Small-field trials on Bourgault Industries’ 2,000 acre commercial farm in northern Saskatchewan focused on canola seeding rates, and nitrogen and phosphorus placement.

WHY IT MATTERS: Trials involving seeding rates with proper nitrogen rates and placement can save agricultural producers input costs while maintaining or increasing yields and emergence efficiency.

Agronomy manager Curtis deGooijer said five years of data shows that less can equal more when it comes to overall yield, emergence efficiency and plant architecture and maturity.

DeGooijer told a recent Farming Smarter conference and trade show in Lethbridge that for singulation, rates were 10 seeds per sq. foot and then subsequently halved to five seeds and 2.5, while volumetric started at five pounds per acre and was then halved to 2.15 and 1.25.

He said yields held up even at the lowest rates, especially when conditions and fertilizer placement were managed properly. They were 49.1 bushels per acre at the lowest seeding rate and 49 bu. per acre at the highest.

Better emergence and root depth

The real differences were seen with plant architecture and emergence efficiency.

“We do a lot of emergence, not just at two leaf, but then afterwards as well. Our actual emergence rates started to decline. So simply by reducing your seeding rate, you’re getting better emergence,” said deGooijer.

Emergence dropped from 72 per cent with the lowest seeding rate to 59 per cent with the highest.

He also said lower seeding rates produced much larger plants with strong branching than the highest seeding rate. As well, yields from the lowest seeding rate were two bu. per acre more in the dry year of 2021 than the highest seeding rate.

“When I find in canola, what you see above ground is a pretty good indicator of what’s below ground,” he said.

“The root system underneath is a bit larger underneath. So a dry year, less plants seems to do better because of a bigger root system on it. Those plants, they can dive down there, get that moisture, get those nutrients.”

Environmental and placement factors

In wet years, he added, yields and emergence increased i.e. approximately five bu. per acre with the higher seeding rate.

The stalk stands were examined after harvest, showing that production was higher with lower numbers of plants.

“You had more plants starting to compete with each other a little bit. They didn’t really produce a whole lot of grain,” he said.

“The less plants we had, the lower seeding rate, the less unproductive plants we had as well. The dry years, lower plant stem does better, and the wet years, the higher plant stem does better.”

DeGooijer said this information could help farmers manage high spots that are drier with lighter soil and lower wet spots where moisture pools instead of practicing a one-size fits all seeding rate.

“In a dry area, maybe I do want less plants. I want bigger plants to really tap down into those hilltops. I want less plants up there to drive those roots down, and bigger rooting system.”

He emphasized the potential of combining lower seeding rates with proper nitrogen rates and placement.

A nine-year nitrogen placement trial with canola showed a 17 per cent reduction in emergence with mid-row placement compared to side-banding, while yields remained consistent, hovering around 55 bu. per acre.

Phosphorus placement trials highlighted the importance of side-banding for better crop health.

DeGooijer emphasized the impact of fertilizer placement on plant stands and yield, suggesting tailored seeding rate strategies based on local conditions.

Managing maturity and weeds

“Put them together, that gives you your plant stand. Plant stand is what is going to control the next things, your maturity with flowering, timing and frost,” he said.

“You get a year with plus-35 weather in the first week of July. If you have a low plant stand that didn’t go into flowering yet, it misses that heat blast area and starts to flower a little bit later. That is going to be beneficial in having a later maturity big time. In the same sense, you get an early frost at the end of August, you got this low plant stand and later maturity, that’s going to hurt you on the back end.”

He said seeding rates must also be considered when managing weeds.

“Weed competition, if you are going to go to a lower plant stand, you might have to spray twice. If you want to only spray once, that’s where you have to consider having a higher plant stand because that comes into canopy closure.”

The post Lower canola seeding rates can pay off: study appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

For Greg Stamp, he is hoping an early drop brings bountiful crops.

The Enchant, Alta., farmer seeded some spring wheat (AAC Oakman VB/AAC Westking) and durum (AAC Frontier) on Jan. 12 in a demo plot, mimicking research by Dr. Brian Beres on ultra-early seeding.

WHY IT MATTERS: With warmer southern Alberta weather, earlier seeding for spring wheat and durum opens up all sorts of possibilities for farmers with research to back it up.

Beres conducted a four-year study that involved ultra-early seeding dates with hard red spring wheat on dryland sites in several locations across Western Canada, including Dawson Creek, B.C., Edmonton and Lethbridge, Alta., and Scott, Indian Head and Swift Current, Sask.

The overall conclusion was ultra-early seeding produced as good as, or in several cases, higher yields than crops seeded during the more traditional April/May seeding times. Seeding dates in the past have been more arbitrary, determined more by crop insurance deadlines than actual scientific research on sweet spots of seeding timing.

“The idea here is to treat the field like it’s a winter wheat crop. So we’ve got fall rye, trits, and winter wheat right beside it. Then we’re going to go in February and March again if we get a Chinook and the soil temperature warms up. Then we’re going to plant our normal spring demos in late April, beside all these as well.”

As a dryland farmer, the goal is to take advantage as much as possible of early moisture, and beating the heat for flowering and maximizing disease control. Stamp was aiming for 1 C at one inch in his planting. Stamp used a Crop Intelligence weather station with temperature and moisture probes to see how the seeding is faring.

The early-seeding practice is the exception, not the norm in southern Alberta, with other producers like Alison Davie at North Paddock Farms in Taber dabbling in it as well, according to Stamp.

“I think there’s value. I love this kind of research because it’s so practical to farmers. It’s not a typical practice, but I think long term, there’s going to be more people doing this,” said Stamp.

The initial hesitation by some farmers Stamp admits is the logistics of the practice. Putting a drill in the ground in January, people are at staff meetings or on holidays, and equipment may be in the shop getting repaired. Another challenge is weed control.

Pre-planning has to be done in September-October, with spraying your field or laying down a residual herbicide. In essence, treating it like a winter crop. Wheat and durum varieties developed in Western Canada have adapted for cold tolerance, battling abiotic stress in more frigid temperatures.

“Even with seed, we need to have the varieties that the person is going to want to plant cleaned and ready to go, so they can buy seed at that point too,” said Stamp, adding he is targeting a high plant stand at 40 plants per square foot.

“There some work being done on what varieties are better. How does vigor impact this? Some of those things are unknowns at this point that we are assessing.”

Ultra-early seeding takes a shift in traditional mindsets with the practice, but it all comes down to the bottom line if the practice is to be continued.

“If there is money to be made or risks to be reduced, then I think there’s an opportunity there,” said Stamp.

Stamp is doing a field day in June with hopes Dr. Beres will speak on his ultra-seeding research.

The post From winter soil to bountiful crops: Alberta’s ultra-early seeding experiment appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

So far, 85 per cent of projected acres were planted by Manitoba farmers, well above the 57 per cent reported the week before. One year ago, 64 per cent of acres were planted, while the five-year average was 69 per cent.

Most places received very little precipitation over the past week. However, Snowflake and Cypress River in the Central region saw 21.8 millimetres of rain, while Glenboro in southwest Manitoba had 18.5 mm.

Seasonal accumulations of precipitation were near-normal in most areas, but eastern Manitoba and eastern parts of the Interlake have seen less than 60 per cent of historical seasonal totals. On the other hand, the Southwest and parts of the Central region received approximately 150 per cent.

Spring wheat seeding in Manitoba is near complete with the earliest seeded fields now in the three-leaf to one-tiller stages. Grain and silage corn were 98 per cent and 94 per cent seeded, respectively, with most fields emerged and minor frost damage. Oats and barley were 89 per cent seeded, while winter wheat and fall rye are growing well.

The majority of canola acres were planted over the past week and stood at 76 per cent planted. Sunflowers were 83 per cent planted, while flax was 54 per cent planted.

Many soybeans began to emerge last week while 76 per cent of acres were planted. So far, 28 per cent of dry beans were planted, including 45 per cent in the Central region.

Field pea seeding is complete with most fields emerged and the earliest seeded plants in the two- to three-node stage.

Most corn intended for silage and grazing were seeded with cereal silage seeding still underway. Alfalfa fields are growing more than grass due to the former’s roots accessing more subsoil moisture. Meanwhile, forages stand to benefit from additional rainfall. However, pastures have been affected by wildfires in the southeast corner of the province.

Cattle are being turned out to summer pastures, but some are waiting another week or two to ensure sufficient growth. Dugouts are in good condition considering the widespread dryness. However, lower water levels for livestock were found in Swan River and The Pas.

The post Manitoba Crop Report: Dry conditions speed up planting appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Shawn Madsen, operations manager for Southland Pulse Inc. located northwest of the city, said the precipitation came right before growers brought their planters out into the fields. He rated the soil conditions as “pretty good”.

“For seeding, (it was) probably perfect conditions,” Madsen added. “But we need the rain again. We’re getting to that point where it’s getting pretty dry and we’ll see if there’s something in the forecast.”

He also said seeding has progressed to the point where some local growers will be finished their seeding in a matter of days. However, the story is different in other areas.

“Probably 100 kilometres to the north … northwest, northeast, I would say that number significantly dips down to around 50 per cent and less,” Madsen added.

He expects there to be slightly more pulse acres seeded this year. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, in its April estimates, projected 3.516 million dry pea acres in Canada to be planted, compared to 3.212 million in 2024. However, AAFC also estimated small declines for lentil, chickpea and dry bean acres.

Pea markets have shown some price movement. Delivered bids for green peas in the Prairies ranged from C$14.50 to C$17 per bushel as of May 12, up 50 cents on the high end from the previous week, according to Prairie Ag Hotwire. Yellow peas were C$9.35 to C$10.25/bu., down 50 cents.

Despite this, activity has been quiet.

“(Market volatility has) gotten buyers kind of spooked to put something on paper. Farmers have just been busy planting and they are putting marketing on hold right now,” Madsen explained. “Farmers will probably take a look at what they have left and maybe start to market those last few bushels.”

On May 8, Statistics Canada reported that as of March 31, the country had 1.356 million tonnes of peas in stock, 947,000 on farm and 409,000 in commercial stocks. The figure is up from 955,000 tonnes in total (726,000 on farm and 229,000 commercial) in 2024.

The post Pulse Weekly: Saskatchewan pea plantings progress appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

But as MarketsFarm analyst Bruce Burnett says in a recent Alberta Farmer Express article, “It’s not like there’s a magic commodity that you can switch to that would be instantly profitable if you’re trying to replace your canola acreage.”

The best option for canola producers may be to apply agronomy practices that can improve profits for little to no added cost, says the Canola Council of Canada (CCC), which earlier this spring posted the article, “9 agronomy tips to help increase canola profit” on its website.

Of those tips, the following featured:

Know the appropriate target plant stand

The “five to eight plants per square foot” rule has been a plant stand recommendation for canola for about as long as canola has existed.

Some recommend targeting the lower end of that range when seed costs are high and the crop selling price and yield are low. However, it’s essential to not go too low, the council says. Plant populations lower than five per square foot can compromise yield. Also, thin stands are more vulnerable to flea beetles and weed competition.

Target uniform seed emergence

Prioritizing a uniform plant population, in both the field and crop staging, can get a high-yielding crop off to a good start.

There are many ways to achieve this, but a few prominent methods include seeding into warmer soils, being mindful of proper seeding depth, leveling the drill and limiting seed-placed fertilizer. Keeping seeding tools well-maintained and slowing down when seeding also help.

Ideally, producers should seed into soil temperatures of 5 C or higher, particularly if there’s a good chance of warmer weather in the forecast. This should create “reasonably” good rates of seed survival and emergence, Jason Casselman, a CCC agronomy specialist at Fairview, Alta., said via email.

Seeding at one- to one-and-a-half inches below the packer furrow is the recommended seed depth for canola. This can reduce days to emergence as well as the seed energy necessary to emerge, he says. A depth of one inch is also the recommended start point in dry soils.

Leveling a seed drill calls for knowledge of the tool’s seeding depth range. For example, the overall seed depth average of a given drill may be one inch but the range could be zero to two inches.

“The result can be highly variable emergence date, reduced seed survival and an uneven field,” Casselman says.

“Follow the operator’s manuals to level the drill, check that openers are in good shape and inflate tires to the same pressure.”

Be mindful of how much fertilizer you’re placing in the seed row, he adds, as seed-placed fertilizer can increase seedling mortality. Limit seed-placed fertilizer to phosphate fertilizer at rates of up to 20 lbs./ac.

Choose seed with disease resistance

If you have fields with yield-robbing levels of blackleg, be sure to use blackleg-resistant canola varieties that match the blackleg races in that field. The council website can help producers find labs that test stubble for race, and also features a list identifying cultivars with blackleg-resistant genes.

Clubroot-resistant cultivars and higher sclerotinia stem rot tolerance can help reduce yield loss with relatively little additional cost, the CCC says. But resistant cultivars aren’t the only tool in this particular toolbox: starting off with more plants per square foot and an improved seed treatment may offset some need to spray.

Manage flea beetles with plant density

Much the same can be said for flea beetle management. If you’re planning one or more flea beetle sprays, target a higher number of plants per square foot. That, plus an improved seed treatment, may also offset the need to spray.

Meet crop needs for fertilizer

Generally speaking, you don’t want to cut fertilizer rates. While doing so may reduce upfront costs, the chances of improved profitability at season’s end are remote.

“Fertilizing for a 50 bu./ac. target yield is usually more profitable than fertilizing for a 40 bu./ac. target yield, as long as weather allows crops to get close to those targets,” the council says.

Casselman again recommends limiting seed-placed fertilizer to minimize seedling damage. For soils with low to medium phosphorus levels, he suggests placing a starter rate in the seed row (15-20 lbs. of phosphorus pentoxide, the equivalent of around 30 to 40 lbs./ac. of monoammonium phosphate (MAP)).

“Soil tests will often recommend a higher rate of phosphorus for canola, so the balance is best added into the fertilizer blend placed outside the seed row,” he says.

The risk of seed-placed fertilizer comes from the nitrogen component of ammonium phosphate, ammonium sulphate and all nitrogen fertilizers, he says.

“Ammonia can damage seedlings through direct toxicity while nitrate will damage seedlings by desiccation through the salt effect.

“These salts, when dissolved in soil water, have an osmotic effect that can hold back moisture from germinating seeds and seedlings. When soil moisture is lacking, this effect is worse for seed and seedlings.”

Potassium should stay out of the seed row because of its high salt index. The same goes for sulphur, which can damage seedlings when in close proximity.

“Canola has a much lower tolerance to seed-placed potassium than cereals, and stands can be reduced if seed-placed potassium rates exceed safe rates, especially with drills that have low seedbed utilization,” says Casselman.

It’s best to apply fertilizer at time of seeding. Doing so tends to avoid the kind of losses associated with fall application. It also eliminates the need for an in-crop top dress.

Control weeds early

Farmers are all too familiar with the dangers of weeds, but they should know canola’s yield potential is more vulnerable to early weed competition than most grains. That’s why early weed control is paramount.

“If a farmer budgets for two sprays, early applications cost the same as late applications, but early applications can increase yield and profit,” the council says.

“For perennials and winter annuals that have overwintered and for competitive annuals like kochia, a pre-seed tank-mixed burn-off is often the most economical first application.”

Cut when all seeds are firm to roll

Canola achieves optimum seed yield and quality when swathed at 60 per cent seed colour change (SCC) or later, the CCC says.

To estimate the SCC in your field, Casselman recommends taking a plant and dividing the main stem into thirds and then inspecting the stems from each third. At 60 per cent SCC, seeds from the top third of the main stem will still be green but firm to roll.

“Seeds from the middle third will be mostly brown, with some speckling and mottling. Seeds from the bottom third, the most mature, will have completely turned brown‑black in colour.”

The canola council set the 60 per cent target based on a multi-location study from the early 2000s, It found canola swathed at 50 to 60 per cent SCC on the main stem yielded at least eight per cent more than fields swathed at 30 to 40 per cent SCC. Canola swathed at 60 to 70 per cent SCC yielded 11 per cent more than fields swathed at 30 to 40 per cent.

Minimize combine loss

Harvest losses out of the back of a combine are not negligible. In fact, these losses can exceed 10 per cent of yield in challenging harvest conditions or when going too fast with a poorly-set combine.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure” applies here and in this case, management requires a drop pan, the CCC says.

“The right settings will require some trial and error, especially when learning the ropes with a new combine. Growers can reduce losses to one or two per cent with attention to detail and adjustment to changing harvest conditions.”

Rotate crops to improve yield

Generally, two- to three-year breaks between canola crops is considered enough to reduce crop disease severity, select for weed resistance and increase yield. Adding a third crop to a wheat-canola rotation isn’t easy, but the long-term benefits of doing so can improve canola profitability.

More specifically, a one-year break between canola crops can reduce carryover of blackleg fungus onto canola stubble, says Casselman. However, it takes a break of at least two full years (a one-in-three rotation) to reduce disease severity and yield loss risk.

A three-year break (a one-in-four rotation) for all intents and purposes eliminates yield loss risk from blackleg.

For clubroot, growing resistant hybrids is an effective tool when combined with a minimum two-year break between canola crops, Casselman says.

Evidence from three rotation studies in Canada — two at Normandin in Quebec’s Saguenay region and one in Alberta — indicates two years between host crops (one-in-three rotation) is the minimum rotation to manage clubroot spores in a field, he notes.

“Thomas Ernst, who did the Alberta study, observed an eight- to 20-fold drop in resting spore concentrations with a two-year break after growing clubroot-resistant canola. With a one-year break, Ernst found that resting spore numbers never dropped enough to provide any reduction in risk.”

According to Casselman, University of Saskatchewan professor Christian Willenborg, a weed scientist, declared volunteer canola the major weed associated with continuous canola cultivation. Volunteer canola covers a gamut of risk, from yield reduction to unwanted crop competition to higher disease build.

“They can also reduce harvest quality if volunteers mature later and increase green seed counts,” Casselman says.

Some tips for reducing volunteer canola include short breaks between canola crops, rotation of herbicide tolerance systems and using pre-seed and fall herbicide timing on top of in-crop applications.

“Rotation with other crops provides expanded options to rotate among herbicide groups. Winter cereals or perennial legumes can be part of a system of integrated weed management,” he says.

The post Good agronomy urged under uncertain canola market appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

On April 22, Trump seemed willing to reverse his actions on China, saying that tariffs on imports will be cut substantially — but not entirely — with a new trade deal.

Terry Reilly, senior agricultural specialist at Marex in Chicago, said Trump’s comments eased pressure off of soybean prices, but not so much for soymeal and soyoil.

“Products remain on the defensive, which is limiting rallies in (the soy) market,” Reilly said. “Volatility will always remain when you’re in a headline-trading environment … The fundamentals haven’t changed all that much. We’re just watching these outside commodity markets, which should continue to influence grain and oilseed markets.”

However, he added that the trade is looking more closely at the rapid pace of plantings for corn, soybeans and spring wheat. The USDA reported, as of April 20, 12 per cent of the U.S. corn crop, eight per cent of the soybean crop and 17 per cent of the spring wheat crop were planted. The figures are two, three and five points above their five-year averages, respectively.

Reilly said corn’s planting pace was “impressive” due to the larger amount of corn acres to be planted this year compared to 2024. He added that wheat export demand is slow, but tighter global supply as well as dry conditions in the Black Sea and the U.S. could give prices a boost.

Soybeans are also on track to be planted “in a timely manner” after corn plantings and, in some cases, during.

“When you get cool temperatures in a good window in April, (farmers) will grow soybeans as well,” Reilly explained. “That might be weighing on new crop prices relative to old crop. Old crop supplies are going to tighten up if we continue to see these producers sell. I think beans are going to be a little bit hard to find in the summer months if crush margins are as strong as they are right now.”

He expects corn and soybean prices to stay put in the short-term, with wheat prices moving upward.

The post CBOT Weekly: Planting pace outweighs Trump comments appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

It’s been proven time and time again that, barring unforeseen challenges, the more seeds planted, the more crop harvested.

But those aren’t the results the Alberta Grains Plot2Farm program has seen in its field-scale trials on spring wheat.

Four years of field trials have consistently shown that increasing seeding rates for wheat had little impact on yield and quality. It’s frustrating for agronomist Jeremy Boychyn, who knows that’s not been the case in small plot scenarios.

“Seeding rate trials specifically are not showing significant differences on a field scale,” he said.

“Historical seeding rate trials demonstrate that increasing seeding rates reliably increases yield, yield stability and other beneficial agronomic considerations.

“This does not expand to all small plot research as that information has not been investigated.”

But whatever you do, don’t seed less, said Boychyn, director of agronomy and extension for Alberta Grains at the organization’s regional meeting in Morinville.

High seeding rates introduce more competition into the underground survival-of-the-fittest contest where seeds compete with each other. Those most likely to grow into plants come out on top, he said.

“It seems counterintuitive, but the more seeds you put in that seed row, you’re creating that intra-plant competition, so whichever’s the strongest, the best, the highest yield potential in those tough conditions is going to beat out the other ones. So what you’re left with is the best of the best.

“And you can really only get there by creating that competition by increasing the seeding rates in those seed rows and creating that plant competition.”

That said, the trend has hampered the goals of this particular project, said Boychyn.

“It would be nice to expand the range of seeding rates we’re working with. Where do we start to see that drop? What do those plant stands look like? Because if I’m not seeing differences there, the question in my mind is are we seeding higher than the maximum potential already?” 

Plot2Farm is a field-scale research program in which farmers themselves conduct on-farm trials with the assistance of Alberta Grains staff, who ensure proper research protocols are employed.

The trials are randomized and replicated, said Boychyn.

“What I mean by that is, if we’re looking at three different seeding rates, we’re implementing those three different seeding rates four times across the field so we are getting multiple data points on the same question. It’s randomized in that the order in which we put those treatments changes in each replication.

“So we have very strong data to work with when we come back and share that data with you.”

The trial Boychyn reported on — increasing seeding rates on spring wheat — took place near Claresholm in 2023 using the popular spring wheat variety AAC Brandon.

Treatments were seeded at 80, 96 and 110 pounds per acre with a 30 gram per thousand kernel weight, a 98 per cent germination rate and an assumed mortality of six to seven per cent.

In other words, the seeding rates to target 25, 30 and 35 plants per square foot were 27.1, 32.6, and 38 seeds per square foot, respectively.

Yield was not “statistically significant” among the three targeted plant stands. Twenty-five plants per square foot yielded 37.7 bushels per acre (bpa), 30 drove 38.5 bpa and the 35 target resulted in a yield of 38.1 bpa.

The plant stands themselves met the statistically significant benchmark, albeit coming short of expectations. The targeted plant stands of 25, 30 and 35 plants per acre resulted in 20.4, 24.8 and 29.3 plants per acre respectively –- 80 per cent of the target.

“We were about five plants short per treatment and that has to do with the poor seeding and germination conditions of the trial,” said Boychyn.

“However, we still got significant differences between treatments. There was still about five plants per square foot gap between treatments.”

Two other metrics — protein percentage (a measurement of wheat quality) and test weight (a measurement of density) — also produced statistically insignificant results.

Only 5.3 inches of rain were recorded between May and August inclusive, but moisture shortage doesn’t tell the whole story.

Boychyn pointed to a pre-drought field-scale trial that also revealed few differences between seeding rate treatments in spite of much better moisture conditions.

“We did do one spring wheat trial and one barley trial in 2020 in Carstairs with around 11, 12, 13 inches of rainfall, give or take, with 10 per cent organic matter. And still nothing.”

An attendee asked Boychyn if weeds were the problem. He didn’t think so.

“That’s one of the reasons to get higher seeding rates: to provide some extra competition for weeds. To my understanding, this was a relatively weed-free field.”

The post Field-scale trials present seeding and yield mystery in wheat appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.