YORKTON - When you have been covering agricultural stories for as long as this writer you have seen many research plots through the years.
The agriculture sector is one which does invest in how to raise better crops with funding from companies invested in the sector – herbicide and fertilizer manufacturers, and thankfully still public dollars from the provincial and federal governments.
As a result there have been hundreds of research plots spotted across the Prairies through the years all hoping to show ways to improve crops in the region.
It’s certainly not a quick process, and at times it is even difficult to track what is being accomplished because the research carried out is so diverse.
It starts of course simply with how diverse Prairie cropping choices are.
While the vast majority of acres are dedicated to canola and wheat, what producers grow include barley, oats, flax, mustard, quinoa, various types of lentils, field peas, beans and chickpeas, and the list goes on.
Although many crops are minor in nature, they can be profitable, and that profitability only increases with better varieties or agronomic technology, and both of those come from research efforts.
Of course the most obvious effort of research is to achieve better yields. More bushels from an acre means greater profit potential. Even modest gains through new varieties can be significant if they are achieved with the same input costs.
After that research delves into the nitty gritty of producing a crop.
How does one provide plants across 160 acres with the optimum fertilizer they require when it is known that need can vary across a view based on soil testing.
How does one provide those nutrients best?
What does one do to effectively deal with weeds, or insects, or fungus?
And the deeper one goes into finding solutions the more costs that a producer might incur.
Optimum fertilizers and plant protections may boost yields but the producer is left to pencil out with the production gains rise profits?
Associated with that producers have to know what risk they are willing to take on too.
At the end of the day every crop is ultimately at the whim of Mother Nature. Late spring or early fall frosts can ruin the best of crops. So too can too much, or too little rain, or severe heat at just the wrong time. These are things the farmer has no control over and research will have little impact on.
It becomes something of a jigsaw puzzle for producers. Each must look at what research provides and determine what pieces fit the picture of their farm best, and it will not be the same for all.
Still research remains the foundation from which farmers can construct the best plan for their operations.
