It was a two-day full court press of information and education for local producers attending the second annual Corn and Soybean Summit that was held in the Western Star Inn, in Estevan on Dec. 9 and 10.
Dual sessions held in adjoining conference rooms, had crop specialists delivering vital statistical facts to corn and soybean farmers and ranchers, along with suggestions as to how they could improve yields or quality during each growing season under varying weather conditions.
Jeff Coulter, a visiting professor from the University of Minnesota made his second trip to the Energy City to talk about field tests and surveys that had been conducted over the past few years in Minnesota and Wisconsin and how they could relate quite neatly to soil and crop conditions in southern Saskatchewan. He later spoke on nitrogen management for first and second year corn following alfalfa crops.
Coulter addressed the topics of growing corn for grain and corn for silage.
Joel Peru, a graduate from the University of Saskatchewan’s agricultural program, now with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, shared information he and his counterparts had gathered from corn-growing test sites in central Saskatchewan around Lake Diefenbaker.
Two other ministry presenters, Clark Brenzil and Scott Hartley from the Agriculture Ministry provided recommendations for fighting weeds in soybean crops and combating insects in corn crops, respectively during the late Friday morning sessions.
Other presenters included Dan Undersander from the University of Wisconsin and Joy Agnew from the Prairie Agriculture Machinery Institute (PAMI) along with Janelle Oshowy who spoke about crop insurance and Ken Evans on crop rotation economics, addressed the registered producers and guests for intense 20-minute information-gathering sessions.
Eric Tozzi from the University of Saskatchewan focused in on root rot and how to defeat it in both soybean and corn crops while Glenda Clezy from the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers worked on calculating plant populations. Chris Holzapfel from the Indian Head Research Foundation provided statistics from inoculant studies.
Dale Tomasiewicz, representing the federal Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food, zeroed in on soybean moisture requirements and David Rouke spoke about conventional soybean production.
Blake Weiseth from the provincial Ministry of Agriculture addressed soybean fertility considerations in this province.
The co-ordinator of the ambitious program was Sherri Roberts, the Agriculture Ministry’s crop specialist in southeast Saskatchewan who also led some discussions with a producer panel that wrapped up the summit.
Presenters such as Coulter came armed with information he was willing to share on several areas of corn growing on the prairies. He touted the arrival of a new Brown Midrib hybrid corn plant and led producers down a path of assessing yields and how to get more corn out of each acre without compromising quality. He spoke of how a simple thing like narrowing the cornrows from 30 inches to 15 inches could result in fewer acres being used to grow a similar volume of corn for grain. He said the difference could be an acreage reduction from 175 to 131 and a potential profit differential of up to $28,000 with corn priced at $3.50 a bushel.
He spoke about how soil conditions factor into decisions and how they tempered crop survey plots in Minnesota and Wisconsin. In total, Coulter ran through a list of eight hybrid corn breeds that had been tested including the number of seeds planted per acre to optimize production.
He addressed questions from the floor such as frost damage and how it differentiated depending on the length and harshness of the frost and how alfalfa and corn rotations work in concert.
Peru, in speaking about corn production in Saskatchewan, delivered information from the provincial ministry’s test sites near Outlook. He noted last year’s survey plots were planted late. He pointed out how irrigation systems from Lake Diefenbaker keep corn crop values up in dry years and how weed control was manipulated for best results.
He, as well as Hartley, spoke about corn crop insects that reduce harvest yields such as borer worms and cut worms as well as corn rootworms. He noted that insects are not a major problem now, but as more acreages are put into corn for grain or forage over the next few years, their numbers will also increase.
Little tidbits of advice were easily handed out, such as “don’t seed corn after a canola crop.” That was just one such tip uttered by Peru. “It’s best after a legume crop has been in that field,” he suggested.
Yields on the test plots came in at between 125 and 160 bushels per acre with dry land yields being slightly better and irrigated acres being even better than dry land production, but just slightly better. He also spoke about an experiment in seeding corn late (end of May) in canola stubble with a December harvest.
“I’m still new to this survey, but within the next four years we will have more regional trials and then companies do their own trials and surveys. We didn’t come up with any unexpected results, but we did get statistics and information on late seeded crops this year,” Peru added.
It was all about adding information, piling on some statistical information and enriching the educational base of southeast Saskatchewan producers thanks to a bevy of well-armed presenters who provided a host of suggestions, recommendations and warning signs that will benefit local farmers and ranchers in years to come.
