Application of Site-Specific Management of Hard Red Winter Wheat in Ontario.

Improvements in production efficiency and quality of hard red wheat would benefit not only growers but the entire wheat industry. Precision agriculture can improve production efficiencies by managing the crop in zones, with uniform rate of specific crop inputs optimized for each specific zone. The main objective of this two-year project was to characterize grain yield and protein of hard red wheat using various nitrogen management strategies applied across variable landscapes on four fields in 2014 and 2015.  At each field, nine nitrogen (N) application strategies were arranged in a “conventional” randomized complete block design with three or four replications along the length of the field.  Each replication was subdivided into eight management zones. However, rather than using replications, the spatial analysis was performed using PROC GLIMMIX.  The N strategies consisted of various combinations of N rates, N sources, and timings relative to crop development. During the growing season, wheat canopy responses were monitored by the GreenSeeker™ (biomass and N status), thermal imaging (canopy temperature) and a SunScan Canopy Analyzer (to estimate canopy light interception). In addition, soil variability was characterized using wet lab analysis of soil samples, and the use of a gamma-ray (SoilOptix™) sensor. Wheat performance was assessed spatially by drawing relationships among in-season soil and crop measurements with grain yield and protein. This research will help to determine the potential for site-specific management for increasing production and economic efficiencies for hard red wheat in Ontario.