2020 is Complete

by Shelleen Gerbig, BSA, P.Ag., Extension Coordinator, SARDA AG Research

The year 2020 has been unforgettable. In March, the country was on lock-down due to COVID-19. It was uncertain if SARDA Ag Research would be included as an essential service and continue to operate in the summer. It also became apparent that even if SARDA Ag Research operated, changes would have to be made to meet the new safety precautions, including measures such as the social distancing requirements. As the spring advanced, there was some positive news: the agriculture industry was declared essential, including research.

Social distancing requirements encouraged SARDA Ag Research to find sites for its trials close to home base, allowing staff to travel with more vehicles, go shorter distances and while adhering to social distance. Covid aside, as expected every year, our research was at the mercy of the weather. The season started well with an average seeding time into optimum soil moisture, followed by phenomenal emergence. Everything looked perfect. Then the rains hit. Many of the plots were saturated, and crops suffered from excess moisture. Some of the plots were removed from the trials as SARDA Ag Research tried to protect the research’s integrity. However, it becomes a challenge to know which plots would recover and which would not. Often these types of challenges lead to high variability in the results when statistically analyzed.

Please see the full article to see the trials entered into the SARDA Ag Research 2020 program. A final report will be produced following the last year of the trial.