SINTALUTA, Sask. — The Indian Head Curling Club has found a way to raise money for its operation and provide farmers, agricultural companies and retailers with important growing information.
Earlier this month, it held its field-scale canola trial north of Sintaluta, Sask., with retailers, agricultural company representatives and growers getting a look at different varieties.
It marks the fourth year that Andrea De Roo and Curtis Russell have partnered with Be-Ver Farms to host the trials.
For De Roo, the trials provide more than funds for the 95-year-old curling rink about 70 kilometres east of Regina.
“We’re definitely a third-party verification tool for sure,” said De Roo.
“There’s a lot of up-and-coming, experimental that have been given to our trials, which is pretty unique…. It’s a perfect trial, not just for farmers, but for retailers and agronomists as well.”
Murray Horsman, a canola grower just outside Indian Head, made his first appearance at the trials this year. He was impressed with what he saw and heard from seed company representatives.
“They seem to have a lot of great stuff coming up,” said Horsman. “They’re looking to have some quite promising varieties coming out.”
Horsman said it was nice to see trials near his region to get a look at what works for the area, and what applications they used growing the crops.
“Everything didn’t get the exact same attention. It got what it needed for fertilizer and chemicals, and you can see it in black and white (with De Roo’s reports) so you can compare the two,” he said.
De Roo, who is also the lead agronomist at South Country and Crop Intelligence, keeps detailed records of the plant counts, applications, soil moisture, rain, water-driven yield potential, root activity and yields for the trials.
Different varieties and inputs were donated to the trial by Bayer, BASF Pioneer, Canterra Seeds, Corteva, Proven Seed, Synergy Ag and Brett Young. South Country Equipment provides the technology De Roo uses in her reports.
Farmers and retailers get to watch the different canola varieties grow and can see the results for both Liberty Link and Roundup treated crops so they can make informed decisions on seed-type and genetics.
With the volatile change the area has seen in rainfall the past four years, there has been ample room to see which varieties thrive in different conditions. Each year has had different winners in the yield reports in the fall, and the top three yielding varieties changed each year.
“That’s the awesome opportunity with this trial,” said De Roo, the curling club president. “The length of time we’ve been able to do this trial we really get to see a lot of these varieties under different conditions. No year has really been the same.”
This year saw lots of rain through seeding and into the start of June, but De Roo said the “taps have turned off” since. Even with the recent dry spell, the region has received about 70 percent of normal rainfall.
De Roo said the Indian Head Curling Club is completing a club website, where it plans to feature the results of the trials.
De Roo isn’t sure what’s in store for next year. It’s possible the trials come to a close, or it’s possible they take it on again and include different crop types.
“It kind of all depends on the response (from the company reps),” she said. “I know visiting Joel (Cavers), he was interested in maybe doing a trial with the planter next year, so I know he’s excited.”
De Roo is confident her trials are the biggest across Western Canada, although she hasn’t been able to find someone to verify it.
“I’ve had a few people say ‘we have some really big trials,’ and they have 22 varieties, and we have 33…. I have yet to hear of a single trial go over the 30-mark other than ours. I’ve asked all of the reps and they haven’t said anything, so I feel like we could probably take the title,” she said.
