Digging into Research
Wheat stem sawfly larval mortality did not occur between fall and spring sampling periods indicating that populations are not affected by abiotic or biotic factors during the winter. The populations of wheat stem sawfly and its natural enemies varied across fields in southern Alberta. The...
On Dark Brown soils, the use of a dual-inhibitor EEF resulted in increased grain yield and delivered improved net return benefit compared to urea. Other EEF sources tested yielded similarly in the Dark Brown soils. However, in the Black and Grey soils, the EEFs tested...
Research found increases in growing degree days, corn heat units, the number of frost-free days, and average, maximum and minimum air temperature on the Prairies. Average annual precipitation and growing season precipitation have increased in Canada, but western Canada had increases in some regions and...
In this 2-year study, there was no significant benefit of a urease inhibitor, with or without a nitrification inhibitor, on canola and wheat N removal, N uptake, nitrogen use efficiency or yield. These inhibitors also did not significantly reduce the amount of leached nitrate in...
Nitrification-inhibitor products – either alone or in combination with an urease inhibitor – reduced N2O emissions by 38% to 43% compared to untreated urea in spring wheat in southern Manitoba. However, there were few yield or grain protein benefits to using the EEFs products. Environment and...
In western Canada, no-till improved wheat yield by 7%, canola by 10%, and legumes like beans, peas and lentils by 9% compared to conventional tillage. These higher yields provide higher carbon inputs into the soil to help increase soil organic carbon and reduce greenhouse gas...
When Cu and Zn fertilizers were applied to phosphorus (P) deficient soils at 4.5 lbs/ac (5 kg/ha) rate, wheat yields were reduced. Symptoms of micronutrient metal toxicity were observed at early growth stages, and included purplish-red colour and chlorotic leaves. Liebig’s Law of the Minimum states...
The combined application of Cu + Zn had a significant negative effect on wheat yield grown under phosphorus (P) deficient soil conditions on a Dark Grey Chernozem Tisdale soil. This indicates that if Cu and Zn deficiencies are going to be corrected, P fertility should...
Wheat, pea and canola uptake of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and boron (B) was greater with optimum soil moisture and warm temperatures compared to drought and saturated soil moisture conditions or cold temperatures. Micronutrient deficiencies can occasionally occur on Prairie soils, but crop response to fertilization...
Wheat midge parasitism was found to be as high as 71% in the Peace River region of Alberta. Parasitism was primarily by Macroglenes penetrans, the main parasitic wasp species that attacks wheat midge on the Canadian Prairies. A parasitic wasp species, Inostemma walkeri, was newly...
