WORKING WITH HEAVY SOILS

By Rene, Lafond, St. Jean Baptiste, Manitoba

I was born and raised in St-Jean Baptiste, Manitoba. After working in the city of Winnipeg and surrounding area 12 years, my two brothers and I bought the family farm in 1982. 1 do the farming operations while my brothers do the accounting and record keeping of the farm.

As of now the farm consists of 1240 acres and about half is rented. Our farm land is located 50 miles south of Winnipeg and about 22 miles north of the U.S. border. It's location is between Morris and St. Jean

Baptiste along the east side of the Red River. The type of soil that is found in our area is primarily Obsborn Clay Red River Clay. I started direct seeding in stubble in 1991with a 33 ft. 9 in. spacing "Conserva Pak". The first problem I encountered was with the wheat stubble. Because of the fairly wet spring, stubble didn't dry up well. In the fall of 1991 I deep banded the granular fertilizer with my Conserva Pak seeder to open up the wheat stubble to give it a chance to dry up. At the most 85% of the stubble stayed in the fall. I started using anhydrous ammonia in the fall of 1992 because it is cheaper than granular or liquid fertilizer by about five dollas an acre.I also feel that up to now the cereal stubble has to be opened up a little to give it a better chance to dry in the spring. A chaff spreader is a must and the straw should be chopped and spread evenly. Some years I will harrow the straw to spread it around more, if time and weather permits. When harvesting, I will try to leave the truck at the headland so as not to have traveled all over the field. This has been especially important for the last two years since it has been fairly soft at harvest. This fall when straight cutting wheat that was half logged, I noticed the ground was firm and there was no water standing in the ditches in the field. Could it be the result of direct seeding, giving the water a better infiltration? In heavy land I think it will take 3 to 5 years to start seeing the benefit .

When spraying Round-Up in the spring, some field are sprayed before seeding, others right after seeding, depending on the soil conditions. Crops that are grown are wheat, flax, canola, oats, peas, and lentils in a four year rotation. I feel there could be a lot more to be learned about direct seeding in heavy land.