A drizzly day in the middle of a dry spring helped to bring out more than 300 farmers to the Seager Wheeler 7th Annual Field Day, June 6. Held on Seager Wheeler's actual farm site, the day was a testament to what a little vision and a lot of hard work can achieve.
The day began with a panel of producers presenting their thoughts on the theme, "Direct Seeding: Looking Back - Looking Forward. Larry Jansen of Rosthern, Terry Pearse of Tisdale and Perry Leech from the Leader area, all long-time direct seeders, shared their experiences with direct seeding and their visions of where prairie agriculture is likely to go. Dr. Jeff Schoenau, University of Saskatchewan and Dr. Bruce Goosen of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada were also present to answer any of the more technical questions farmers had about soil and diseases.
Three concurrent sessions followed the panel discussion. Participants had their choice of attending a tour of the forage plots on the site; listening to a presentation on such timely topics as plant diseases, fungicides, tissue testing and insects; or participating in a field demonstration on intensive fruit production in the orchard area of the farm.
During lunch, John Bennett, President of the Sask. Soil Conservation Assoc. and a farmer from Biggar, addressed the topic " Soil Carbon: Looking Back, Looking Forward". John said that direct seeded acres can remove significant amounts of green house gases. Farmers might consider leasing their stored carbon to companies that require offsets.
Following lunch, Garry Mayerle lead the producers on a tour of his "Do's & Don'ts of Direct Seeding Flax" plots. Garry was able to show emergence patterns when various rates and forms of fertilizer were applied seed placed and side banded as well as the effect speed and depth have on flax seedlings.
For most of the farmers in attendance, the highlight of the afternoon was the demonstration of seeding and spraying equipment. Farmers watched as 5 different sprayers, including Rogator, John Deere, Flexicoil, Apache and Brandt, demonstrated their ease of set-up and floatation.
Eight different units were featured at the direct seeding demonstration where canola was seeded into barley stubble. The seeding pass made by each unit was flagged and will be signed so that anyone interested in a particular opener or drill can stop by and view the crop through to maturity. The drills and openers featured included Harvest Technologies side banding wing for liquid; Seed Hawk; Bourgault 5710 Mid Row Banders; Conserva Pak; Morris Maxim 2 with a Morris 1¼ inch hoe point; Ezee On with the Dutch Paired Row opener; John Deere 1850 with the single shoot disc; and the Flexicoil 5000 Inter Row Shank machine.
Other activities included a presentation on landscape design and a tour of the flowerbeds.
The Field Day is the major fund raising event for the Seager Wheeler Historical Society. Numerous volunteers from the local area and representatives from business and government work very hard to ensure the success of the event. The SSCA is pleased to be involved in the Field Day where soil conservation and direct seeding are promoted.