They’ve put up the proceedings for the Manitoba Agronomists Conference 2009, so for the rest of the presentations, I’m going to just highlight points that caught my attention.
Doug Wilcox’s The good, the bad and the ugly of Manitoba crop production was an attempt at quantifying the quality of years for crop production. He emphasized that even in a good year, there are a lot of problems in crop production. Conversely, even in a bad year, some can do quite well.
Peter Entz and Ken Harms discussed Building A Better Manitoba Crop Rotation. Profitability is the biggest factor in planning a rotation – there are very few who don’t plan their rotation by what they think will get the biggest bang for the buck.
Jim Menzies reminded us that The surprising bunts and smuts: Still a threat after all these years. It is because of good practices that they’re under control – neglect the practices and we’ll be in trouble again.
Elwin Hermanson discussed what happens in Variety registration and delivery. It was an interesting look at the whole process, where it can break down, and what’s being done to make it more robust.
Ed Thiessen’s Desiccation – best practices for success and profitability was essentially a breakdown of the differences between glyphosate and Reglone. He debunked five myths of desiccation.
Glenn Friesen discussed Managing saline areas with forage crops. There are a lot of options out there, the key is picking the tradeoffs you’re willing to make.
Don Flaten gave us a precise answer to the question: How much livestock can Manitoba handle? Manitoba still imports way more phosphorous fertilizer than the phosphorous excreted by its livestock. The limitations are economic, social, and environmental.
Carrie Laboski showed that timing of weed control plays a huge role in how well a corn crop does. There comes a point where corn will not fully recover from its initial setback by weeds.
Enhanced efficiency fertilizers were surveyed by Clain Jones. These fertilizers will not increase yields over that attained by conventional fertilizers in all cases, but they can have reduced environmental effects.
Paul Fixen told us about Phosphorus – worldwide supplies and P efficiency. We’re probably not going to be running out of phosphorous any time soon. However, phosphorous is a finite resource and should be managed efficiently.
Terry McGonigle’s talk on Mycorrhizae in relation to crop rotation and tillage mostly went over my head. Soil disturbances will reduce mycorrhizae.
I found David Lobb’s Variable management or make it uniform? fascinating. There can be many causes of variability in a field. Whenever possible, we should deal with the causes of variability first. Variable rate management is a option to pursue if serious variability persists.
Debra McLaren’s What lurks in your canola field – Disease surveys of 2009 gave a look at 2009′s diseases in canola fields.
The key point in the Blackleg in canola revisited panel was that there are a lot of different avenues being pursued in fighting blackleg.
Jeanette Gaultier discussed the Effectiveness of bio pesticides – Expectations for control. There are a number of challenges in dealing with bio pesticides, especially manufacturing, storage, marketing, and efficacy in the field.
John Gavloski gave us an overview of Looking for Aliens – New arrivals and potentially invasive insects to watch for in crops in Manitoba. The most interesting one to me was the Western bean cutworm that’s moving in to fill the void left by more effective control of corn borers.
I had to leave early and missed the last three presentations.
Manitoba Agronomists Conference 2009 – Day 1 Precision Agriculture: Potential and Payback
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