GrainsWest Fall 2018

Fall 2018 grainswest.com 31 doesn’t remember the drought cycles of the late ’80s and early 2000s. “There’s a new generation that maybe doesn’t appre- ciate the value of conservation farming. And years ago there were organizations such as Alberta Reduced Tillage Linkages, the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association and the Manitoba-North Dakota Zero Tillage Farmers Association [now the Northern Prairies Ag Innovation Alliance] actively promot- ing the benefits of reduced tillage. Those organizations have changed or are gone altogether. There is no one preaching the conservation message.” Weir said there is a role for tillage in specific situations to correct certain field conditions, but “it needs to be used strate- gically,” he advised. “There are benefits of long-term conserva- tion farming practices than can be wiped out pretty quickly by one to two years of tillage.” TIME TO RETHINK Alberta soil specialist and crop consultant Elston Solberg said times have changed since the 1980s when the conservation farming effort played a huge role in changing practices and protecting the soil. It’s a new farming era now. “I remember as a student at the University of Alberta farm talking to farmers about the concept of conservation farming and no-till in the late 1970s. They said it would never work,” said Solberg. “People got pretty passionate about it over the years. Today I sort of joke with producers thinking about tillage and tell them they may have to do it at night so their neigh- bours don’t see.” Solberg said while conservation farming methods remain im- portant, many farmers are dealing with “incredible amounts” of crop residue, more limited rotations and extreme stratification of pH, organic matter and nutrients such as potassium. “The situation has changed,” said Solberg, who suggested farmers are responding to new conditions with tillage. “De- pending on what you’re dealing with, it may be needed every year or once every eight to 10. We have to talk in terms of stra- tegic tillage. We can still do direct seeding, but how or where does tillage fit into this cropping system?” “Tillage is an important piece of the puzzle that can be used in our farming system in Canada but it has to be done strategi- cally and intelligently,” said Solberg. “Maybe our fathers and our grandfathers didn’t know a better way. We need to ask if we can do a better job.” A FIT FOR TILLAGE While he is not encouraging a return to extensive fence- post-to-fencepost tillage, Charles Geddes, a research scien- tist with the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Lethbridge Research and Development Centre does see its potential weed-control benefits. A specialist in weed ecology and management, Geddes said he sees opportunities for selective and properly timed tillage to control weeds and reduce herbicide use or where herbicide options are limited. “I believe tillage can be effective in dealing with herbicide-resistant weeds,” he explained, using herbicide-resistant kochia as an example. Tillage could be used to control a one- to two-acre patch of the weed before it goes to seed. And since kochia seed only remains viable in the soil for one to two years, repeating the tillage operation on those patches for a couple seasons can eliminate it. In another situation, fall tillage could help reduce weed pressure the following spring. Geddes used the example of following canola in rotation with soybeans. He said a tillage operation after canola is harvested could stimulate growth of volunteer canola as well as other weed seeds in the soil. “So, if those weeds start growing in the fall, some may die off over winter and any that do survive will be up and growing in the spring where hopefully they can be controlled with a pre-seeding burn-off herbicide before soybeans are plant- ed,” he said. The take-home message is that while experts suggest there may be uses for discs and cultivators, they agree farmers need to be careful not to make tillage a routine, annual prac- tice. Conservation farming practices in use for the better part of the last three decades deliver well-documented soil and moisture conservation gains, so strategic tillage may be the order of the day. “ Canadian farmers need to realize the tillage equipment they are seeing today is dramatically improved from a generation ago. A wide range of tools that can be used under different conditions. ” —Laurent Letzter