Forage Seed Research Update 2016
The SFSDC research program at the Northeast Agriculture Research Foundation (NARF) site near Melfort SK was expanded this year. The projects are wrapping up as another growing season comes to an end. There were some challenges along the way this year, as the spring started out uncharacteristically dry in the Melfort area. And there were almost daily showers during spraying and harvest. All the planned projects were established and preliminary results are being tabulated.
SFSDC received funding from Saskatchewan Agriculture through their Agricultural Demonstration of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT) initiative under the Canada-Saskatchewan Growing Forward 2 bi-lateral agreement for the following 3 projects in 2016:
Evaluating the Placement of Companion Crops in Forage Seed Production; repeating the two-year project with meadow bromegrass and wheat to confirm results obtained in the 2014-2015 project whose report is now on the SFSDC website. With the dry soil conditions this spring, the meadow bromegrass was slow to emerge.
Evaluating the use of Direct Seeding and Pre-Seeding Cultivation in Forage Seed Crop Establishment; direct seeding or cultivation was combined with the use of pre-seed glyphosate and Express SG herbicide treatments to establish red clover underseeded to faba bean. There was excellent establishment of the red clover and faba bean crops.
Management Options to Control Lesser Clover Leaf Weevil in Red Clover; different application timings with Decis insecticide were used to compare weevil control and red clover seed yields. We saw some treatment effects early after applications were made and will be publishing the project results soon.
SFSDC continues to fund minor use projects to develop data for future registration submissions on forage seed crops. Minor Use herbicide treatments were applied to established red, alsike and sweet clovers. Results will be compiled and data included in minor use submissions.
Plant Growth Regulators (PGRs) were applied to established red, alsike and sweet clovers at the Melfort site. Results will be compared to those already obtained in Manitoba and Alberta.
The Weed Management Program at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon carried out more herbicide screening and PGR research this summer. Herbicide treatments were evaluated on established sweet clover, sainfoin, cicer milkvetch, slender wheatgrass, hybrid bromegrass and timothy. Data generated will be included in minor use submissions.
A number of rates and timings of a PGR were applied on established sweet clover to see how the product performs in the Saskatoon region. There were crop height differences showing up early in the summer. Results of these projects will be highlighted at the annual Forage Seed Information Session on December 1, 2016 in Nipawin SK.
SFSDC greatly relies on the support of our industry partners by providing products for all of our research projects. Thank you to DLF Pickseed Canada, BASF Canada, Bayer CropScience, BrettYoung, Dow Agrosciences, DuPont Canada, and Syngenta Canada and Saskatchewan Agriculture for their continuing support of the forage seed industry.
For more information about current and past research projects, please check out this website and look under Research.