Grainswest - Fall 2021

The Fall 2021 Alberta Seed Guide is now available! New seed varieties are powerful tools that provide the latest innovations in improved tolerance to environmental, disease and pest challenges. Watch for your copy in the mail or visit seed.ab.ca to find the latest issue. Field trials are underway for CPS and CWRS wheat, fava beans, feed barley, oats, green and yellow peas and forage varieties. MARA, another not-for-profit, farmer-driven research facility, is located in Fort Vermilion. It’s the organization’s job to pinpoint the challenges faced by farmers in Mackenzie County and to give them objective solutions said Samuel Peprah, MARA manager and research co-ordinator. This work includes short-season variety trials and research projects that focus on management of weeds, pests and diseases. Also, part of its mandate is the reduction of production costs and preservation of the environment. MARA additionally conducts trials and produces data to quantify the effectiveness of inputs of interest to area farmers who want to know if they work as advertised under local conditions. Education is also an important element of association work. As NPARA does, MARA has brought in outside experts to speak with farmers about topics such as reduction and prevention of potential disease threats that include Fusarium head blight and sclerotinia . With a $300,000 grant from the Western Grains Research Foundation and matching funds contributed by farmers, MARA this year established an agronomy centre and repair shop. A much-needed boost to its research and extension activities, it also allowed the launch of a disease mitigation program. Farmers who bring in rental equipment from outside Peace Country can now visit the centre’s decontamination area to have it spray washed and sanitized. Peprah believes this will help keep Mackenzie County free of clubroot. To the predominant local crop list of barley, canola, fava beans, peas and wheat, MARA works to build the agronomic cases for crops such as triticale, corn, flax and, most surprisingly, soybeans. Perhaps also unexpected, 41 per cent of farmers in the county are organic. Virgin land is still being converted to this type of agriculture. Organic systems research is naturally a part of MARA programming. An area of opportunity for northern farmers in the future is irrigation, said Peprah. Certain farmers now haul water from the Peace River for their crop needs. Many here may be interested in pivot irrigation systems if crop commissions and government programs to aid in their set up are ever launched. “The rule of the game for farmers in the Peace Region is evidence. They want to see it,” said Peprah. It’s an impulse that snowballs. The more you know, the more you want to know. “As they learn and make gradual changes, farmers become more progressive, forward thinkers.” He emphasized the research facilities in Peace Country have opened farmers’ eyes to the positive effects data-driven science can have on their operations.