Sustainable

Spring Break and the Royal Winter Fair are here already here and that means it is the end of March. Where did the time go? The geese are making their way north, some ducks are settling in on the wetlands and for some calving is done or just starting. The weather is still nice for this time of year although we did get some snow this week as well as some rain. I hope we get a bit more as seeding draws nearer. I was out in the field the other day on my own farm leveling molehills and dragging some pastures and it sure felt good. A lot of our inputs are bought here at MZTRA so all we have to do is drag the airseeder out of mothballs and grease it and hopefully we are ready to go. We have been busy behind the scenes here with final reports and protocol planning for the upcoming season. We have some innovative trials coming this year and more details will follow as the protocols and some of the finer points worked out. We are looking at some sustainable methods for growing some nitrogen on your farm as well as some fungicide trials this summer. All these trials are aimed at keeping more dollars in your pocket. We have thought about it and we could come up with the latest and greatest thing in agriculture but if it did not make economic sense then who would ever do it. So we have been trying to come up with research that makes economic and agronomic sense.

This next part is so important that it deserved a new paragraph. It also has to be sustainable. What a buzzword that is now sustainable; hmm let’s think about that for a few minutes. It can make economic sense short term to tighten up a rotation and go with what makes money now but what about the long term health of your farm. Think for a minute what was left to you and by whom. The land may have had stones picked so now you can grow soybeans it may have had some drainage done so you can farm the low spots or it may have had some bush cleared so you can now farm it with a larger implement. Are we paying enough attention to the soil and the health of our land? Are we paying attention to the organic matter and microbes in the soil and feeding them what they need to improve our soil health. Are the tight rotations compromising soil health at the expensive of LONG TERM profitability? I am not saying that you should compromise the whole profitability of your farm in one season but what if you could apply lessons that we learn here at MZTRA to a few acres or your farm at one time? What if you could take a drop in production for a year but that would allow you to use fewer inputs in the future? Would you? Many don’t or wouldn’t. We see those people that do that as not normal. How can someone grow 110 bushel corn without added fertilizer? That won’t work on my soil or on my farm. What happens if it would and would lead to long term economic benefits? I think I would do it. As a matter of fact here at MZTRA we are looking at doing things like that. You have questions we want to find the answers.

Fast Friday

Here we are in March and the weather has been beautiful so far this spring. It gives us the itch to get into the field. However the only thing we have taken to the field so far was the quad. On my own farm however I have done a bit of pasture work with the tractor, so I scratched that itch for some field work. I think it is a bit early for seeding myself but if the weather is nice come April 25^th or so call me on my cell phone because I will be in the tractor. This early though Mother Nature could throw us a curve ball by way of a snowstorm in early April and those storms could change the flooding picture if they did materialize. So we are going to take advantage of the spring by cleaning up the yard and getting the equipment ready to go that way hopefully we can cruise into seeding and coast into summer with a lot of the work already done. That is the plan anyway. However on a farm, things rarely go as planned. I would assume that it is because we have so many variables to contend with. That is what makes farmers resilient, that ability to change things on the go and as conditions, markets or other factors dictate. At MZTRA we are excited by this upcoming year. We just hosted a successful Annual General Meeting with a super line up of speakers. We talked about intercropping, variable rate fertilization, weather and a whole other bunch of topics that we will expand on in following blog posts and our newsletter as well. We are excited because the farm is in good shape heading into this coming year. We have cleaned up the yard and have the equipment serviced and ready to roll. Most of our inputs are bought and the seed is booked. We are excited because we have a good bunch of guys on our board that are behind what we are doing. We are making inroads into having industry partners and academic partners as well. It all adds up to big things in the coming year. Because it is Friday I will keep this short. The bottom line is we are excited about this year and we hope to share that excitement with you and hope that you get involved with MZTRA and bring your research ideas and passion for agriculture.