2024 Trials Recap

As the summer progressed, the temperature increased in July and August and the rain occurrences decreased. Cereals crops did quite well in the area, utilizing the early moisture. The canola fields also did okay, but had a few more issues due to the weather. The lower areas in the field were flooded out in the spring, but then the hilltops and lighter soils burned up during July, which decreased field averages. With the good moisture conditions in the spring, the canola did not need to develop a large rooting system as the nutrients and the moisture was close. This proved to be detrimental as the year progressed and the moisture diminished into the lower depths of the soil where the crop did not have a developed root system.

There were 5 trials in both wheat and canola this year, with an additional 3 trials in wheat. We’ll give a brief explanation and result in this article on two trials this year, but if you’d like further information on each trial, you can check them out on the Bourgault Website under the Agronomy Tab and under Trial Results.

The trials are typically seeded in the best parts of the field where we try to decrease the amount of variability within each trial. This means we stay out of the low or high spots typically, therefore we saw very good yields this year. We’ll take a look at two trials:

Seed Rate Trials

We tested 3 different seeding rates in wheat and canola:

Wheat: 20 seeds/ft2 (80 lb/acre), 30 seeds/ft2 (120 lb/acre), 40 seeds/ft2 (160 lb/acre)

Canola: 2.5 seeds/ft2 (1.2 lb/acre), 5 seed/ft2 (2.4 lb/acre), 10 seeds/ft2 (4.8 lb/acre)

Major Observations:

• Wheat decreased in yield at the higher seeding rate, and also lodged more than the lower seeding rates,
• Canola yield peaked at mid seeding rate, with a slight decrease at the highest seeding rate,
• In both canola and wheat, emergence percentage decreased as seeding rate increased.

We have seen a trend like this in canola where the lower seeding rate out yields the higher seeding rate in dryer years, but the higher seeding rate can out yield in the wet years. Wheat typically has a higher risk of lodging at the higher seeding rates. The idea for higher seeding rates in the cereals is to decrease tillers for a more consistent fungicide application, which has merit, but pushing it to lodge creates its own challenges.

This trial is important to get a base understanding of how the canola crop responded to higher or lower plant stands in general. Many factors affect plant stand like fertilizer placement and depth, so when plant stand is affected from other factors other than seeding rates, it could affect the yield. This trial isolates one variable (plant stands) and keeps all others the same.

PLDS Fertilizer Distance Trials

The ParaLink Dual Shank™ opener has the ability to move the seed away from the fertilizer knife, potentially decreasing the risk of seed burn.

We tested four different placements:

• 1" down and 1.5" to the side
• 1" down and 2" to the side
• 1" down and 2.5" to the side
• 1.5" down and 1.5" to the side

Major Observations:

• As we moved the seed away from the fertilizer band in canola, the emergence rates increased,
• There were no differences in the wheat.

Moving the fertilizer away from the seed, even ½", can increase your survivability in sensitive crops like canola. Cereal crops don’t seem to be as affected, but in lighter areas in the field like hilltops, you could see an advantage to putting higher rates of fertilizer further from the seed.

Winter Canola Trials?

We seeded winter canola this past fall to see if it will survive our winters here in St. Brieux, Saskatchewan. We looked at three variables:

• Variety: 3 different varieties tested
• Fertilizer: Fall vs Spring Nitrogen as well as Phosphorus Placement
• Stubble: Tilled vs No-Tilled

The canola got off to a great start this fall, going into winter at the 5 leaf stage, which is recommended. The challenging time for the canola is next spring during the melt as temperatures hover just above and below the freezing point. If the canola breaks dormancy and begins to grow but we receive another stretch of freezing temperature, we may not get any yield results from this trial!

Other Trials conducted at the Bourgault Agronomy Research Farm that can be viewed online:

• Nitrogen Management Trials: Looking at Side Band vs Mid Row Band vs Broadcast along with Urea vs SuperU vs ESN at nitrogen rates of 90 lb/acre and 140 lb/acre
• Opener Size (3/4" vs 2") and Seed Placed Phosphorus Trials
• TriMax Trials looking at Nitrogen and Phosphorus Placements
• Deep Banding of Phosphorus and Potash
• Soil Enhancement Product Trials

As always, feel free to reach out to the Agronomy team at Bourgault by calling the office at 306 275-2300. We’re more than happy to chat agronomy with you!

All trials are seeded with a 30’ drill and L9650 air cart. The middle 25’ by 400’ strips are swathed in canola, or straight cut in wheat, and harvested with the weights being measured via a weigh wagon. Samples are taken from every strip and canola is tested for moisture and dockage and wheat is tested for moisture, dockage and protein. All treatments are replicated three times, averaged, and stats are performed to determine if there was any significant differences in treatments.