting some yields as high as 3,600 pounds per acre). Seed quality characteristics are important too. Since most of the dry beans in Alberta are for human consumption, and much of the crop is exported, seeds need to have appeal — seed size, shape and colour are all important. And as maturity, yield and quality requirements come together, researchers also have to ask “how does this variety stack up against common disease pressure?”

“The challenge is that we may find a line that has early maturity, but then when you start adding in these other traits the yield might be reduced,” he says. “Or we may be able to combine early maturity with good yield, but then some aspect of seed quality is lacking. “ It is a challenge to get everything into one package.

Balasubramanian continues the breeding work of long time now retired LRC bean breeder Henning Muendel. For southern Alberta farmers and markets, Balasubramanian’s breeding program is focused on five primary types of dry beans — pintos, Great

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Farming Smarter / fall 2017

Dry beans in production. PhotoS: farming smarter

Northerns, yellow, black and red beans.

Virtually all are produced under irrigation.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada funds breeding research with valuable support from the Alberta Pulse Growers and Viterra, one of the largest bean processors and marketers.

NEW VARIETIES RELEASED

While the breeding challenges don’t go away, Balasubramanian says new varieties are being developed providing producers with improved production and quality characteristics.

Three new varieties released in 2014 appear to be performing well for Alberta producers.

AAC Black Diamond 2 is an early maturing, high yielding black bean with very good resistance to bacterial blight. (It is an improved variety over AC Black Diamond that was released in early 2000s.

Balasubramanian also released AAC Burdett, an early maturing, high yielding pinto bean that also showed 30 per cent lower incidence of white mould — another common bean crop disease.

And although it just went into commercial production in 2017, he heard good reviews from producers about AAC Whitehorse, an early maturing, high yielding Great Northern bean, with improved disease resistance.

Along with those three, Balasubramanian released AAC Explorer just last year, a high yielding pinto bean with improved colour retention. That improves marketing options for growers. If beans are held in storage, AAC Explorer will maintain its colour for up to two years.

Also released in 2016 were two new yellow bean varieties — AAC Y012 and AAC Y015 — that are 10 days earlier in maturity and also high yielding.

ON THE DISEASE FRONT

Building varieties with improved disease resistance is the preferred disease management approach, but not always easy says researcher Syama Chatterton. Much of her work at LRC focuses on control and management of white mould. Canola growers are familiar with this disease called sclerotinia in their oilseed crops. It is the same pathogen at work.

“White mould is probably the biggest challenge for bean growers,” says Chatterton.

“All pulse crops are susceptible to the disease, but it causes more damage in bean crops that grow under irrigation. It may not be a problem every year, but it can be devastating to yield when it is.”

Working with Balasubramanian, Chatterton is screening various lines of bean crops for disease resistance. Improved resistance has been developed in some newer varieties, but the search continues.

While fungicides are available, she is also looking at cultural and management practices to reduce the impact of the disease. Moist humid conditions at ground level under a heavy crop canopy can be ideal conditions for disease development.

Balasubramanian is looking for new bean lines with improved stand ability — more upright plant structure — which would allow for improved air flow through the crop canopy helping to reduce development of the fungus (apothecia) on the soil surface that release disease spores.

Chatterton is also studying how disease develops under different irrigation management regimes with hopes of eventually developing both disease and spore forecasting guides for producers. h

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

SAVE THESE DATES 2018 LEARNING ADVENTURES All our adventures include grub, gulps & goodies

AGM

Wheat Stalk

February 28

July 19

Lethbridge Site

Lethbridge Site

4 – 8 pm, Free

8:30 am – 3 pm, $95

Lethbridge Plot Hop

Open Farm Days

June 7

August 18

Lethbridge Site

Lethbridge Site

8:30 am – 3 pm, $95

11 am – 4 pm, Free

Field School

Cypress Conference

June 27 – 28 Lethbridge Site 8:30 am – 3 pm, $195

Cypress Field Day July 5 Cypress County Site 8:30 am – 3 pm, $95

October 25 Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede 8 am - 4 pm, $195

Lethbridge Conference December 5 - 6 Lethbridge Exhibition Park Full conference $295; 1-day $195

watch for details on www.farmingsmarter.com

Dry Soil Hampers Corn

2

017 was a hot dry year in parts of the southwest Alberta.

The following charts show just how hot and dry compared to normal giving the accumulated precipitation, average daily temperatures and corn heat units for the season. The corn emergence photo shows the difficulty seeding crops into hard soils with low moisture at seeding. The UAV photos show the effect of residue on seed to soil contact and hairpinning issues (gaps in seeding).

Corn emergence in zero-till plots was challenged this year. The surface crusted early and lack of moisture limited germination.We had a hard time seeding the corn deep enough into moisture on the untilled plots.

Corn Heat Units for Lethbridge in the 2017 field season. The blue line shows normal and the red line shows 2017. We were 450 CHU above normal in 2017 and we reached normal CHU approx. one month earlier than usual.

Aerial photograph arranged to show the stubble residue and hairpinning issues on no-till plots

The rainfall accumulated during the 2017 field season. The blue line shows the long term average. The red line shows this year. We were on track until early june. We got no significant rainfall the rest of the season.

The daily average temperature for Lethbridge during the 2017 season. We had record days above 30 C in 2017. The blue line shows the long term average. The red areas above the blue line are hotter than normal, and outnumber the areas below the blue line which are cooler than normal.

24

Farming Smarter / fall 2017

Aerial photographed arranged to show the stubble residue and hairpinning issues on no-till plots. Top is no-till, bottom are cultivated. Left to right crop stubble is soybean, wheat, lentil, canola, corn, pea, mustard stubble.

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Stewardship

Rural Input Provides Focus for OWC

By Taren Hager

F

or over 10 years, watershed stewardship groups (WSGs) and landowner co-operatives used the tools provided by the Oldman Watershed Council Watershed Legacy Program (WLP) to take steps toward sustainable management of their land — (Figure 1). By co-ordinating efforts throughout the basin, the WLP aims to conserve and enhance our natural resources and rural way of life.

A series of facilitated round table discussions, Voices Of The Oldman (VOTO) took place to underscore a new iteration of OWC planning and ensure appropriate analysis of input from producers about watershed stewardship from an agricultural perspective.

We held sessions in three locations: Taber, Pincher Creek and Stavely, in early 2017 and approximately 100 people attended.

The sessions were an opportunity for participants to present their ideas and discuss challenges in conducting watershed stewardship from an agricultural perspective. This feedback formed the basis of an overhaul to the way OWC provides its rural support and programming and points the way forward to stronger OWC collaboration and community-based solutions.

Social License clearly emerged as the main concern identified by participants (Figure 2). It is more important than ever before that the agriculture industry, stands up and tells its story. There is a clear sense that the agricultural community feels misunderstood by their urban counterparts and wants to show the consumer that they can feel good about this industry in southern Alberta.

Producers take pride in what they do to provide food for an increasingly urbanized world. Without direct contact with consumers, farmers feel they have lost the trust and respect they deserve. There are global concerns around environmentallyfriendly food production, humane treatment of animals, potential spreading of disease and use of antibiotics and hormones.

Often these overarching issues are not well understood — or even relevant to how food is produced in the Oldman watershed, but it is difficult for consumers to know what to believe in this age of information overload and controversy.

On the basis of this feedback, the OWC’s Watershed Legacy Program will evolve to include a greater emphasis on communication between urban and rural communities in the Oldman watershed. In addition to our current rural work, the program will begin to tackle the myths and allow more transparent discussion between producers and consumers to foster greater understanding and willingness to cooperate on shared issues.

The direction is clear: we will gladly launch a revamped Watershed Legacy Program, but to do so we will need to increase our capacity. That means having the resources to support a WLP Manager. For the last 10 years, this program was a small part of what we do — but rural stakeholders want us to make it a big focus. If the agriculture community commits to making this happen, our work needs your support, investment and involvement.

For more information, please contact Taren Hager, WLP Manager at 403-849-1346 or taren@oldmanwatershed.ca. h

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Numbers on the pie chart represent votes for the most important challenges facing agricultural watershed stewardship — summarized from all three sessions.

Farming Smarter / fall 2017

25

Stewardship

Deep Moisture Carried 2017 Crops Many 2017 crop yields owe their success to conservation farming

By LEE HART

L

ittle to no rain over much of south and central Alberta and Saskatchewan this summer and yet farmers report surprisingly decent yields on grain, oilseeds and pulse crops. How did that happen?

It wasn’t anything magical according to a long-time researcher now retired from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at Lethbridge Research Centre.

“I believe what we saw this year is a testament to value of direct seeding and conservation farming practices,” says Wayne Lindwall, an agricultural engineer, researcher and one of the pioneers of the conservation farming movement in Western Canada over the past 30 years.

“There is a new generation of farmers out there since I first started my work in conservation farming,” says Lindwall, who recently received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Alberta. “So I think it is important these young producers hear the message about the value of direct seeding. I first gave this message to their fathers and grandfathers, so it may be time they heard it too.”

Lindwall presented at the 2017 Farming Smarter Field School. He brought along a barrel of water and vial of grain seed to make his point.

“Water-to-yield is a 2,000:1 ratio,” says Lindwall. “It takes 2,000 tons of water to produce one ton of grain.” From a different perspective that’s about 400,000 gallons needed per ton of grain or, if the grain weighs about 50 pounds per bushel, that’s about 10,000 gallons of water per bushel.

In a year like this where there were two to three summer months of little or no rain across much of the southern prairie region, where did that moisture come from?

“Much of the yields farmers saw this year came from the moisture stored in the ground,” he says. “Generally, half the moisture a crop needs comes from moisture reserves in the soil. In years when there is plenty of moisture it may not be as big a factor, but in years like this, it is the soil moisture reserves that carry the crop.”

Starting with good moisture last fall, Lindwall credits most of the 2017 crop success to several production factors. One is conservation farming in general (the amount

26

Farming Smarter / fall 2017

Wayne Lindwall showing 2017 Farming Smarter Field School participants how much grain you can grow with 55 gallons of water. PhotoS: J. Puchinger

of summer fallow in Western Canada has been reduced by 85 to 90 per cent). Another is direct seeding systems that allow farmers to leave stubble in place to collect snow and reduce the amount of moisture lost to evaporation. Finally, improved varieties that do a much better job of fertilizer uptake and moisture use efficiency. All these factors contribute to pretty decent yields in years with dry growing season conditions.

Lindwall says, “When I talk about the moisture needed to produce a crop and amount stored in the soil, sometimes people look surprised and ask, ‘are you sure about that?’ But the other thing I tell them is to know your roots. Those plants will reach for moisture.”

He says cereal crops will produce roots two metres (about 6.5 feet) deep, while alfalfa taproots and other perennials can travel up to 10 metres (about 30 feet) or more to reach moisture and nutrients. “So,

plants aren’t just collecting what they need in the top three or four inches of the soil,” he says.

While the moisture reserves in the soil profile helped carry the 2017 crop, Lindwall notes “the bank account is empty” after a dry growing season. He has already observed irrigation farmers applying water to fields after harvest. Mother Nature will need to do the same this fall and winter.

“This year used the soil moisture reserves, so rain and snow will need to replenish it this fall and winter,” he says.

Many parts of Western Canada experienced a cycle of wetter growing conditions, but producers shouldn’t take that for granted. “We’ve had a decade of a pretty wet cycle, but there are always changing weather cycles,” says Lindwall. “So, it is important farmers continue conservation farming practices to ensure as much moisture as possible is there when crops need it.” h

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Farming Smarter Research

Grain Corn Offers Opportunity

by Sarah Redekop

T

he stalks of dryland grain corn are on the rise in the prairies. In the plots at Farming Smarter, researchers have been testing the most successful methods of producing dryland grain corn under zero-till conditions.

Ken Coles, Farming Smarter General Manager, believes grain corn has “big opportunity” in the prairies. It is the last year of a three-year study and although the final results aren’t in, Coles said what they have seen so far has been surprising. “I am really impressed with its (no-till grain corn) ability to deal with drought and heat. Two out of the three years in the study were much hotter and drier than normal, yet the plant is still six feet tall and producing good cobs.”

Throughout the study, they have observed and compared both cultivated and no-till corn in the test plots. In the spring, Coles said the cultivated corn appeared to be doing much better, however once the heat and drought hit this summer, the notill corn took the lead. “The zero-till stuff is probably a foot taller and the cobs are much thicker,” he

Ken Coles shares information about the grain corn project in Cypress County at the Medicine Hat Field day July 6, 2017. Photo: J. Puchinger

said. “Just that one pass in cultivation and the loss of moisture that came with that really made a difference this year.”

Although the no-till corn seems to have done well with the arid conditions, Coles said the challenges they faced were in the seeding process. They have been using a Monosem planter, equipped with design modifications for the project. The planter is still a work in progress and Coles said there are some improvements still needed. “The planter that we have doesn’t have the down pressure or the springs necessary to penetrate the hard soil- and with the 30 degree temperatures we had

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in May, that created a tough environment for zerotilling,” said Coles.

The residue cleaners need other adaptations because the planter had difficulty penetrating through the trash on the fields. “Wherever there was a lot of residue, we just didn’t do a great job — it didn’t get the seed to soil contact we needed,” said Coles.

“The crop that you grow before really does change the seeding environment.” Coles said the corn they grew after peas and lentils produced the best results with the planter due to the malleable soil and reduced residue.

If the dry conditions we’ve been experiencing over the past few years persist, Coles believes no-till may make a comeback. “It almost seems like we’re getting back into that drought type of cropping system — before that there was a lot of wet years and people were getting more into tillage again… zero-till sort of lost its momentum — and I think it’s going to start coming back something fierce.” h

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Farming Smarter / fall 2017

27

Farming Smarter

Support Comes in Many Ways

by Madeleine Baerg

I

n an ideal world, applied research organizations would do only what they do best — research — rather than spending valuable time advocating for and chasing after funding.

Unfortunately, sufficient funding is not the reality of applied research today. As public research dollars get harder to come by, the vital work done by independent research organizations like Farming Smarter is increasingly difficult to fund. Farming Smarter hopes that a little creativity and, if necessary, some increased contract work may bridge the growing funding gap.

“It’s really hard to know how dollars may or may not flow under the new Canadian Ag Partnership framework that will replace Growing Forward 2 in April. If we are unable to capture the dollars we need from our traditional funding streams, our plan B is to look at growing our contract research,” says Ken Coles, Farming Smarter’s general manager.

The move would not be so major a shift as one might first guess. Farming Smarter is and will always be committed, first and foremost, to providing unbiased, high-quality, farmapplicable research data to southern Alberta producers. Currently, about 15 per cent of our total research is done on a contracted basis.

To achieve the consistent, reliable funding necessary to build research and extension capacity for farmers, we target increasing our contracted work. It will still be a small percentage of our total business.

“It’s a natural progression,” says Coles. “We have always done a limited amount of contract research so long as it fit within our own objectives. The biggest difference here is that we’re coming to accept that contract work may be necessary and we’re actively thinking about how best to leverage any profits we make back into the work we want to be doing for farmers.

“Even the projects we do get funding for (from Government or other funding sources), it’s never enough. We’ve always used contract work as a way of enabling our other work.

What we’d end up with if we pursue contract work more heavily is a way of subsidizing our other projects. If we can do work efficiently, we can reinvest those extra dollars back into the work we know is necessary for farmers.”

While some of the results coming out of contracted trials would be private and owned by the companies who invested in the work,

28

Farming Smarter / fall 2017

Farming Smarter 2017 demonstration plots for SeCan.

all testing through Farming Smarter would be scientifically rigorous and unbiased. And, while it would be the company that benefits most directly from the specific research project, Farming Smarter would gain valuable experience and data translatable to future projects. Most importantly, a move to increase contract work would not mean any change in priorities or research integrity, says Coles.

“Taking on more contract work would certainly not mean we’d be in bed with business. We’d maintain our unbiased, scientific approach. In fact, our integrity and impartiality would be one of the major benefits we can offer a company. And, all of the work, whether contracted or not, would ultimately benefit farmers.”

Offering contract services would also add to Farming Smarter’s already strong reputation as a research and information hub, says Coles.

“The more work we do, the more people we will bring together. If we can have additional demonstration sites, we’ll have more to offer in terms of extension as well; which will get more people talking together, more people walking the rows together. We are a connector

Photo: Farming Smarter

organization and there’s big value in creating those opportunities to have dialogue, create and discover.”

At the end of the day, the reality is that dollars talk, Coles says.

“To be honest, industry pays better. We make more money doing contract research than applying for grants and funding, and there’s way less paperwork, making contract work simpler and cleaner businesswise. Yes, contract work would take up some of our resources. But, if we don’t have any other economic model to support our organization, what choice do we have?”

Coles says most farmers he has talked to are supportive of the shift.

“A move towards contract work won’t be a major risk or hurdle for our organization.

Farmers are good businessmen. They understand that this makes sense and still achieves our key priorities. We play a critical role in southern Alberta. Now that government and others have reduced extension efforts, we are one of the only groups that maintains direct contact with farmers. Whatever we have to do to maintain that, we’ll do it. You have to be creative and adapt.” h

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Stewardship

Phosphorus Filter Shows Promise in Alberta

by Jennifer Blair

P

rovincial researchers are exploring a way to use by-products of the manufacturing and mining industries to filter phosphorus from Alberta’s waterways.

And so far, the results are promising.

“Initial results show we remove approximately 95 per cent of the dissolved phosphorus from the water passing through the filter,” said Ken Janzen, project technologist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

The project — a partnership between Alberta Agriculture, Warner County and Oklahoma State University with funding from the Growing Forward 2 grant program— launched earlier this year to test removal of excess phosphorus from surface water runoff.

“Phosphorus is an essential element for plant life, but when there is too much of it in water, it can degrade water quality,” said Janzen.

Using by-products like fly ash and steel slag from the manufacturing and mining industries, researchers from Oklahoma State University developed a filter that removes dissolved phosphorus from the water.

“Using by-product materials helps keep costs down and reuses a material otherwise destined for disposal,” said Janzen.

Areas for potential filter placement include edge-of-field runoff locations, livestock bedding areas and corrals, or manure storage locations that could potentially discharge phosphorus rich runoff water.

“If that run-off can be filtered and the phosphorus removed as it leaves the site, it will improve the water quality of the runoff entering a water body,” said Janzen.

During initial filter design and testing, the project hit a snag when neither locally sourced fly ash nor red shale were proven effective at removing phosphorus. Though steel slag proved effective, the economics of shipping the material from central Alberta didn’t make sense.

“As a result, we decided to use a commercial product as the filter media,” said Janzen. They placed the prototype filter on one of Warner County’s Ridge Reservoir tributaries “known for higher levels of dissolved phosphorus.” Installed in spring 2017, the new filter being tested shows promising preliminary results.

But Janzen is quick to caution that “this is new technology for Alberta and is not yet proven. We need to show that the technology works in Alberta,” said Janzen.

“Results from preliminary sampling carried out through late spring, summer and fall are promising, but depending on where you are in Alberta, up to 80 per cent of the typical run-off is from snow melt. We need to test the filter under freeze and thaw conditions to determine if it can be as effective through late winter and early spring.”

Cost is another consideration in filter design and is difficult to pinpoint, he added. “The availability of a local by-product or waste material is probably going to be the biggest variant. The key will be finding a local material that cost effectively removes dissolved phosphorus.”

Even so, the potential for this new technology in Alberta excites Janzen.

“Phosphorus filters may provide a technology that can remove a form of phosphorus that current practices are not able to do,” he said.

“This may be a new management technology that could help enhance the sustainability of the agriculture industry and improve surface water quality.” h GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

A demonstration of the phosphorus filter system set up for the June 8 Farming Smarter plot hop that visited the Farm Stewardship Centre in Lethbridge for the afternoon. Photo: C. Lacombe

Farming Smarter / fall 2017

29

Growing Stewardship

Keep Up to Date on Alberta’s Wetland Policy

by Donna Trottier P. Ag

W

etlands in Alberta received extra protection in June 2017 when Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) updated the Alberta Wetland Assessment and Impact Report Directive, and the Alberta Wetland Mitigation Directive.

“The Alberta Wetland Policy was first introduced in the fall of 2013 with limited directives or guidance on implementation,” states Jay White, Principal and Senior Biologist with Aquality Environmental Consulting Ltd. “The AWP is a go-forward policy in that wetlands that were approved for drainage in the past will not be subject to the new replacement requirements.”

The government implemented the Wetland Policy in the White Area of Alberta in June 2015 and in the Green Area in June 2016. It has undergone multiple revisions and updates since inception. In July 2015, Alberta released a new classification system for wetlands, along with the Wetland Impact Directive, the Alberta Identification and Delineation Directive and the Alberta Wetland Assessment and Impact Report Directive.

When working around wetlands, landowners must adhere to the wetland mitigation hierarchy as outlined in the updated Alberta Wetland Mitigation Directive: AVOID, MINIMIZE, REPLACE. Appropriate consideration for avoidance of any impacts to wetlands must be the first priority. Where avoidance is not feasible, minimization of wetland impacts is the second priority. If permanent loss of all or a portion of a wetland will be incurred because it cannot be avoided, then wetland replacement is required for the portion that is lost.

Replacement requirements are established on the basis of wetland area lost and the relative value of that area. Relative wetland value is based on the ability of the wetland to store and supply water, improve water quality, provide habitat for wetland species, human uses, and the regional abundance of wetlands on the landscape. The Alberta Wetland Rapid Evaluation Tool (ABWRET-D) is available to determine wetland replacement requirements for minimal, permanent impacts on wetlands.

The Wetland Assessment and Impact Report Directive outlines the pre-disturbance wetland assessment and reporting requirements. The Alberta Wetland Assessment and Impact Form is for low risk, temporary impacts and minimal permanent impacts and must be submitted with a regulatory application. It does not replace the Water Act or Public Lands Act application forms and it is the landowner’s responsibility to ensure all regulatory requirements are met prior to commencing work in or near a wetland.

White recommends landowners seek the advice of a professional when working around water bodies and wetlands. “Most people do not know how to classify or delineate a wetland. It is therefore recommended to consult a professional to help ensure you are meeting the requirements of the applicable legislation,” states White.

Since May 1, 2017, AEP requires signoff of an authenticating professional on regulatory documents submitted under the Alberta Wetland Policy, including wetland assessments. This means, if a landowner is submitting an application for approval to perform activities impacting a wetland, the regulatory documents must be authenticated by a Qualified Wetland Science Practitioner (QWSP). Authenticating professionals must be certified as QWSP with one of the approved Professional Regulatory Organizations and must also meet specific competency and professional experience requirements in order to authenticate regulatory documents.

White suggests that if you are planning a project or activities that may impact a wetland, start planning well in advance of the activities to allow time for the lengthy approval process.

Most activities that have an impact on any class of wetland in Alberta have regulatory requirements, such as a Water Act approval, Licence or a Notification under a Water Act Code of Practice. The Alberta Wetland Policy (AWP) provides regulatory direction to conserve, restore, protect and manage wetlands in Alberta.

Wetlands are important features in the landscape that provide numerous beneficial services for people, fish and wildlife. Some of these services, or functions, include protecting and improving water quality, providing plant, fish, and wildlife habitats, attenuating floods and maintaining surface water flow during dry periods. These valuable functions are the result of the unique natural characteristics of wetlands.

European settlers began altering wetlands in Alberta as early as the 1800s. Development of the land base for agriculture, resource exploration and extraction activities caused significant impacts or losses of Alberta wetlands. The estimate is that 64 per cent of wetlands are lost or impacted in Alberta’s White Area and wetlands in the Green Area also experienced loss and impact.

Aquality offers courses on wetland classification and wetland field assessment. For more information on their courses or the Alberta Wetland Policy, visit www.wetlandpolicy.ca or contact Jay White at jay.white@aquality.ca. h

Photo: C. Lacombe

Photo: C. Lacombe

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Farming Smarter / fall 2017

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING February 28, 2018 | 4 – 8 pm Lethbridge Site

Farming Smarter Feast!

Limited Space – Please register farmingsmarter.com

Open Farm Days Urbanites Love Learning

F

arming Smarter opened its site to urbanites Aug. 20 by participating in Alberta Open Farm Days. This was year two and we’re building a fantastic event on the outskirts of Lethbridge. We welcomed about 200 people to the site where we made sure there were lots of things to capture their interest and create fun memories. This is our way of helping southern Alberta farmers keep in touch with the growing urban audience.

MP Rachel Harder served corn to Dr. Hector Carcamo and many, many others for us.

Photos: Morton Molyneux

The Farm Stewardship Centre brought lots of hands on things for people to explore. The water filtration tests of different substances was a hit.

Farming Smarter / fall 2017

Lots of people took advantage of the opportunity to get a close look at some of the farm equipment we had on hand for the day thanks to Shane Mann, Darren Taylor and Trevor Brady.

Shane Mann brought in a high clearance sprayer for people to check out while they were visiting us in the field.

Kelly Barany & Chelsea Hubble of ChinRidge Seeds talked about seeding crops.

They had seed that matched growing crops to show people common southern Alberta crops.

32

Directors George Clayton and Garry MacLagan worked with Dana Coles and Elizabeth Tokariuk to get the BBQ ready for the first guests.

Dan Rollingson of Earthly Matters shared how worms make nutrient rich soil while letting people feel the squiggles.

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Opinion

Make Learning a Community Affair

by C. Lacombe

I

believe that all people enjoy learning new things. Also that everyone has topics they are passionate about and will therefore work to find new information. They will look for new knowledge and read, watch or listen to glean relevant information whether that information is clear and easy to pick up or muddled and requires digging to find the new nuggets that add to their knowledge.

The other side of that coin is that if you are not seeking new knowledge on a given topic, you need an incentive to even notice it.

For instance, human behaviour fascinates me. I take note of any headline or title that implies I might learn something about people and the way minds work. I will even read books and papers written by people that know more about human behaviour than writing a clear sentence. I will work to learn what they know.

However, if you want me to understand something about football, you’re going to have to spell that out in chocolate.

I mention this because at Farming Smarter we have two equal reasons to exist. One is to do solid, unbiased agricultural research for southern Alberta crop producers. The second is to make sure they hear and understand what we learn.

Helping people get new information and adopt new ways of doing things means making it thorough for passionate learners AND inviting for mildly interested people who may benefit from what we discover through research.

This is why we refer to them as Learning Adventures; we want people to know that we plan events with all interest levels and learning styles in mind.

As we develop this method of planning and preparing our events, people will notice (and we hope welcome) that we want learning with us to be fun and easy.

We really appreciate that some of our biggest supporters also like this style of extension as illustrated by WheatStalk this year in partnership with Alberta Wheat Commission.

It’s also why Ken Coles is always asking questions of the audience when he talks. He knows that will help you remember the discussion.

We go out into the field where we challenge participants to find out what we’ve done, look at the effects on the plants, dig up a root or taste a corn cob. It’s an effort to bump memory retention from 20 per cent to 70 per cent or even 90 per cent.

Every time someone leaves a field day with a distinct memory of a fact or 10 because we made them laugh, got dirt under their nails or left a taste; we’ve done our job. And we know that if they take it that step further and do it at home, the next time the topic comes up between us, they may have something to teach us! That’s extension at its best and our ultimate goal.

While Farming Smarter will always focus on solid, unbiased research, we will also offer Learning Adventures because it is the adoption of new knowledge that will keep Alberta strong on the world stage.

Farming Smarter is a community of passionate learners. Come on the adventure with us. h

Canadian Cattle Identification Agency Takes on Goats Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) became the Responsible Administrator for Canadian National Goat Federation (CNGF) and distributor of pre-approved goat identifiers ahead of proposed livestock traceability regulations that may include goats in the livestock traceability category of ruminants.

“Identification and traceability regulatory amendments may include legislation for producers of meat, dairy and fibre goats in Canada. We expect CFIA to announce the final regulations in 2018,” affirms CCIA General Manager Anne BrunetBurgess. “We welcome goat producers to take full advantage of our complimentary, one-on-one training, templates, videos and tools.”

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

Quick Facts: • It’s free to register and identify a livestock premises with a provincial/territorial government • G oat producers can confirm or set up a CLTS database account, and order pre-regulatory indicators for voluntary application ahead of expected regulations, by contacting CCIA toll-free at 1-877-909-2333 or by email at info@canadaid.ca • L earn more about the goat traceability program by contacting CNGF toll-free at 1-888-839-4271 and visiting www.cangoats.com

Farming Smarter / fall 2017

33

Book Review

Landscapes Transformed:

The history of conservation tillage and direct seeding edited by C. Wayne Lindwall & Bernie Sonntag — available through http://www.kis.usask.ca REVIEW By C. Lacombe

T

his book is an excellent example of how you can be right smack in the middle of something and not see it for what it is — the leading edge of a global transformation.

This isn’t a book you can buy through a book store; I checked. But you can download it from the link above.

It tells the story of how the Dust Bowl years on the North American Plains brought to light a serious problem agriculture has over the entire globe.

Agriculture takes a toll on soil health.

That was in the 1930s. Now, we export Conservation Tillage (CT); birthed on prairies, nurtured by prairie agriculture leaders and supported by government and, lastly, industry.

It is a case study of how a large, geographically dispersed interest group tackled a common problem. The chapters each successively take us through the challenges of instituting a widespread change to common practice.

One of the things that really came out for me was how important it is to have ALL the play-

ers involved. Individual farmers, farmer groups, government researchers, small business and large industry all played important roles in the success of CT in Canada. It took local leaders in all those areas who became activists and catalysts for change.

If you farm on the prairie, you will recognize the names of the authors and subjects of this book.

I worked with some of them and have met more; I was smack in the middle of this and didn’t know it!

These leaders among us took on the challenges related to developing the tools to make the innovation workable for everyone else. They designed equipment, paid high costs and held their heads high while neighbours judged them harshly. They dreamed of a better way and by gar they made it happen.

The book makes it clear that supporting innovation, wherever it pokes its head up, is the only smart thing to do. In fact, we ignore innovators or crazy neighbours with wacky ideas, at our peril.

Someone has to take the risks, learn how to miti-

gate or avoid them and develop a proven method for success. Our job is to make sure we support them with robust agriculture research in all aspects — crops, machines, systems and technology.

This book is now seven years old, so doesn’t bring us completely up-to-date. However, it ends with opportunities in other countries where Canada can lead. We have a story to tell about how to encourage and support farmers all over the world to adopt a new way of doing things to ensure healthy soils and a healthier planet over all.

By the time Wayne Lindwall and Bernie Sonntag write the final chapter, Lessons Learned, no till farming becomes Conservation Agriculture. A holistic approach to growing food that supports healthy ecosystems above and below ground.

Even though the real revolution didn’t get rolling until 1984 with the release of the federal Soils at Risk report, 30-ish years later prairie farmers can take pride in leading the world toward sustainable food production.

Exclusively from Chinook Treaters®

34

Farming Smarter / fall 2017

GROWING NEW IDEAS / GROWING KNOWLEDGE / GROWING STEWARDSHIP

d Nutrition: Balanced Balanced Nutrition: N

roved Yields Key & Quality to & Improv Key to Improved Yields Quality

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UITOR

LBERTA DSM 3.8555 nepl.com

DERSON

LBERTA DSM 9.0899 nepl.com

ROB SUITOR

SOUTHEAST ALBERTA DSM 403.363.8555 www.alpinepl.com

KEITH ANDERSON

SOUTHEAST ALBERTA DSM 403.399.0899 www.alpinepl.com

ROB SUITOR

SOUTHEAST ALBERT 403.363.8555 www.alpinepl.co

KEITH ANDERS

SOUTHEAST ALBERT 403.399.0899 www.alpinepl.co

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