The Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre (MCDC) hosted its thirtieth annual field day on Aug. 9, 2023. The day drew growers and other potato industry representatives from across Manitoba to the research site at Carberry, Man. for updates on MCDC’s latest research.
“We do this research for our producers, so we invite them every year so that they can come in, tap into that research tap — into our experience. We are testing different kinds of products, different agronomic practices that probably producers are a bit reluctant to test at the beginning of stage,” Haider Abbas, applied research specialist at MCDC, said in an interview at the field day.
The field day included updates on research into groundwater studies, mustard biofumigation, herbicide injury on potatoes, pea protein, and soil pit research, amongst others.
“When producers come here, they look into our research and then they also get the opportunity to speak with other producers who are also attending that field day. They tap into each other’s experience, and then they share their experiences. Sometimes we develop our research ideas, and we develop our research protocol or projects just talking to them,” Abbas added.
Highlights from the day included:
- MCDC is researching erosion control to see how much erosion happens in a potato field and how it happens.
- There’s research being done on uses for mustard including erosion control as a green manure and verticillium control.
- There is research looking into nitrogen fertilizers using control release fertilizers.
- There is ongoing mustard biofumigation research happening with MCDC now trying to find more mustard varieties that are suited for biofumiogation, comparing mustard grown under irrigation versus dry land, mustard seeding dates and economical value, amongst others.
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