The Westman Agricultural Diversification Organization will be adding a new touch to their July field day coming up in July. They've added a couple of chartered buses to enable them to travel as a group to more test plot sites.
Event Organizer, and crop specialist with Manitoba Agriculture, Scott Chalmers, says they've already started taking registration for the July 25th day of touring as now they have about 100 people to join the bus tour. "We've decided to not just stay in one place this time. Where we usually have a tent, we're going to have a bus tour and go to multiple sites. Hopefully it will be more comfortable for our participants where there will be a mobile washroom, lots of windows, air conditioning and beverages at the front of the bus."
What folks may not realize is that the WADO test plots are spanned between about 7 different locations around that Melita area. "And so, we'd like to go visit those spots because it will be new content for participants," adds Chalmers.
The tour will include a wealth of different topics, including an intro hybrid hemp, a pea fungicide trial, and the continued study on soybean protein irrigation study with the federal government.
With these cool and wet conditions, the soybean plots may not look much different, irrigated vs non-irrigated. Chalmers says it's been raining so much in their corner of the province they haven't turned on the irrigation pivots yet.
"We've had over 7 inches of rain here in Melita since about May 1st," he explains. "Last year and the year before that combined, I don't think we had 7 inches. I suspect as things get hotter, we'll probably start the pivot in July and run it a few times to at least try and get a difference between one location to the other, the dry versus the irrigated."
Chalmers says he's very interested to see how those two test plots will fair this summer being its second year for the study given these spring conditions are so vastly different than last summer. "It was so hot and dry last summer. It was something like 65 bu/acre irrigated vs about 23 bu/acre for the dry land."
Please see the poster below for more details on WADO Crop Day taking place on Thursday, July 25th.
You can RSVP the Melita Ag Office with Scott Chalmers by calling him at 204-522-5415 or email: scott.chalmers@gove.mb.ca