Crops: The Lynch File - Sorting out the good from the not-so-good in all those new products

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Doing your research and planning a proper test can help you figure
out whether a new product really will bring an increase in yield

by PAT LYNCH

I have just sat through another session where I was shown some great looking crops as opposed to those that were untreated. You know, the presentations where supposedly random plants are shown with a bigger root system or greener leaves, or some other desirable characteristic. The past three years of good crops seems to have brought along a bunch of new products, which pretty well can do whatever you want. They will certainly be able to cut your costs of production and increase your yields.

However, if you ask enough questions, you may find out that there are no claims that the actual cost per acre or return per acre will be any better.

Maybe I have seen these too often. But, then again, when I entered this business in the early 1970s, there were many of the same type of products, practices or services. Few of them are still around. I can easily remember "Sod Buster" magnetized seed, seaweed plus molasses for rootworm control and a few other less imaginative concepts. In case you are wondering about the magnetized seed, you just had to run it through this big magnet to boost performance.

I remember one grower who sprayed a product on part of his field that was supposed to help water drain away. As I stood with him in the field, I suggested that the product worked too well. I told him I thought that the sprayed area was suffering from drought. I walked away before he could see the smile on my face.

Farmers are always going to try new products and services. This is a part of the business of farming. Farmers try new products, services and keep the ones that work.

This is how you have succeeded in the past.

There are a few things you can do to help sort out the possibly good new ideas from the products that are "just too good to be true." First, is it registered in Canada? Get a copy of the registration and see if it supports the verbal claims. Second, get names of growers who used it last year. Ask for names of those who are going to use it again, as well as those who won't. If there are no growers in the second category, that is a red flag. Third, go on line and Google the item. You will probably get some grower feedback there.

You can check the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website. There will be some data on registered products. Check to see if the registration corresponds with the claims. A product may be registered as improving phosphorus uptake, but the seller may be claiming a yield increase. There is a difference. For a product to be registered, it just has to show a difference in 60 per cent of the trials. That means that, in the data submitted, four out of 10 times there is no difference.

Once you have decided that you will be using the item, plan how to test it. Most growers fall down on this step and then continue to use a product that they probably shouldn't have. A|ternatively, sometimes growers dismiss a product that they should continue to use. It is critical that the product be tested in various environments. You must take more than one yield comparison. If it is a single product in a side-by-side comparison, you can take multiple yields comparing the treated to the non-treated. Then compare the average yield of the two. If the difference in yield in the plots of treated is greater than the difference between the treated versus the non-treated, it is doubtful that you have a yield increase with the product being tested. Then be sure to do a cost comparison.

Yields are critical. Often a treated area can look better than the non-treated control. But looks do not pay the bills. There has to be a yield difference for you to accept the new product. BF

Pat Lynch, CCA (ON), is an agronomist for Cargill in Ontario.