The Role of Agronomic Research in Meeting Current and Future Cropping System Challenges in Western Canada.

Over the last few decades, agronomic research has dispelled many concerns and myths associated with crop production, and has contributed significantly to on-farm crop production changes in western Canada that are positive in terms of economic and environmental sustainability. These include greater adoption of conservation tillage systems, more diverse crop rotations, more integrated approaches to managing weeds and other crop pests; and seeding date, seeding rate and fertilizer rate and placement, and herbicide timing information to optimize crop yield and quality. The widespread adoption of conservation tillage systems has greatly reduced soil erosion, conserved soil moisture, and generally improved soil health through promoting greater microbial biomass and diversity. Concerns that reduced tillage would exacerbate weed problems and lead to greater dependence on herbicides were shown to be largely unfounded. Over 70% of growers in western Canada now practice some form of conservation tillage. Agronomic research has clearly shown that diverse crop rotations are essential to long-term economical and sustainable crop and pest management, and this has led to much less monoculture cropping than there used to be. However, there is still considerable room for improvement, especially when it comes to rotating legume crops with cereal and oilseed crops. In spite of the risk associated with late frosts in spring, research has shown that canola seeded relatively early in the growing season will usually optimize yield, quality and economic returns. In addition, early removal of weeds in canola through early compared to late herbicide application can  greatly improve yield and economic returns, since irreversible yield losses can occur if weeds are allowed to remain in the crop for too long. Canola growers now seed canola earlier and apply herbicides sooner than they used to in the past. Seeding crops at relatively high seeding rates can have many advantages including earlier maturity, better competition with weeds and superior herbicide efficacy. However, malting barley growers have tended to seed at relatively low rates in an effort to increase kernel plumpness, since there is a perception that this will increase malt extract. Research with malting barley has indicated that this is a misguided approach since poor malting quality can occur at low seeding rates.  Malting barley growers now seed at rates higher than they used to in the past. The introduction of herbicide resistant canola in Canada has been very positive overall, and many of the the perceived concerns associated with the technology have been dispelled through research studies. However, there are also challenges for the future not least of which involve mitigating the risk of weeds evolving resistance to herbicides in particular to the herbicide glyphosate. This could have very negative implications for conservation tillage farming.