The weather was very cooperative at WADO Field Day on Wednesday, July 20th held at Melita.  Approximately 60 participants attended with 25 of them being farmers with a great mix of government, industry and educational backgrounds.   

A great speaker line-up provided several excellent talks including. First off, Percy Phillips from Prairie Quinoa discussed all about quinoa, then Scott Chalmers discussed successes and challenges pea intercrops with canola, barley and oat, in addition to mustard and camelina trials.   

Gordon Finlay from Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada discussed the dry bean nitrogen and phosphorous fertility trials while in contrast Kristen MacMillan from the University of Manitoba provided insight on the dry bean inoculant project and provided an up-to-date research findings. Lunch was a buffet of BBQ burgers, salads and veggie subs in River Park.  

In the afternoon Dennis Lange, Amir Farooq and Dane Froese from Manitoba Agriculture talked about agronomy, diseases, and pesticides on peas, soybeans and flax, respectively. Concluding the day, Bruce Brolley from Roquette discussed the organic and conventional pea variety trials in addition to nitrogen and phosphorus studies with pea at WADO discussing production practices, disease challenges, and market demand and supply.  

Take home message to all participants was to: 

1. Follow proper rotations 

2. Manage proper soil fertility (4Rs and economics) and seeding dates 

3. Scout your fields first then use one to many decision tools available before making a pesticide application! 

 

Scott Chalmers,  P. Ag 

Diversification Specialist 

Westman Agricultural Diversification Organization 

Manitoba Agriculture 

 

Please listen to more of the interview with Scott Chalmers and CJRB's Barry Lamb: