UNITY - Concerns about moisture were quickly replaced by contingency plans after the skies opened up one day before the scheduled North West Terminal’s Farming for the Future field day.
Thursday, May 25 rolled into Friday, May 26 for the field day after a half inch of rain pushed the demo day back 24 hours, making for ideal seeding conditions. Pattison Ag had their John Deere P680 drill with a c650 tank being pulled by their 9RX 640 tractors on site for the elementary students on the tour.
The students were walked through all the prep work and agronomics of what goes into farming even a single 130-acre field. They also learned how many sponsors and how many people pitch in to make the program such a success.
The rain delay took away the availability of several sponsors so Jaclyn Romanowski, agronomist at Delta Co-op, pinch hit and spoke to the students about the science of farming. She spoke to the students about why a burn-off spray (sponsors Bayer and Corteva) is necessary; why Schultz Acres had to do some vertical tilling before the drills put the seed down;t role of nitrogen (sponsors Co-op, Cargill and Veikle AG) and phosphorous (sponsors Timac Ag and Nutrien) play in the growing cycle. This year Alliance Seed’s newest variety of CWRS – yet unnamed – was seeded.
Garan Farms picked up and delivered the fertilizer while Schultz Acres picked up the seed. The fertilizer blend was based on soil testing by Crop Max.
The students enjoyed a barbecue lunch sponsored by Farm Credit Canada and served by NWT staff before heading back to class, knowing they will be back for the harvest demo day in the fall.
Last year’s canola crop earned the program over $75,000 to date. In the past 15 years, the Farming for the Future program has donated $348,000 to the schools in Unity.
