The first field season of the applied research and demonstration farm located nine miles east of Swift Current is completed and now the job of cleaning samples and analysis begins. Under the Special Crops sector of the Agri-Food Innovation Fund (AFIF), eight "spoke" sites were established for applied research and demonstration. The site located near Swift Current, called the SWIFT (South West Innovative Farming Technologies) farm, is one of these spoke sites.
Wheatland Conservation Area, a farmer-based soil conservation group, is conducting the projects under this five year program. Unlike many other research-oriented sites, the SWIFT farm is located on gently rolling topography. Although this may present some challenges for statistics on results, it does resemble land that a lot of farmers have to deal with. In addition, the large plots were seeded with a 15 foot Flexi-Coil 5000 air drill using sidebander and sweep openers. Using field scale equipment allows farmers to observe how these crops perform with "regular" equipment and with openers that they might use.
Bryan Nybo, the farm manager and agrologist, described some of the difficulties in setting up a demonstration farm from scratch. "Getting all the equipment, seed and inputs required for starting this project was quite a challenge. However, we have been very pleased with how this year turned out." There has been considerable interest in this site from farmers which was evident with nearly 300 farmers attending the first joint tour of the SWIFT site and the Swift Current research station (SPARC). "Farmers appreciate that they can see first hand how the various crops perform in the brown soil zone" explained Nybo. "They are able to compare varieties and look at crops that might fit their rotation".
There are seven projects that will be conducted at the SWIFT farm. These projects include; a demonstration of pulse crop varieties, a seed treatment and innoculant interaction project, a high vs. low disturbance direct seeding on special crops project, a do's and don'ts project on oilseed and spice establishment, moisturizing kabuli chickpea seed prior to seeding project, a response of cereals to nitrogen on pulse stubble, and an organic project involving integrated weed management. Wheatland is also involved with the U of S and SPARC in a precision farming project. There was also a demonstration of herbicide tolerant canolas which was sponsored by private industry.
In the pulse variety adaptation trial, 17 varieties of field peas, lentils, chickpeas, faba beans and pinto beans were grown. Next season should see some new ascochyta resistant varieties of chickpeas included in the trials. The high vs. low disturbance direct seeding on special crops has been of great interest to a lot of farmers who are making the switch to direct seeding or have been using high disturbance openers. There were definite plant population differences in shallow seeded crops which should translate into yield differences. There were also maturity differences in some crops between the two treatments and weed pressures were often noticeably different. In most cases, the low disturbance seeded crops looked better, but yield data will need to be included for a more complete picture. In the seed treatment and innoculant interaction project, the granular innoculant looks extremely good for farmers growing peas. For organic growers, the cross seeded (each pass at full seed rate) technique has some real promise for weed control and yield. The single pass at double seed rate also had less weed control than the cross seeded technique.
These are a few details of the various projects being conducted at this site. Once the results have been compiled and analyzed, workshops describing the results will be held in the southwest. With ever increasing interest in growing specialty crops in the brown soil zone, the ongoing applied research at this site will be of great interest to farmers in this region. for more information, contact Bryan Nybo at the Wheatland Conservation Area office at 306-778-7289.