Farmers need to exercise caution while using new products!
Dr. Tarlok Singh Sahota, Director LUARS Thunder Bay
Every year agricultural companies bring new products with their claims of improving soil health or crop yields. Farmers could be tempted to use such products. However, farmers shouldn’t use these products unless these are tested and recommended by a third party, especially the Provincial or Federal Research Facilities including the universities. Or else, farmers can test new products on their farms on a small scale and expand their application on large acreage; if these products are found good. We tested 4 bio-stimulants (FA STARTER, IRYS, FL GOLD and GENEA from an agricultural company in canola during 2020-2022 and none of them improved the canola seed yield. The new fertilizers brought by them, Apex (5 % ammoniacal N, 25 % urea N, 2.9 % Ca, 1.2 % Mg and 8 % S) and Top Phos (8-30-0-4.8) were no better than the N (a blend of ammonium sulphate, urea and ESN) and P (0-45-0) fertilizers used by our farmers. However, one product from them, EXCELIS MAXX (N Stabilizer) showed some promise. EXCELIS MAXX treated urea gave 0.80 MT/ha higher canola seed yield than untreated (conventional) urea, though this increase in yield wasn’t statistically significant. Meghan Moran, OMAFRA’s Edible Beans and Canola Specialist, I believe, had also tested Top Phos. However, I don’t know what sort of results she got. I may also make it clear that if a product didn’t work at Thunder Bay, it doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t work at other places too. The point I am making is that there is a need to test and approve new products before farmers should start using these products and waste their time and money. The new products should be tested over multi locations to know at which places and under what agroclimatic conditions these products would work.
