Durum and HRSW Best Management Practices A “Real-World” Perspective

Vision Research Park—who are we  Affiliated with United Agronomy out of Berthold  5 offices in northwest North Dakota  Created in 2008  Vision Research Park responsible for:  Contract research program  Crop consulting/scouting  Precision agriculture services

Basic agronomics  Control what we can control  Genetics  Plant population  Plant nutrition  Eliminate ‘outside’ influences  Get rid of weeds, diseases, insects  My job as agronomist is to make some combination of CO 2, sunlight, and water transpiration the limiting factors.

Fungicide  Vision Research Park standard fungicide program  Propicanozole at 1 st post-emerge herbicide application  Prosaro/Caramba at ~10% anthesis  Timing is critical

Plant Growth Regulators  Affect plant growth/development in a physiological manner  Include plant hormones such as cytokinin, IAA, gibberellic acid, etc.  Seed treatment or foliar  Many different application timings

Plant Growth Regulators  Many on the market  Dozens, hundreds????  Conducted around 10 trials since 2012  Some ‘side-by-sides’  Replicated data from field experiments has not shown any benefit or detriment on any of the parameters measured (yield, protein, test weight, moisture)

Fertility  Yield potential changed dramatically the last 10 years  What’s a “bumper” crop anymore?  bushel yields not out of the question  Fall nitrogen becoming less common—maybe ~10% of acres  Majority 100% spring applied  Varies by crop  Highly dependent on environment

Fertility  Ideal scenario  ~60% of nitrogen needs applied in spring at seeding  25% applied as top-dressed urea or streambar around 5 leaf  Remainder (usually 30# actual nitrogen) applied early post-anthesis (7-10 days post 1 st flower)

Questions?????