The Key to Maximizing Yield is Uniform Crop Establishment.

1. The Key to Maximizing Yield is Uniform Crop Establishment. April 29th, 2014 Garth Massie, MSc., P.Ag. Corporate Agronomist

2. Presentation Outline. • Why is crop establishment so critical? • Choosing the right seeding rate. • Machine related factors that influence crop establishment. • Fertilizer-seed separation • Depth control • Soil-seed contact • Soil fracturing • Trash flow

3. Why is crop establishment so critical? Spring planted crops have a lifecycle of approximately100 days. This leaves little time for the crop to adapt to ‘sins of seeding’. The consequence of sub-optimal crop establishment is often lost yield. “Well Sown = Half Grown” Phil Needham

4. Spring wheat planted by Morris Contour drill at the University of Saskatchewan in 2010.

5. What can we do to influence crop establishment? Choosing the right plant population. To do this we must know: Number of seeds per pound. Percent germination of the seed to be planted. Estimate of mortality.

6. What is the right seeding rate? Optimum spring wheat population in N Dakota to maximize yield: 1.0 – 1.2 million seeds per acre (250 – 300 seeds/m2 or 23-28 seeds/ft2) • Increased seeding rates: • Decrease tillers • Decrease head length • No impact on seeds/head or TKW >96% of maximum yield attained at 200 seeds/m2 with spring wheat and barley. McKenzie et.al 2011.

7. So what should I pencil in for mortality? • The assumed mortality with spring trip air drills (i.e. Morris Maxim II) was commonly: • Up to 20% for cereals. • Up to 50% for canola. • Our experience with independent opener drills (i.e. Morris Contour 2) is that this mortality is cut in half when combined with other good farming practices.

8. Machine related factors that influence crop establishment: depth control. All independent opener drills improve depth control accuracy for two reasons: • Each opener moves independently of the other openers on the drill. • Depth control is regulated by the packer wheel and its close proximity to the opener.

9. Depth Control – Independent Opener System Comparison. Full Parallel Linkage with 1:1 opener to packer ratio (Morris Contour, C2, CNH Precision Hoe, Bourgault 3320 XTC). • Most consistent penetration angle and depth control. Incomplete Parallel Linkage with 2:1 opener to packer ratio (Bourgault 3310 and 3320). • Least consistent depth control. Swing Arms with 1.5:1 opener to packer ratio (ConservaPac, SeedMaster, SeedHawk). • Intermediate depth control. • Some change in depth separation between fertilizer and seed shank with change in terrain. • More prone to seed row skewing when turning.

10. Machine related factors that influence crop establishment: trash flow. Trash flow is important when planting shallow seeded crops like canola. Ideally we want a smooth fluid flow of crop residue around the opener. Earlier generation independent openers would bunch straw in front of the opener and it would fall off in clumps. This interrupts the flow of soil around the opener leaving canola seed uncovered with soil.

11. Machine related factors that influence crop establishment: trash flow. Contour 2 Design Enhancements • The lowest catch point moves from 13 inches with the Contour to 21 inches with the Contour 2. This represents a 60% increase from the ground to the lowest catch point. • The shank is reclined 12 ° to allow crop residue to flow up and fall off the shank more fluidly. Note: Improved crop residue flow allows soil to flow naturally around the hoe and results in uniform crop emergence due to superior soil-seed contact.

12. C2 Independent Opener Drill Canola Planted by Morris C2 Drill with Sideband Opener

13. Machinery related factors that influence crop establishment: opener choice. A farmer’s opener choice is generally based on a number of factors including: • Wear characteristics. • Soil disturbance (moisture loss, weeds, field finish). • Row spacing (stubble for swath support). • General appearance (scouring). • Draft requirements. Why? Farmers make decisions based on their experiences and the information they have available to them.

14. Machinery related factors that influence crop establishment: opener choice. The key factors in choosing an opener from an agronomist’s perspective are: • Fertilizer – seed separation. • Seedbed quality. • Row spacing (crop canopy development). • Soil disturbance (moisture loss, weeds, seeding speed). Why? Because these 4 factors in declining order of importance set the yield potential of the crops the farmer grows.

15. 2011 Opener Evaluation. • We used a Morris CX8105 31’ machine for our testing. • The layout of openers across the machine were 7 Morris paired row, 6 aftermarket 1, 6 aftermarket 2, 6 aftermarket 3 and 6 Morris prototype openers.

16. 2011 Opener Evaluation. Field Layout • Four fertilizer rates were used including a non-fertilized check. The non-fertilized check provided excellent information on the % of plants found in the intended seed rows. • All fertilizer was placed in the middle with seed placed in the paired rows. There was no intentional placement of fertilizer with the seed • The wheat seeding rate was 120 lb./ac. The fertilizer rates were 0, 110, 220 and 330 lb./ac of blend. Direction of seeding →

17. Opener Styles. Morris Openers (fertilizer below) Aftermarket Openers (same plane)

18. Opener Evaluation.Spring Wheat Emergence (12 days after planting (dap). Note: Aftermarket openers in fertilized treatments have lower initial emergence (range 21-47%).

19. Opener Evaluation.Spring Wheat Emergence - % Change in Emergence due to fertilization (12 dap). Crop Injury Threshold Note: Crop yield is impacted if crop thinning due to fertilizer injury exceeds15%.

20. Opener Evaluation.Spring Wheat Emergence – Seedlings in the intended seedbed (12 dap). Note: If the % of plants in the paired row increase with fertilizer rate it is due to crop thinning in the fertilizer zone.

21. Opener Evaluation.Spring Wheat Head Counts (71 dap). Note: Aftermarket openers have reduced head counts vs. Morris openers (range 7-28%).

22. Opener Evaluation.Spring Wheat Conclusions. • The Morris openers resulted in rapid uniform emergence. These openers were relatively insensitive to fertilizer rates due to superior product separation (% plants in intended seedbed). • The Morris PR openers set the stage for higher yield potential because they consistently have the highest head counts relative to the other openers. • The differences between openers in the speed of emergence and the rapid deterioration of emergence with some of the openers at low fertilizer rates was unanticipated. Therefore we decided to repeat the study in the fall with winter wheat to determine if the results were repeatable.

23. Opener Evaluation.Winter Wheat Emergence (13 dap). Note: Aftermarket openers in fertilized treatments have lower initial emergence (range 32-50%).

24. Opener Evaluation.Winter Wheat Emergence (25 dap). Note: Aftermarket openers in fertilized treatments have reduced emergence (range 11-35%).

25. Opener Evaluation.Contribution of Later Emerging Plants to Yield. Relative Seedling Emergence Patterns (Gan, Stobbe & Moes 1992). Why: Competition from larger more vigorous early emerging plants reduces the yield potential of the smaller weaker late emerging plants.

26. Opener Evaluation.Winter Wheat Emergence (25 dap).

27. Opener Evaluation.Winter Wheat Emergence - % change in emergence with fertilization (13 dap). Crop Injury Threshold

28. Opener Evaluation.Winter Wheat Emergence in the intended seedbed (13 dap).

29. Opener Evaluation.Conclusions. • Consistent with the spring wheat experiment the Morris PR opener: • Had ~90% of the seed in the intended seedbed. • Was relatively insensitive to fertilizer rates. • New findings: • Soil fracturing was an issue with the aftermarket openers in the fall. Fracturing leads to an inconsistent seedbed and variable soil-seed contact. Ultimately this leads to depressed emergence. • The second emergence count suggests ~ ½ of the stand reduction with the aftermarket openers was recovered in the final emergence. The yield contribution of these later emerging plants is presumed to result in reduced yields.

30. 2012 Opener Evaluation. • We used a Morris CX8105 25’ machine for our testing. • The layout of openers across the machine were 5-Morris paired row, 5-aftermarket 1 paired row, 5-Morris sideband, 5-aftermarket 2 paired row and 5-aftermarket 3 paired row. Morris PR AO 1 Morris SB AO 2 AO 3

31. 2012 Opener Evaluation. • Six fertilizer rates were used including a non-fertilized check. The nutrient rates in actual lb./ac for N-P-S were: unfertilized, 40-12-0-7, 80-25-0-15, 120-37-0-22, 80-25-0-15 (50% ESN) and 120-37-0-22 (50% ESN). • All fertilizer was placed in the middle with seed placed in the paired rows. There was no intentional placement of fertilizer with the seed • The canola seed weight was 5.2 g/1000. The seeding rate was 6 lb./ac. The fertilizer blend rates were 0, 127, 254 and 381 lb./ac of blend. • A four replicate split plot design was used. One rep was lost due to flooding.

32. 2012 Opener Evaluation. Canola Emergence (20 days after planting).

33. 2012 Opener Evaluation. Canola Emergence (20 days after planting). Observations: • The average Morris opener emergence was 18% greater than the average emergence of the aftermarket openers for both the unfertilized treatment and the low fertilizer rate. • The average Aftermarket opener emergence for the mid and high fertility treatments was less than the average Morris opener emergence (range 36-47%). • The treatments with ESN improved the emergence with the aftermarket openers (20% more emergence than the non-ESN treatments).

34. 2012 Opener Evaluation. Canola Emergence - % change in emergence due to fertilization (20 days after planting).

35. 2012 Opener Evaluation.Canola Emergence - % of plants in the intended seedbed (20 dap).

36. 2012 Opener Evaluation.Management Implications: Cost. • The seeding rate for this study was chosen to target 10 seeds/ft2, assumed 30% mortality resulting in 7 plants/ft2. Based on this: • The seeding rate with the Morris openers was too high considering the emergence was consistently in the 11-12 plants/ft2 range. It would be more cost effective to reduce the rate by 1 lb./ac to bring the population in line with the target. • The seeding rate with the aftermarket openers seemed appropriate based on the unfertilized and low fertility rate. ESN was an essential element to ensure adequate canola crop establishment with the aftermarket openers at the mid and high fertility rate.

37. 2012 Opener Evaluation.Management Implications: Costs.

38. 2012 Opener Evaluation.Management Implications: Costs. Costs Per Acre Comparison

39. Concluding Remarks. • Independent opener drills reduce seedling mortality relative to spring trip drills due to improved depth control. • While seedbed quality (soil fracturing), trash clearance can hurt crop establishment, choosing a double shoot opener with excellent fertilizer-seed separation will consistently improve crop establishment and set a higher yield potential for your crops. • The key benefit of improved fertilizer-seed separation appears to vary with crop types. With cereals superior crop establishment sets a higher yield potential. Canola the benefit of improved fertilizer-seed separation appears to be more tied in with saving on seed costs.

40. Questions? Fontenille en Brosses, France