Organic Research at the University of Saskatchewan

1. Organic Research at the University of Saskatchewan Dr. J. Diane Knight Dept. of Soil Science

2. Organic Industry Needs Assessment (SAF) • Barriers to Industry Growth • Marketing • Production Research & Development

3. Barriers to Industry Growth • Lack of an internationally recognized accreditation/certification system • Lack of marketing information

4. Organic Trade and Marketing AnalystDept. of Agricultural Economics

5. Organic Certification/ Accreditation in Canada • USDA-National Organic Program (NOP) • Organic Marketing and Supply Chain Analysis

6. Production Research & Development

7. Three priority areas identified: • Managing soil fertility and quality • Crop rotations in relation to soil, weeds, insects, and diseases • Managing weeds

8. Variety Development/Assessment

9. 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

10. 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.

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

12. Weed Control

13. 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

14. 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

15. Spray Technology • Vinegar and Pine oil as organic herbicides • First indications are it is not economically nor technically feasible for most producers Wolf, AAFC

16. Soil Fertility

17. 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

18. 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

19. Organic Fertilizers/Ammendments • Examining ways of improving P fertility • Composted livestock manures • Fungal inoculants for solubilizing P • Green manures Knight

20. 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

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