SEEDBED
By Keith Reid
Making the most of manure
Manure is a fact of life for anyone who raises livestock, but there is a wide range of opinion about the stuff. Some feel it's a necessary evil, while others consider it a valuable resource. The difference isn't in the manure, but in the way it's handled.As anyone who has fed livestock knows, much of what goes in the front end comes out the back. Careful management can help to recycle most of these nutrients back to the crop, while capturing the added benefits of the organic matter in the manure.
Even application
Picture this: The spreader truck arrives from the local
fertilizer dealer,
but the spread pattern is obviously uneven. Plus, some parts of
the field
get double application while other parts get none, and to top it
off the
fertilizer comes out faster at the start of the load than near
the end.
Would you be happy with this shabby treatment? Yet this is
exactly the way
most manure is applied.
Taking care to apply manure evenly is the first step in making good use of the nutrients. Real progress is being made in liquid manure application with the introduction of boom spreaders. These will make an even application over a 30-foot spreading width, and will allow application into corners that often get missed with conventional spreaders. They also get around two problems associated with conventional liquid spreaders: uneven spread pattern and wind distortion. The only drawback appears to be with "thick" liquids, which may not flow through the hoses.
Even application of solid manure is trickier, although newer spreaders appear to do a better job. With any solid manure spreader, the proper overlap will be key to even application, since the spread pattern is inevitably heavier in the centre than at the outside edges.
In the future, setbacks from watercourses or wells will become increasingly important. I can foresee a time when GPS is integrated with a controller for the manure spreader, so the setbacks on the field map are maintained automatically. Further, this information will be used by the variable-rate fertilizer spreader to "top up" the areas that did not receive the full rate of manure.
Timing
Every hour is precious at planting time, because yield is lost if
the seed
isn't in the ground soon enough. But to get the best use of the
nitrogen in
manure, it should be applied in the spring, and this leads to a
conflict
between planting and manure spreading. Unfortunately, the
solution to this
conflict is to spread manure before the ground is dry enough. The
result is
severe soil compaction.
Soil compaction occurs when equipment heavy enough to deform the soil and squeeze shut the pores passes over the field. This occurs more easily in a moist soil than a dry soil, because the water acts as a lubricant, allowing the soil particles to slide past each other. A manure spreader is an excellent compactor, because it is often the heaviest piece of equipment on the farm.
To avoid compaction, you have to wait until the soil is dry enough to support the weight of the spreader. No-till has an advantage here, since a no-till soil will support more weight than a tilled soil. Tandem axles or tracks on the spreader help to reduce the downward pressure, although you have to watch the temptation to get on the field even sooner, just because you can, instead of using the equipment the way you should. Long term, you may have to find opportunities to apply manure to standing crops or on stubble, rather than depending solely on a pre-plant application window.
Incorporation
Much of manure's nitrogen can be lost to the air if the manure is
left
sitting on top of the ground. In addition, the phosphorus and
potash in the
manure is subject to loss with surface runoff. Working the manure
into the
ground can avoid most, if not all, of these problems.
The ideal system would be to inject the manure into the soil at the time of application. Unfortunately, injectors have not always been able to handle liquid manure without plugging, and adding injectors to a tanker increases the size of tractor required to drag it around the field.
Fortunately, almost any kind of tillage will reduce the loss of nutrients (and odour) from manure. The key is to get the job done quickly, within 24 hours of application, so the soil can trap the nutrients and hold them.
Use a starter
One of the drawbacks to manure is that much of the nutrients can
be tied
up in organic form. These are not immediately available to the
crop,
especially in a cool spring when mineralization in slowed.
Including a
starter fertilizer in your program will keep the crop going until
the
weather warms up and mineralization kicks in. This way you can
capitalize
on the advantages of both manure and mineral fertilizers.
Keith Reid is OMAFRA fertility specialist, Walkerton
kreid@omafra.gov.on.ca
back to March 1, 1999 Issue
Answers for Quantum questions
Is it high-value milling wheat? Or is it ordinary feed? At last, Quantum wheat has given up its secret. It all depends on harvest timing and August weather.Quantum is a hard red spring wheat that has earned rave reviews for its yield. Long-term tests put its output at 25 per cent better than traditional hard red springs such as Celtic and Teal.
Unfortunately, it has a split personality when it comes to quality. Of the 30,000 tonnes that have been delivered to the wheat board from the 1998 harvest, only 875 tonnes have been sold to flour mills, reports Jim Whitelaw, board marketing manager.
That's despite the fact that the wheat board has sliced $20 a tonne off the Quantum price. Mid-February, for instance, millers had to pay $199.45 per tonne to buy Celtic and Roblin at country elevators. They could buy Quantum for $179.45.
C&M Seeds, which sells Quantum, has been able to shed some light on the variety's peculiar behaviour. When farmers delivered Quantum to their Palmerston elevator last summer, they tested the shipments for falling number - a test that's similar to test weight and a key indicator of milling quality.
C&M segregated the deliveries based on falling number. In most cases, Quantum harvested before rains came at the end of the first week of harvest gave good falling number scores. Quantum that was weathered was disappointing.
The weathered Quantum has been sold for feed, but C&M is holding 7,000 tonnes of high falling number Quantum, all of it committed for delivery to millers.
"We've been on a learning curve," says John McLaughlin, partner at C&M. "What we've found out is you have to have your finger on the trigger when it's ready to harvest."
Whitelaw predicts the 1998 Quantum pool will close at about $130 per tonne, compared to $155 for Celtic and Roblin, $140 for Fundulea hard red winter, $130 for soft white, and $125 for soft red.
Whitelaw recommends working out the per acre economics of Quantum versus other spring cereals, especially barley.
Jeff Reid, marketing manager for C&M Seeds, is also telling growers to use a sharp pencil. Roblin and Celtic spring wheats may fetch a higher price, but that must be balanced against lower yields. If traditional spring wheat earns 15 per cent more, but yields 25 per cent less, the comparison depends on local yield expectations.
Whitelaw believes growers should look at Quantum as a feed wheat:
"If
you're planning on a feed price and it ends up being able to go
for
milling, that's a very nice bonus." - Tom Button
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Ever considered white beans?
Though acreage has plummeted in recent years, the crop has the
potential
to produce better returns than corn or soys in 1999
BY TOM BUTTON
There's a tough business decision facing Ontario cash croppers this spring. Is it smart to plant white beans in 1999?From one perspective, it may look doubtful. Ontario's acreage has plummeted. (See Fewer acres). North America's bean production has shifted to Minnesota, North Dakota and, most recently, to Manitoba, which may see a 50,000-acre jump in plantings this spring.
Plus, the Ontario board and dealers are embroiled in heady talks that threaten to break out in public confrontation over whether the board should relax its grip over the way beans are sold.
At the same time, however, the white bean crop has potential to outscore corn and soybeans for net per acre revenue in 1999.
Growers who like to keep their long-term options open may worry that without a sizable 1999 Ontario crop, the province may become a bit player in the world edible bean industry, picking up the occasional crumbs that others leave behind instead of sitting at the table with the industry leaders.
Perhaps the best way to start answering that question is to look at agronomics and yield potential, says Brian Hall, OMAFRA crops specialist based at Clinton.
Long-term Ontario yields hover near 14 cwt bags per acre. Individual yields in any given year, however, range from lows of eight and nine bags to highs of 20 bags and more.
In trials conducted by the provincial bean testing committee, top mid-season varieties such as OAC Laser and Vista are routinely producing 25 bags per acre. Full-season yields with varieties such as Avanti and Schooner are topping 30 bags.
With white beans in the $28 per bag range, the difference between the farm average of 15 bags and the trial average of 25 bags is $280 an acre, or a whopping $14,000 over a 50-acre field.
Growers may not be able to capture the small-plot results in their field-scale crops, Hall says. The small plots don't have headlands, for instance, or wet hollows or pockets where the weed control breaks down.
But even a difference of four bags per acre has an impact of more than $100 on the bottom line, or $5,000 across 50 acres.
Looked at another way, a bag of white beans is roughly equal to 3.5 bushels of soybeans. So a yield difference of four bags per acre in white beans is equivalent to a 16-bushel differential in soybeans.
Hall recommends focusing on fields with high white bean yield potential. In particular, since white beans have poor root systems, farmers who have compacted soils or poor drainage may be better off sticking with corn and soys.
While every crop likes good soil conditions, growers with top-quality conditions, however, may want to take a hard look at whites, Hall says. Farmers with a field coming out of alfalfa or other forage sod may have an ideal opportunity to earn extra cash with white beans. Soys would do well in that field. So would corn. But white beans could be exceptional.
Rob Templeman, OMAFRA bean specialist at Stratford, says current prices make white beans worth considering. He adds that white beans have more upside potential than other crops if there are weather problems in major production areas.
"A good bean crop has often paid down mortgages or paid for farmstead renovations - even for a much needed holiday," Templeman says.
It may be unrealistic to expect the kind of price swings that in the past would see bean prices jump from $18 a bag one year to $35 a bag the next, but that can also be viewed as good news. The pendulum doesn't swing as wildly because new varieties and production systems such as direct combining are more dependable.
Marty Huzevka, manager of the provincial bean marketing board, says Ontario has a market potential for more than 100,000 acres of white beans. Initial expectations, however, are that the 1999 crop will hit 50,000 acres, up from last year's record low 34,000 acres.
"A lot depends on soybean prices," Huzevka says. "If soybean prices get back in the $9 range, it's a no-brainer - there isn't going to be a lot of interest in white beans.
"If soys are at $7.50 and white beans are at $28, there is potential for us to pick up acreage."
The outcome of an early March meeting between the board and dealers may also affect acreage, although it's unclear exactly how. The board originally approved 150,000 bags for its partial production contract (PPC) system, which lets growers sell five bags per acre for cash instead of through the board pool.
Mid-January, board delegates voted against expanding the PPC offering, saying the pool would be jeopardized if the board loses its control over crop marketing. Dealers, meanwhile, say they have waiting lists of growers ready to grow white beans if they can get PPC contracts.
Huzevka says markets could be tight through 1999. Carry-in to the 1998 crop year, which started last Sept. 1, was 575,000 bags, less than one-third of year-earlier levels. North American production in 1998 was 5.2 million bags, compared to demand of about 6.75 million bags.
Outlook for 1999 will depend on acreage in Ontario, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota and the Canadian prairies. Ontario may have an inside track, however, since growers here have earned a reputation for delivering world-class quality, and since the industry has state-of-the-art sorting equipment to enhance that quality even further.
Ontario also has solid relations with U.K. buyers who are interested in keeping the province as a bean source so they won't be locked in to Michigan or any other single region.
The biggest threat comes from Manitoba, where farmers planted
35,000 acres
in 1997, 50,000 acres in 1998, and may plant 100,000 acres in
1999, Hall
says. "If you're thinking of growing white beans, you should be
lining up
your seed supply," Hall adds. "A lot of the seed that was meant
for Ontario
has already been shipped out west."
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Custom costs rise with Roundup
BY TOM BUTTON
Be ready to shell out a couple of extra bucks an acre to get your Roundup Ready soybeans sprayed by a custom applicator this summer. Most custom operators charge a base $7 an acre for spraying conventional weed killers. For Roundup Ready, they're charging $9.50.The careful approach by custom applicators may also be a word to the wise for growers who plan to spray their own Roundup Ready crops: Make sure you know exactly where to spray, when to spray, and how to prevent drift.
Growers who want to hire out their Roundup spraying can expect to be asked to draw field maps or else post their GPS coordinates. They may also be told to set out field flags - even that they must be present at the field when the spray rig arrives.
In part, the extra rigmarole and cost are because Roundup is non-selective. If you spray Pursuit on the wrong soybean field this spring, you'll still get a crop. Spray Roundup on soybeans that don't have the Roundup Ready gene, and that's it for 1999. Custom applicators are nervously eyeing the prospect of lawsuits if they spray the wrong field.
The Roundup system is also more complicated for custom applicators, adds Harry Vanden Broek, crop protection manager for W. G. Thompsons. "When we go from a Roundup Ready to a non-GMO field, we have to make sure the equipment is carefully cleaned out," Vanden Broek says. "You can't have any Roundup left over in the lines when you start spraying."
Plus, if the Roundup Ready crop is planted beside sensitive crops, custom applicators may insist on spraying a buffer strip with conventional herbicides. That means they would do a round, then stop and switch materials before doing the bulk of the field.
Ron Taylor, Roundup Ready specialist for Monsanto, says Ontario soybean growers planted 100,000 acres of Roundup Ready soys last spring. For 1999, they'll plant close to 500,000 acres, roughly a quarter of the provincial crop.
Taylor cites surveys showing that 95 per cent of growers who tried Roundup Ready last year say they'll use the system again this spring. On average, growers who tried Roundup Ready say they'll double their acreage.
Taylor expects 20 to 25 per cent of the crop to be sprayed by custom applicators. Reasons range from timeliness to the fact that custom applicators have bigger, better rigs that do less tramping and can provide better drift control.
Cargill is charging an extra $2.50 to $3 an acre for custom spraying Roundup, says Pat Lynch, company agronomist. In most cases, Cargill wants to send out scouting crews to meet with the farmer and get GPS coordinates. Once they have the satellite points, the company won't insist the farmer be present at spraying.
Cargill will, however, insist on scouting most fields to determine optimum spray timing. Lynch says the goal is to ensure as many weeds are emerged as possible without letting broadleaf weeds grow past their most sensitive stages. "It's a balancing act," Lynch says. "If you don't want to spray twice, you have to do a good job of putting the first application down at the right time."
And, he adds, "Everybody should probably start getting used to it....We can't provide the extra service for free."
"It isn't just Roundup Ready," Taylor says. "It's all
herbicide-tolerant
crops. They're all going to need careful management."
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