Impact of Production System and Nutrient Addition on Grain Quality in Long-term Rotation Studies in Western Canada

Assess crop rotation and nutrient application on flax yield and nutrient uptake.

IPNI-2000-CAN-MB13

15 Mar 2001

Methodology

    The project at the University of Manitoba completed its second 4-year cycle in 1999, while the project at AAFC-Scott finished its first 4-year cycle in 1999.

    The project at the U of M has three rotations: Wheat-Pea-Wheat-Flax, Wheat-Sweet clover-Wheat-Flax, and Wheat-Alf-Alf-Flax. Only one crop was grown in each phase/year of the study, so flax was grown in all plots every 4th year. Each rotation was grown using the four input levels: +fert/+pest, +fert/-pest, -fert/+pest, -fert/-pest. Flax would be the test crop that we would conduct detailed nutrient assessment on for the U of M project.

    The project at AAFC-Scott involves 3 levels of crop diversity:
    - fallow, oilseed and cereals
    - oilseed, pulse and cereal
    - Oilseed, cereal and legume forage
    and three levels of input intensity: organic, minimum required and optimum.

    Grain samples from these projects will be analyzed for N, P, K, S, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, and B.