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The 16- to 20-inch-tall crop stubble
helps to trap snow, which adds to soil
moisture reserves as snowmelts.
Mercer said with healthy soil, proper
crop rotation and active soil micro-
organisms, crop residue is quickly
incorporated back into the soil. And he
was amazed at how tall stubble creates a
warmmicroclimate close to the ground.
Even with strong southern Alberta winds,
it is warmer at the base of the stubble, and
wind doesn’t impact crop seedlings.
Northwest of Edmonton, TomMcMillan
of Pickardville, AB, has also become a fan
of stripper headers to helpmanage crop
residue on his direct seeding operation.
He ran a conventional-tillage grain and
oilseed operation for many years that
usually involved three tillage passes in the
fall, twomore passes in the spring before
seeding, as well as harrowing.
“We began direct seeding in 2001, so
we are relatively late bloomers,” he said.
Westlock County ran a direct seeding
demonstration on his farm for a number of
years and, watching those results, he saw
the systemworked.
“We saw poorer soil began to improve,
and overall there was no yield penalty and
it was a lot less work,” saidMcMillan.
For the first few years he just had to
work to keep the knives sharp in the straw
chopper to get the best distribution
of crop residue as possible. But then
he found a better way tomanage the
residue. In 2013, he outfitted the combine
with a stripper header. Depending on
the setting, the stripper header combs
up through the crop, for the most part,
removing only the seed head, leaving the
stubble standing. Even in an area with
plenty of moisture during the growing
season, he said it is no problem for his
John Deere 1895 disk drill to work through
tall standing stubble.
Even though he’s in the same,
sometimes-cooler, north-central part of
the province as Mercer, the tall stubble
creates a warmer microclimate close to
the soil, soMcMillan doesn’t worry about
blackening the seed row to improve
seedling vigour.
He added that it’s important with any
cropping system, but particularly with no-
till direct seeding, to follow a proper crop
rotation that includes grains, oilseeds,
pulse crops and legumes. It is beneficial
not only for crop production, but also
helps in managing residue.
Jackson, who grows wheat, canola and
pulse crops, isn’t alone in his practice of
blackening the soil so it warms faster and
improves crop growth. He still wants the
ground protected by stubble and residue,
but said there are many -2°Cmornings
right a er seeding when that dark band
of soil warms up quickly, helping young
canola plants overcome the cold.
CONTROLLED TRAFFIC FARMING
Jackson is one of only a handful of Alberta
producers taking his conservation farming
practices a step further, and adopting
controlled traffic farming (CTF). This
systemof limiting all traffic over a field to
specific and permanent wheel tracks, or
tramlines, was developed in Australia,
then pioneered in Alberta by south-
DUNN RIGHT:
Rob Dunn, an Alberta Agriculture and Rural
Development soil conservation specialist, describes the di erent
soil horizons during a field day and the value of improving
organic matter in the soil.
Photo: LeeHart
Winter
2014
Grains
West
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