Organic Research at the University of Saskatchewan

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Organic Research at the University of
Saskatchewan

• Dr. J. Diane Knight
• Dept. of Soil Science

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Organic Industry Needs Assessment (SAF)

• Barriers to Industry Growth
• Marketing
• Production Research Development

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Barriers to Industry Growth

• Lack of an internationally recognized
  accreditation/certification system
• Lack of marketing information

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Organic Trade and Marketing AnalystDept. of
Agricultural Economics
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• Organic Certification/ Accreditation in Canada
• USDA-National Organic Program (NOP)
• Organic Marketing and Supply Chain Analysis

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Production Research Development
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Three priority areas identified

• Managing soil fertility and quality
• Crop rotations in relation to soil, weeds,
  insects, and diseases
• Managing weeds

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Variety Development/Assessment
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Variety Trials Durum, oats, barley, wheat

• Identification of crop varieties that are the
  highest yielding under low input conditions
• - Heritage varieties
• - Modern high input varieties
• - Modern low input varieties

Knight Shirtliffe
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Flax

• Evaluation of early flowering flax varieties for
  organic production
• - Flax is typically seeded late to enable
  control of the first weed flush with harrowing
• - Can result in late maturity, hence, reduced
  yield and seed quality

Rowland et al.
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Oats

• Comparison of oat cultivars for competitive-ness
  with weeds
• Forage varieties most competitive, demi-dwarf
  varieties least competitive

Shirtliffe
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Weed Control
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Bacterial Controls

• Development of bacterial control agents for
  control of wild oats and green foxtail
• Native bacteria isolated from Saskatchewan soils
• Lines identified that display moderate control
• Development of carrier system for applying
  inoculants to soils

Boyetchco, AAFC
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Mechanical Weed Control

• Mowing barley at 2 to 3 leaf stage for in-crop
  control faster recovey of barley than weeds
• Deep seeding of peas for protection against
  post-seeding harrowing
• Comparison of harrowing implements small plot
  scale and field scale (Frick)

Johnson, AAFC Frick, OACC
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Spray Technology

• Vinegar and Pine oil as organic herbicides
• First indications are it is not economically nor
  technically feasible for most producers

Wolf, AAFC
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Soil Fertility
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Soil Survey of Organic Fields

• 76 fields soil sampled and analysed for
  macronutrients and various soil chemical and
  physical characteristics
• Overall, soils were
• moderately to severely deficient in P,
• slightly deficient in N,
• optimum for K and S (some localized S deficiency)

Knight
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Green Manuring (Plough Downs)

• Evaluation of a variety of green manure crops for
  supplying Nitrogen and Phosphorous, and for
  competitiveness with weeds
• Investigation of optimal seeding rates for legume
  green manure crops for weed control and Nitrogen
  supply

Knight Shirtiffe
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Organic Fertilizers/Ammendments

• Examining ways of improving P fertility
• Composted livestock manures
• Fungal inoculants for solubilizing P
• Green manures

Knight
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Cropping systems

• Long-term crop rotation study comparing
• High input low diversity
• High input high diversity
• Low input low diversity (organic)
• Low input high diversity (organic)
• So far weeds are still manageable, organic high
  diversity system among most economically viable

Brandt, AAFC
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Summary

• Addressing issues identified by organic producers
  as important
• Cooperation between organic producers, U. of S.
  researchers, provincial and federal research
  institutes