BONNYVILLE - The Lakeland Agricultural Research Association (LARA) took local farmers on a tour of their field to show them the techniques and crops being tested this summer.
“We checked out the plots and brought everyone for a tour just to see the different varieties and how they’ve been growing,” explained Amanda Mathoit, LARA’s interim manager and cropping program manager.
Environmental program manager Kellie Nichiporik added, “This is the best way for farmers to actually come out, see, touch, feel, look at it and see what’s growing in relation to everything else so that way they have a better idea of what they’re going to plant next year.”
Liming, cereal regional variety, regional cereal silage, and alternative and pea/cereal silage trials were among the topics covered during the field tour in Fort Kent on Wednesday, July 29.
Thanks to LARA's program, local producers have the opportunity to see how new varieties may do in the area, Nichiporik said.
“Something that grows really well in Fort Kent doesn’t always grow even in St. Paul, and you don’t think that distance is very large but there’s climatic differences so certain crops do better in each county,” she added. “Having the regional variety trials just to look at how it does across the province, as well just to give you a relation, accepted yield, and that way it kind of gives you a perspective of what options are out there and what does really good in your own backyard. Having that regional perspective is important for farmers to have more information that’s more readily available and applicable to the operations here.”
One of the stops that peaked the interest of attendees was the ultra-early seeding versus regular seeding trial, which was created specifically for the area.
“The weather hasn’t been the greatest for taking crops off,” Mathoit noted. “Lots of producers have been struggling to get their wheat, canola, and crops in general off, so with this trial, we seeded earlier and we’ll be able to take the trial off earlier.”
Mathoit said the ultra-early crops were seeded when the soil temperature was between two and six degrees and the regular was done between eight and 10 degrees.
“When producers are looking at that, they can seed between that two and six and hopefully take their crop off earlier. We’re hoping to take this one off by early August or the beginning of September. The early will come off and then the regular will be normal harvest time,” she explained, adding the seeded early crops were the only ones to be taken off dry last year.
MD of Bonnyville Coun. Marc Jubinville, who attended the tour, believes the trials are a huge benefit to farmers within the municipality.
“There’s new information coming out and even sometimes we’d like to maybe see a few more people attend these tours, but that’s not crucial because as long as the information is gathered and as long as the information gets out there, I think that’s where the value comes through.”
