E-Delivery

SCIENTIFICALLY SOUND, PRACTICALLY DRIVEN field-scale are laid out in strips of treatments – some mes replicated and some mes not. They may or may not be performed in mul ple years or at mul ple loca ons. While the results from farm-scale strip tests can show interes ng trends, they do not yield results that can be considered sta s cally viable. The Alberta Pulse Growers (APG) set out to create a way of doing field-scale research that would combine the key principles of scien fically viable research (replica on, randomiza on and repeatability) by building a protocol that would allow any number of research ques ons to be tested on farm. Cri cal to the APG program are several elements: Sta s cally viable data; clearly defined boundaries of what research can and cannot be performed at the field scale; and a team that includes scien sts, agronomists and farmers each equal contributors in the planning and execu on of the trials. In spring of 2017, the field-scale protocol was launched and tested at eight loca ons across the province. A team of three agronomists each overseeing three farmer cooperators were contracted to manage the trial, collec ng data and repor ng back to the scien fic team who analyze the data. Each member of the team ac vely par cipated in crea ng the APG REPORTS ON YEAR 1 LEARNINGS OF THE PLOT TO FIELD PROGRAM Agronomist Rob Dunn collects rain data at the Claresholm loca on. The Plot to Field research program was ini ated in 2016. The purpose of the program is to build a research protocol for field-scale trials. In essence, a protocol was needed that is robust enough to allow for meaningful sta s cal analysis while maintaining prac cality and logis cal simplicity such that farmers can find value. Currently, Best Management Prac ces (BMPs) are built on the results of small plot research performed at research sta ons across the provinces, providing regional guidelines and informa on. The premise of Plot to Field is not to replace small plots, but rather to enhance the knowledge gained by applying it at a local level. Sound scien fic data relies on three basic principles: Replica on, randomiza on and repeatability. Small plot research trials seek to minimize the number of confounding factors, which reduces the "noise" in the data and enables us to see a true picture of how the chosen treatment impacts our crop. Treatments within small plot trials are always randomized with three or four replica ons of each treatment at each test loca on. Addi onally, the en re trial is repeated over two to four years. This provides data over a number of site (loca on) years yielding high confidence in the results. Typically, trials done at the protocols and determining what data was required to be collected. To determine if the protocol will give data that is sta s cally viable the ini al research ques on required needed to be simply a verifica on of small plot results. The team selected "What seeding rate of yellow peas gives maximum profitability?" Small plot research in the 1990s and early 2000s under both conven onal and minimum llage has shown that 7-9 plants/ 2 consistently gives the greatest yield. We an cipate that this trial, on a field-scale randomized, replicated and repeated trial will show the same results. 3 0

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