With significant rains across the province, particularly in the South and Central Regions over the past two weeks, most of the agricultural lands in Alberta have seen at least near-normal amounts of precipitation to date.

Provincially, crop growing conditions improved by two per cent from last week to 83 per cent good to excellent, compared with the 5-year average (2011-2015) of 71 per cent.

About 83 per cent of spring wheat, 81 per cent of barley, 91 per cent of oats, 83 per cent of canola and 80 per cent of dry peas are in good to excellent condition. In terms of crop development, most cereals across the province are in the flowering stage.

Due to recent rainfall, surface and subsurface soil moisture ratings across the province improved by six and five per cent from a week ago, respectively. Provincially, surface soil moisture was rated at 87 per cent good to excellent and two per cent excessive. This compares to 30 per cent good to excellent a year ago, with no excessive and the 5-year average of 69 per cent good to excellent with two per cent excessive.

Subsurface soil moisture conditions across the province are now rated as 80 per cent good to excellent with almost one per cent excessive, compared with 22 per cent good to excellent last year with no excessive and the 5-year average of 68 per cent good to excellent with one per cent excellent.

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“With volatile weather comes storm damage and, for some producers, this means salvaging crops for feed,” says Andrea Hanson, beef extension specialist, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Airdrie.

Hanson cautions producers to use care as salvaged crops may have high levels of nitrates that are toxic to ruminants and emphasizes the importance of testing salvaged feed to establish quality and nitrate levels prior to feeding.

“Sometimes producers want to wait to see if the crop will recover before salvaging it for feed. That’s when the balancing act starts. The nitrate levels in those damaged crops that were heavily fertilized or manured to optimize yield will have the highest accumulations.”

Hanson says it takes about four to five days after the damage for the nitrates to build to the highest levels. If the plants start to recover, the nitrate levels will return to a lower level about two weeks after the damage, depending on their growth rate. The true balancing act starts when the leaves start to brown off and the plants begin to deteriorate, losing leaf material and yield.

Unless a perennial hay crop is fertilized at high rates, the risk of accumulating nitrate is much lower than in annual crops, Hanson says. “Alfalfa is a plant that only takes up as much nitrogen as it requires on a daily basis. The excess is stored in the nodules. Nitrate accumulation in alfalfa is extremely rare.”

Nitrates accumulate in plants when the plant is stressed. Drought, hail and frost are all stressors that can cause nitrate toxicity. Photosynthesis is disrupted because of the damage to the plant but the roots of the plant are undamaged. As long as the roots are still alive, they continue to push nitrogen to the leaves. With damaged leaves, photosynthesis is disrupted, and the nitrogen (in the form of nitrates) accumulates.

“If a producer does decide to salvage the crop, it’s essential that the nitrate levels are known before any of the feed is used,” says Hanson. “Getting a feed test done is cheap compared to losing an animal to something that can be managed. Once the plant has been cut, the nitrate level is fixed and a feed test can be taken. Be sure to check out Foragebeef.ca for useful information on how to properly sample feed for testing.

Hanson also stresses the importance of finding out from the feed testing laboratory what type of nitrate test was carried out as the limits are different depending on how the nitrate level is reported. “AF’s factsheet Nitrate Poisoning and Feeding Nitrate Feeds to Livestock is a good reference that has the conversion chart for different reporting systems. Often the laboratory will provide the recommendations based on the level outcome.”

“Feeds containing nitrates can be fed depending on the levels of nitrates and the other feed stuffs available,” adds Hanson. “A strategy for feeding high nitrate feed is needed well before creating a feeding plan to reduce the risk of nitrate poisoning.”

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In three fields, incidences ranged from 15-90 per cent but severities were low, ranging from 5-20 per cent.

Spring wheat development is advancing rapidly, ranging from grain fill to soft dough stages so spraying to control stripe rust is no longer an option. However, it is unlikely that the stripe rust will have any impact on yield and quality in spring wheat this year.  

The only exception may be in late-seeded, stripe rust-susceptible spring wheat varieties since conducive infection conditions may continue for the next few weeks. Winter wheat is ripening and, hence, is no longer vulnerable to stripe rust.  Producers are encouraged to monitor their fields for stripe rust symptoms before making management decisions to control this disease.
 
For producers seeding winter wheat this fall, attention should be made to select stripe rust resistant varieties. Seed of ‘Moats’, a new stripe rust resistant variety from the Crop Development Centre at the University of Saskatchewan, resistant will be available this fall.

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Alberta has seen the return to more seasonal temperatures over the past several weeks following the hot weather experienced two weeks ago. Sporadic light and heavy showers were reported in all areas maintaining high surface and sub soil moisture ratings.

Crop ratings remain at exceptional levels with 85-95 per cent of crops rated in good or excellent condition. Crop development is within normal ranges due to the warmer weather with spring crops in the early to mid pollination stage. Winter cereals are in the late milk to early dough stage. Canola is 61 per cent podded with field peas at 76 per cent.

Initial yield projections indicate the potential for above average production in all regions. Early yield projections have spring and winter wheat averaging 47.8 bushels/acre, durum wheat at 44.0 bushels, barley at 66.9 bushels, canola at 41.8 bushels and field peas at 43.4 bushels/acre.

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“Moisture probes measure the electrical conductivity or movement of electricity across the outside of the stems based on the amount of moisture there,” says Barry Yaremcio. “If the outside of the stem is dry, producers will get a very low reading and indications from the probe will be that the hay is ready to be baled."

Yaremcio says the problem is that alfalfa and some of the grasses that have only been cut for a few days are not properly cured. There is more moisture on the inside of the stem that’s not being measured. A day or two later, that moisture will migrate to the outside of the stem, raise the moisture content in the bale and heating, mould formation and heat damage to the protein can occur.

"This will result in a substandard product, compared to the very high quality product that would have been baled if baling had been delayed by another two or three days.”

Instead of relying only on moisture probes to take a reading, Yaremcio recommends conducting a microwave test. This is done by taking a representative sample out of the bale, cutting it into small pieces and using the microwave test to double check moisture contents.

“If you have a bale probe that is used for core sampling bales, get a representative sample, weigh out 100 grams, look on Alberta Agriculture’s website for information about determining the moisture content in hay. Use the microwave and moisture probe test results to establish the difference between the probe reading and microwave results. If the probe is reading 14 per cent and the microwave is at 18 per cent, then you know how to interpret the probe information.

There are also the manual break tests to establish if the hay is cured. Take a handful of hay between your hands and try to break it in half or twist it in a circular motion; if the stems snap, that tells you that hay is cured.

“The main message here is that if the weather patterns look good, and producers aren’t quite sure of moisture content, err on the side of caution and give the hay another day or two to cure before baling.”

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These areas are roughly centred around Edmonton and Grande Prairie. Several stations recorded overnight temperatures that dipped below 0 C, across two large areas; one centred roughly around Edmonton and the other centred roughly around Grande Prairie. Generally a “Killing” frost occurs at or below about -2 C.

Overnight lows appeared to be sustained for at least a couple of hours, with some of stations seeing temperatures sustained near the -2 C degree range. In these areas, wide spread frosts of -2 C, for this time of year, are estimated to occur between once in 10 to once in seven years. Low-lying areas likely saw temperatures lower than what is depicted in this map.

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Cattle producers play a key role in monitoring and eradicating this disease from the Canadian cattle herd by presenting eligible animals for testing.

It is very important for us to test enough eligible samples to continue to demonstrate the low and declining level of BSE in the national herd. This is essential for maintaining Canada’s status as a “controlled risk” country for BSE, as recognized by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). This status clearly acknowledges the effectiveness of our BSE surveillance, control and elimination measures, and helps in securing international market access for our beef and cattle.

Producers are encouraged to call a veterinarian if they have animals aged 30-to-107 months that are diseased, distressed, down (non-ambulatory) or recently dead, or animals over 30-months-of-age with neurological signs. Producers must have possession of the animals for at least 30 days, in order to provide an adequate clinical history.

The Canada and Alberta BSE Surveillance Program continues to reimburse producers $225 for eligible samples and pay veterinarians for visiting their farms to examine cattle for BSE eligibility and for collection of samples.
Testing for BSE in the Province of Alberta is a shared commitment between the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. A network of approximately 300 private veterinarians is readily available in the province to respond to producers’ calls on potentially eligible animals, to examine the animals and to collect samples when eligible.

For more information, click here or contact the Canada and Alberta BSE Surveillance Program at 780-644-2148, or call your nearest veterinarian.

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