by Myriam Fernandez, Ph. D.

In 2010, a tillage by rotation experiment was set up on three of the five acres. The objective of this first organic agronomic trial in the Brown soil zone is to investigate the impacts of tillage reduction and benefits of diversified crop rotations on weed control, soil fertility, crop production, diseases, rhizosphere microbial populations, carbon footprint, and economic returns under organic management and water-limited conditions in this semi-arid region.

This project will help to generate new knowledge on weed control by using crop diversification in combination with less intensive tillage, and will help to increase organic production of pulse and oilseed crops. Information from this study will help encourage producers in the Brown soil zone to adopt more diversified organic cropping systems, reduce the frequency of summerfallow, and make greater use of reduced tillage practices, thereby helping to halt or reverse the historical trend in soil and environmental degradation. Our long-term goal is to devise a sustainable management strategy for organic production in this region of SK, help organic producers by decreasing production costs and risks, improving grain productivity and enhancing profitability, in addition to contributing to environmental quality. It is also hoped that this project would also help conventional producers who wish to convert to organic practices.

This agronomic project constitutes a multi-disciplinary effort with participation from various AAFC scientists (Eric Johnson, Brian McConkey, Yantai Gan, Newton Lupwayi, Myriam Fernandez), and retired AAFC scientist Bob Zentner. It was designed with the help of an advisory committee comprised of organic producers in south-west SK (Martin Meinert, Garry Johnson, Dwayne Smith, Mike Sabine), SK Ministry of Agriculture staff (Shannon Chant, Chantal Jacobs), Brenda Frick of Bluebur Fluent Organics, and the AAFC scientists involved in this project, and presently chaired by Myriam Fernandez. This committee meets regularly to discuss progress and suggest solutions to any problems encountered during the execution of this project, in addition to discussing potential new organic projects on the organic land at SPARC and organic farms in the south-west.

Other research being conducted since 2010 in the land managed organically at SPARC include a three-year study funded by the Organic Sector Market Development Initiative of the Canadian Wheat Board. This study consists of demonstrations of crops grown under organic management in the Brown soil zone. Crops include a variety of common and durum wheat cultivars, spelt, kamut, barley, and pulse cultivars. The spring wheat cultivars are also characterized for reaction to leaf spots and root/crown rot, and pathogen populations under these organic conditions. Root and crown rot are important and widespread cereal diseases present in most parts of the world and among the most damaging diseases of cereal crops in western Canada.

In addition, since 2009 we have also been conducting organic wheat breeding trials in part of this organically-managed land. These trials include advanced spring wheat lines bred for organic production by breeders S. Fox (AAFC, Winnipeg), P. Hucl (U. of Saskatchewan), and D. Spaner (U. of Alberta). This Swift Current trial helps to identify wheat lines with regional adaptation and represents the only site in the Brown soil zone where the lines are tested for performance under organic management. This trial has joined a network of test sites across the prairies, which are necessary to identify superior candidate cultivars adapted to organic production systems and worthy of entering into varietal registration trials. Information from all trials being conducted under organic management at SPARC is disseminated to organic and conventional producers, extension personnel, researchers and other participants at our organic field days.

The first organic field day at SPARC was held in 2009 (see attched proceedings), and the second one in 2011. In addition to the organic projects mentioned above, both field days also featured other research relevant to organic producers being conducted by SPARC scientists.

For more information about any of these organic projects, and upcoming organic field days at SPARC, please contact: myriam.fernandez@agr.gc.ca