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Cow Cam

The journalists at the Western Producer hooked a camera up to a cow’s halter to give us a look at a day in a beef cow’s life. It’s interesting to see, though the cow needs to work on her camera angles a bit more.

With the miniaturization of cameras and their growing ubiquity, it wouldn’t surprise me if in a few years we start seeing this on a lot of animals. If it was attached to a wireless network it could be useful for keeping an eye on far-ranging cattle and spotting problems early on. The tricky part would be sorting through all that data. Who has time to watch that much video?

2010 08 20 jtone General Comments (0) Permalink

Manure Treatment for Phosphorus

The NCLE Newsletter pointed to Joe Ackerman and Nazim Cicek’s literature review Evaluation of the opportunity for manure treatment/processing technologies to achieve manure phosphorus balance (PDF). It’s definitely worth reading.

The key problem is that manure supplies nitrogen and phosphate in roughly equal proportions and crops use roughly four times as much nitrogen as they do phosphate. The hope is that some kind of separation technology will allow exporting of excess phosphate to more distant phosphate-deficient fields.

The key point I took out of reading this is that none of the technologies are currently economically viable across the board. There may be technologies that work for particular operations, but there’s nothing currently operating that would work for the majority of barns in Manitoba while remaining affordable. On a more encouraging note, there is a lot of research being done and this report gives some good criteria for assessing separation systems.

Right now, it’s still cheaper for most operations to buy/rent more land to spread on. If you want to get maximum fertilizer value from your manure or if more land is just not available, treatment may be a viable option for your operation.

2010 08 11 jtone Manure Comments (0) Permalink

No Variable-Rate Manure Spreading Yet

It was a little disappointing to read that it’s Back to drawing board for variable-rate manure spreading. I’m not surprised, given that precision agriculture with highly consistent synthetic products is still in its infancy. There is talk of various systems for real-time measurement of nutrients in manure, so hopefully as those develop variable rate manure application can be revisited.

2010 08 05 jtone Manure Comments (0) Permalink

Soils and Manure Management Field Workshop

I attended the Soils and Manure Management Field Workshop on Friday and learned quite a bit.  A lot of the research that was shown is still in the early stages, so there will be a lot of good stuff to follow in years to come.  Here are some of the highlights:

  • Don Flaten and Clay Sawka discussed the long term manure and crop management field laboratory.  They’ve set up a bunch of plots so that they can use field scale equipment in replicated trials.  The plots we looked at involved different proportions of manure and commercial fertilizer to meet crop needs.  It was pretty obvious that the formula that we’re using to calculate available N from solid manure is wrong, so hopefully they can come up with a better formula for us in the next few years.
  • Janelle Hamblin and Siobhan Stewart discussed greenhouse gasses.  Putting a cover on liquid manure storages, then flaring off the methane to convert it to carbon dioxide is a huge help.  For cropping systems, the initial research is that growing perennial legumes  puts out a lot less greenhouse gas than annuals, but this research is still just getting started.
  • Katherine Buckley and Van Coulter discussed composting.  One easy way to tell if your manure is at the right moisture level for composting is the squeeze test.  Take a handful of manure, squeeze it, then open your hand.  If moisture runs out, it’s too wet.  If it falls apart, it’s too dry.
  • Martin Entz discussed compost on organic systems.  The primary use of compost is as a supply of P.  If manure is composted, it can be used in organic systems, regardless of the source but be sure to check with your certifying agency!
  • Mitchell Timmerman and Marla Riekman had a field demonstration showing some of the challenges in solid manure application.  The biggest challenge is simply the variability of spreading, so field measurements during spreading are the best way of calculating the actual rates.   Ideally you would weigh every load and measure the distance covered (at a constant speed and rate of application).
  • John Heard and Clay Sawka had a demonstration of ramp calibration strips in manured and non-manured crops.  It was surprisingly easy to pick out the point at which the crop’s N needs were met.
  • There was a talk on tile drainage in clay soils, but I only got the names of two of the presenters: Curtis Cavers and Chris Unrau.  Unfortunately, this project is still in its infancy, so even with a wet year like this one it was hard to say too much about the actual results.  It’s definitely something to keep an eye on, especially if we get a lot more wet years.
  • Finally Mitchell Timmerman and Trevor Fraser gave us a hands-on demo of several methods of rapidly testing manure in the field.  They emphasized that these methods can only complement and not replace lab tests.

It was a very informative day and I’m looking forward to seeing the results from these projects.

2010 07 26 jtone Crops
Manure Comments (0) Permalink

Tank-mix cereal herbicides and fungicides with caution

It’s a little bit late for this year, but Bruce Barker had a good article in Top Crop Manager about why you should only Tank-mix cereal herbicides and fungicides with caution.  Even on a wet year such as this one, the optimum timing for herbicide and fungicide effectiveness are quite different.  This was discussed at the Crop Diagnostic School as well.  In almost every case, if you apply fungicides and herbicides at the same time, you are wasting one of them.  Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish.

2010 07 21 jtone Crops Comments (0) Permalink

Impressions from Crop Diagnostic School 2010

I ended up attending the 2010 Crop Diagnostic School a week earlier than planned. There was a lot of stuff to see and learn. Here are some of the highlights.

  • John Heard had his nutrient deficiency planters out again. One of them was a trick question – herbicide drift rather than a nutrient deficiency.
  • The forage identification quiz was tough. I was lucky to be in a group that knew what they were doing. The forage identification chart seemed to require that you know the forage first, then use the chart to confirm.
  • There was a herbicide forensics plot that had a number of different rows of crops seeded, then sprayed and you were supposed to identify the chemical by the the of damage done and the crops that were damaged. It was really neat.
  • As always, John Gavloski had plenty of fascinating insect facts. Apparently pollination by honeybees increased sunflower seed yield by over 200%!
  • Bent Reid tried to encourage those whose spring seeding was delayed by reminding us that a 3 day delay in seeding soybeans only delays harvest by 1 day.
  • Martin Entz and Iris Vaisman encouraged farmers and consultants to look at organic crops for farm profitability. This year’s twist was a look at grazing of green manure crops. Putting sheep onto the green manure significantly reduced the cost of nitrogen for next year’s crop.
  • One of the interesting facts I learned was that seeding rate does not affect alfalfa stands much beyond the first year. Once you have your minimum stand, and extra seed is wasted.

Learning lots at the Crop Diagnostic School

2010 07 14 jtone Crops Comments (0) Permalink

The Diagnostic Process and Helping the Lab Help You

I found the post The Diagnostic Process and Helping the Lab Help You very interesting. We often send samples to the Diagnostic Lab so it’s interesting to see what they do with the samples.

2010 07 10 jtone Crops Comments (0) Permalink

Looking forward to Crop Diagnostic School

Manitoba Crop Diagnostic School kicked off yesterday and I’m looking forward to attending next week. It never ceases to amaze me how much there is to learn about agriculture, even though humanity has been growing crops for thousands of years.

One of the things that I appreciate about the Crop Diagnostic School is how intensely practical it is. Almost all of the plots reflect things I’ve seen in the fields. One issue they’re planning to cover this year is when to reseed drowned-out fields, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they have to say about that.

2010 07 07 jtone Crops Comments (0) Permalink

Soil & Manure Management Field Workshop

MAFRI and an alphabet soup of other organizations have arranged a Soil and Manure Management Field Workshop on July 23, 2010. They’re planning on covering a number of manure management issues in a field setting. I attended a similar workshop a few years back and learned a lot from it, so I’m looking forward to attending this one. I understand that this will be open to pretty much anyone who is interested in these topics, so if this appeals to you, contact Mitchell Timmerman, Nutrient Management Specialist with MAFRI at 745-5638 or Mitchell.Timmerman@gov.mb.ca for more information.

2010 06 30 jtone Manure Comments (0) Permalink

Sclerotinia Maps for Manitoba

Manitoba Agriculture used to provide Sclerotinia Risk maps for Manitoba.  Unfortunately due to budget cuts they are no longer able to provide that service.  The current best source for Sclerotinia maps in Manitoba is the Canadian Wheat Board’s Weatherfarm service.  To find the Sclerotinia maps log in (register first if you haven’t already) – it’s free, click on the “Crop Management” tab near the top of the page, click on the “Pest Management” tab just below the “Crop Management” tab, then click on Sclerotinia just below the “Pest Management” tab.

The way the current map is reading, if you’re in Manitoba you should seriously be considering spraying for Sclerotinia.  Be sure to scout your fields for Sclerotinia as the window for fungicide application can close amazingly quickly.

2010 06 25 jtone Crops Comments (0) Permalink