Central Peace Conservation Society

"Our key goal is to increase the quality of soil in the Peace Region using a two-fold approach of direct seeding and fertility management," says Ropchan. Over the past nine years, CPCS has developed two long-term replicated research trials, comparing tillage and seeding practices and fertility management. "We’re very proud of the fact that two of our tillage trials have been ongoing since 1994. These are the longest running research trials in the Peace Region and would probably be some of the oldest continuous tillage trials in Alberta," he adds. These are field scale trials, with some trial sites being 25 acres in size.

"The results we’re seeing after nine years are quite remarkable in terms of economics," says Ropchan. Even though the two sites are in two different geographical locations, the economic average and contribution margin on both sites for direct seeding is justly slightly over $20 per acre per year higher as compared to minimum tillage or conventional tillage. This means producers have made an extra $160 per acre over the past eight years, and soil erosion levels have been reduced to the absolute minimum that can be achieved for annual crop production.

Although some farmers still express concerns over issues like weed pressure over the long term or compaction, Ropchan has compelling evidence to show that after nine years those aren’t real concerns. "Last year when I was scouting the plots prior to spraying, the impact of tillage systems, particularly on wild oats and volunteer wheat was significant," says Ropchan. "There was a remarkable correlation between the number of tillage passes that were done and the number of wild oats and volunteer wheat, the borders were clearly visible." As tillage increased, so did grassy weed numbers. This year, Ropchan found similar differences with weed pressure, but with narrow-leaved hawksbeard. In the entire zero-tillage plot he found only one narrow-leaved hawksbeard, but there were substantially more in both the minimum tillage and conventional plots.

CPCS is also comparing three different fertilizer rates on a four crop rotation of pea, wheat, canola and barley to study the impact of fertility rates on economics and soil quality. "We want to find out which treatment produces the highest profit margin over the long-term, and which is most beneficial in terms of soil quality," explains Ropchan. CPCS plans to continue their long-term research, as well as other work on grass seed production, swath grazing and other practices. "We’re looking for relatively simple things producers can do in order to have a positive impact on both their profitability and the environment," says Ropchan.

In April, Sharla Stolhandske joined CPCS as Assistant Research Coordinator. "My role is expand the extension component of the work CPCS has been doing in agriculture sustainability and soil conservation, including both past and present research," she says. "Even though a lot of good information is available, some of it is not utilized as much as it could be."

The CPCS held their annual Summer Tour on July 23. "We have a number of sites in cooperation with agri-businesses such as Cargill, Brett-Young Seeds, Agri-Core United and NEWPRO, as well as with individual farmers," explains Stolhandske. "The tour provided the opportunity to view tillage and fertility research, variety trials, new product trials and other interesting information."

Summer Field Tour

Stolhandske is also working on getting a lot of information ready to put up on a website they plan to launch this fall. "With more integrated farm practices coming into play, we plan to expand our focus to include riparian and grazing management in the future," she adds. CPCS is funded in part by the AESA (Alberta Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture) Program.

For more information, contact Garry Ropchan or Sharla Stolhandske.