WESTLOCK – Veteran farmers, prospective food engineers and curious academics joined the Gateway Research Organization (GRO) on July 28 for a free lunch and to learn about some of the research projects that they have happening on site.
Participants toured the Jubilee Feedlot site, which features their Regional Variety Trials and the Lakeland College Pulse Variety Trials. Then the group headed to the Nanninga site for canola variety testing and humic acid trials.
These various research projects work to help farmers make the best decisions when it comes to the crops they plant and the fertilizer they use.
Varieties of crops and Canola
The GRO is currently working on various research projects, two of which test the growability environment of various crops.
The first stop on the tour was at the peas and faba beans plots. Each plot has roughly 88 plants per square metre, with each plot growing different varieties of the plant. These trials are a part of the province's registered variety trials that involve several organizations across Alberta.
GRO manager Andria Carlyon said that all the data collected goes into the Alberta Seed Guide. “So that it’s like cumulative data from multiple locations across the province and producers can use that to make decisions on what varieties they would like to grow on their farm and which ones are not available anymore.”
Much of the local farming community will see these trials as a way to make informed decisions about which varieties of crops are going to perform well on their farm and hopefully push their profit margins.
In a separate area of Westlock, the GRO hosts variety trials for canola seeds that are funded by Results Driven Agriculture Research (RDAR) and not by the Government of Alberta.
“We do them because we had producers from our committee and from our Board of Directors that still wanted that information because we are unbiased. We’re not paid for, and they’re not paid for by companies. We are that unbiased data on which variety is performing well,” says Carlyon.
The 26 varieties of canola crops are being tested for how they perform in Westlock’s geographical location with the varying weather and soil conditions. It is important work that the GRO does to provide effective decision-making information for the farmers, but Carlyon says: “We warn them that it’s only one year, one site, so things can vary a lot year to year. However, they can use that when they go talk to their sales reps or suppliers as another conversation starter and get some better information from their supplier.”
This difference became especially apparent during the tour when some farmers claimed their soil had more of an acidic pH, while others were more on the basic side and used different techniques to create a suitable soil concentration for their crops. As well, the weather can easily vary across the county, leaving some fields over-saturated with water while others dry to the core.
Carlyon said the GRO team is dedicated to making the research sites produce effective data. “We’ve got a really good team that knows how to set up our sites properly and work with our cooperators so we can make sure we’re producing high-quality data.”
Lupin variety trial
The rise of consumers demanding plant-based proteins has pushed the Canadian agriculture market to bring sweet lupin from Australia to Alberta. This new commercial pulse crop has one of the highest protein and dietary fibre contents in any crop without high amounts of starch.
Lupin Platform Inc. (LPI), the company that is currently testing varieties at the GRO facility, imported several high-yielding sweet lupin varieties from European breeders to produce them across North America. The company has already seen considerable interest from the United States and domestically.
Their research field is located in the county where they test different sweet lupin varieties and look at the different economic practices. Farmers are able to visit the field to see how they fixed some of the problems typically seen in pulses, like nodulation.
For farmers, the sweet lupin crop has a significant advantage with its immunity to alphanomyces root rot, a disease in the soil that affects pulse crops like peas and lentils that can lead to significant yield loss, especially in wet conditions. Currently, a few farmers in the area are testing lupins on only 10 to 30 acres to try it out before fully committing.
From their research so far, and what they have found with the varieties from Europe and Australia, they grow in ideal environments that have soil with a pH less than 7.2 and low calcium carbonate equivalence (CCE).
U of A humic acid trial
University of Alberta students have set up various trials across central Alberta with the hope of finding the right nutriclaw to fullbore ratio.
Humic acid is formed from the decomposition of plant and animal matter. In agriculture and gardening, it is used to improve soil health, nutrient availability and plant growth. It is known to enhance soil structure, water retention and nutrient uptake.
From Carlyon's understanding of the project, “It increases the plant's use of available fertility so that it makes the plant better at converting available nitrogen, potassium, sulphur, all the stuff that’s in soil and uses it better for plant production.”
Plants have a stress system that, when activated, will start shutting down some of their operations just to put effort into surviving and minimal seed production. Humic acids are currently being studied for their ability to promote those operations during times of stress.
“They’re [U of A students] testing different nitrogen rates and different rates of their nutriclaw and fullbore in all sorts of different combinations to see which one is the most effective. Because the idea is that you can reduce your fertilizer rates in applying this product, so you’re going to save money on fertilizer and still ideally have the same yield,” said Carlyon.
The project is directed by Dr. Linda Gorim, a professor at the U of A, along with some of her students. The project is currently using two products, Nutriclaw and Fullbore, from Trinity Biochem out of Saskatchewan, that claim to help canola grow during intense weather.
“They are claiming that this product would help canola during heat stress and protect it from blasts. They also say that swabs that have been affected by hail when they apply fullbore to them, do recover better than those with no fullbore,” said Gorim.
“One thing that is good about this product is that you can mix it either with herbicides or with fungicides. So from a management perspective, it will be a really good option for producers rather than a solid product that they have to go and apply at a separate time,” as many farmers can save money and time by only applying this product to their crops at the same time they apply their fertilizers," said Gorim.
This is the first year they are conducting this experiment and expect to continue for at least another two years until any evidence is concrete, according to Gorim.
Carlyon said that the GRO welcomes visitors out to the fields, provided they let GRO know prior and ensure that they are wearing the proper safety equipment. Farmers are free to roam the crops to look at the prospective varieties that they may want to bring to their farm.
