The Conservation Learning Centre (CLC) is unique for several reasons, perhaps most notably because it is located on 'real' land. The intention of the project partners was to choose a location which most consider typical Parkland topography. This land includes all the potholes and variations in soil that you would experience if you were farming in most of the Black Soil Zone.
How does this affect the operation of a research and demonstration farm?
The advantages are that we are challenged in two ways. First, the practical challenges of farming in such a landscape, then secondly, how does one conduct research on such a landscape?
To operate practically in this landscape, field operations require some practical consideration to such simple things as: allowing the lower slopes to dry out enough to get through at seeding time; choosing which areas to leave alone or to seed to grass because it isn't practical to grow annual crops on them; managing weeds which find particular landscape elements more favorable to grow on. Simply put, we are forced to get field operations done within the variables that most Parkland farmers have to deal with everyday. Many farmers would say, 'It's about time!'.
At the Conservation Learning Centre, a number of projects are dealing with questions about direct seeding and forage production in the Parkland landscape. The traditional approach to field research is to set up a small plot on land with a predictable and uniform crop production potential. Since the CLC essentially has no uniform land to establish research plots on, every researcher associated with the Centre is dealing with landscape issues. New approaches are being developed to gather meaningful information from the variable landscape.
Besides the practical challenges of crop and forage production on this landscape, we see opportunities in focussing research to issues unique to that landscape. For instance, what can be done to improve crop and forage production on this landscape? What can be done to improve the conservation of soils, water and wildlife habitat on this landscape?
In the future, perhaps there will be more extensive use of site specific management for variable landscapes, including varying fertilizer, seed, and herbicide rates. Will there be a time when this approach becomes integrated into a management routine, including or going beyond the tractor cab decisions to speed up and slow down across the variations in the field? If so, it will require a technology which is dependable and affordable. It will also require a better knowledge of how the variables change within the landscape. The Conservation Learning Centre is providing an opportunity for producers and researchers to pose and answer some of these questions.