Good morning. My name is David Schnell. My wife, Kathleen, our son Bart and myself continuous crop our 5500 acre farm in a zero till operation.
Our rotation is cereals, oil seeds, cereal, pulses. Our cereals are either durum wheat or spring wheat, oil seeds are canola, and pulses are peas. Each year we seed 25% of our land to peas, 25% to canola and the balance to wheat or durum. We have grown some yellow varieties of peas in the past. Although they have produced as much or more than green varieties, our greens have always graded edible and that price difference has convinced us to grow the green varieties on our farm in 1998. We began growing peas in our rotation four years ago and in 1997 had 25% of our land in peas, mostly of a green variety.
We seed with a 57 ft. Flexi-Coil air drill. It is equipped with 12 inch spacings, paired row openers and 3 inch rubber encased steel packers. Our theory has always been to seed deep enough to be into the moisture. However, with the dry conditions that existed in 1997 along with no significant rainfall until July 1st we could have seeded deeper. We normally seed our peas early - as soon as we can get onto the land. This allows us to spread the work load at harvest as we usually have the peas harvested before the other crops have matured. We seed the large varieties of peas and have found that seeding at a rate of 3 bus/acre is required to get a good yield. We seeded on 2.25 bushels an acre on one field in 1996 and found a noticeable difference in yield.
We apply the liquid inoculant Rhiz Up through a chemical injector mounted on our air drill. In 1995 we "accidentally" discovered the importance of using an inoculant. We started seeding a field and after making two or three passes up and down the field we realized we have neglected to switch the chemical injector on. The area that wasn't inoculated produced only half the yield of the rest of the field. The plants that were not inoculated were yellow in colour, shorter and much thinner. This was visible from the road all summer. I would stress the importance of a good inoculant, whether it be liquid or granular. In our experience a good job of inoculating the seed is probably the most important thing when seeding peas.
We have tried various blends of fertilizer with our peas:
-Side banded 20 lbs of actual phosphate
-Used 60 lbs of a 25-30-0 blend
-Used 39-10-0 blend in a case where we ran out of fertilizer and wished to finish the field.
Moisture conditions will always dictate as to what the best blend of fertilizer may have been to produce the best crop. For 1998 I would probably sway back to my original blend of 40 lbs of 11-51 or 20 lbs of actual phosphate.
We have used Provide for the last three years on at least some of our pea acres. In 1996 we did a test strip and found that the Provide treated area yielded 2 bushels per acre more than the untreated area. Using Provide on peas is simple in our operation as we simply add the Provide to the inoculant already in the chemical tank.
A must in our corner of the province where we have lot of stones on the land is to roll the peas. We usually toll the peas in early June when the plants are 4 to 6 inches tall. We find that very little damage is done to the plants since the plants are growing in a furrow made by the opener on the air drill. We fill the roller with water for extra weight to ensure that the stones are pushed into the ground.
We do a spring burn-off with about 0.8 litres of Roundup per acre. This is done either prior to seeding OT after seeding before the crop has emerged. We have found that by doing the burn-off after the crop has been planted it caused a problem with weed control. This is due to the fact that some of the weeds get covered with soil during the seeding operation and as a result are not exposed to the chemical. The weeds eventually emerge through the soil causing problems. Even though we sometimes get onto the land before there is a lot of weed growth we prefer to do the burn-off before seeding. In terms of post emergent herbicides we have used various chemicals. We have used Fusion to control grassy weeds, usually only spot spraying. We have used MCPA Sodium Salt to control broad leafed weeds have good results. The most important thing to remember is to use plenty of water with this chemical - at least 10 - 15 gallons per acre. In 1997 we sprayed about 40% of our pea crop due to the extremely dry conditions. Our peas were seeded the first week of may and we received no significant rainfall until July 1st. The pea seed was planted into good moisture conditions and emerged very well. The dry top soil conditions prevented most broad leaf weeds from germinating. We spot sprayed Fusion to control grassy weeds on some fields and spot sprayed Oddysey to control broad leaf and grassy weeds on other fields. We had hoped to get some control on the Canada Thistle. To further control Canada thistle we do a pre-harvest burn-off with Round Up at a rate of 1 litre per acre. Last year we did either a pre or post harvest burn-off tot he land that is to be seeded to peas in 1998.
We have always straight cut our pea crop. We started by using a rigid header with spring loaded lifters. This method worked well when the crop was standing but a heavy rainfall when the crop is mature can flatten some varieties. In 1996 we went to a flex header. In 1997 we used both a flex header and a 36 foot MacDon header equipped with spring loaded lifters. The crop stood so well in 1997 any type of header appeared to work well. We harvest our peas when the moisture is at least 18% - 20% and then use aeration in the bins to dry. Our peas have always graded edible and we attribute this to harvesting early when the moisture level is fairly high.
We have marketed our peas to various buyers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. We have found that selling our peas in small increments throughout the year, with the last of the peas being priced around seeding time, has given us a fair return. Perhaps 1996 - 1997 was an exception with the edible market having a $3.50 per bushel plus premium over feed peas.
After growing peas for several years we have found that we can achieve a yield at least as good or higher than wheat or durum in any given year. The edible green variety has certainly paid a premium.