Emily Plihal
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
South Peace News
Part of what makes SARDA Ag Research so successful is the relationship between agricultural producers in the region and its team.
A project that has been worked on over recent years is testing deep banding and its benefits to producers.
Deep banding is a technique that injects nutrients like phosphorus and potassium four to six inches below the soil surface. This method is done once every three years and helps to make nutrients available to plant roots, specifically on no-till or reduced-tillage land. The hope is that deep banding will reduce costs and labour by simply reducing the annual applications.
“In normal practice, a farmer would deep band fertilizer, typically nitrogen, and usually in the fall to have it in place for the following year’s crop,” explains grain farmer Norm Boulet.
“Deep banding the nutrient speeds up seeding by reducing the amount of products we have to deal with through the drill at seeding. By deep banding, we put nutrients into the soil bank for the roots of the crop to access when it’s needed.”
Boulet is working on a trial with SARDA, deep banding phosphorus fertilizer with enough injected in the soil for four years of normal use. He explains normally 50 lbs per acre would be placed of 11-52 phosphorus fertilizer at seeding, but for the trial 200 lbs per acre was deep banded, with the intention of not having to use more fertilizer for four years.
“SARDA was testing a practice change which could help farmers to seed their crops more quickly in the spring by having one crop nutrient already in place,” Boulet says.
“For farmers like us (at the time) we had a small cart with only three compartments on our air drill. If we didn’t have to place the phosphorus at seeding time, it would allow us to carry more seed, or other types of fertilizer and extend the number of acres per tank, which would allow fewer stops to fill,” he adds.
Boulet says if this practice worked, it would also allow the farmer to purchase fertilizer in the fall when prices are lower, band them into the soil and save significantly on input costs.
He adds he was intrigued to learn more about the practice after attending a SARDA Ag Research Summer Tour where the practice was explained.
“At that time SARDA was in its second or third year of the trial and to that point no yield loss had been experienced,” Boulet notes.
“It intrigued me. I think that’s an important point, ‘no yield loss had been experienced’, usually, as farmers, we are chasing yield, if we change to a different seed variety or add a micronutrient, we are trying to increase our yields.”
Boulet says his practice was about saving time and potentially saving money, if farmers could get a deal on fertilizer.
“Also, Ag Canada research says that in the great majority of cases seeding early gives the best yields so if a farmer can seed more quickly, then their crop can establish sooner and take greater advantage of the soil moisture before the weeds or evaporation gets it,” he says.
Boulet says with SARDA’s help, his family farm established a 50-acre trial in one of their fields. He says they had some phosphorus fertilizer left over, so they deep banded 200 lbs/ac in the fall of 2021.
“That would normally be enough for four crops because 50 lb/ac is our typical annual application,” Boulet notes.
“The SARDA trial had looked at three years and saw no yield loss, but we wanted to do four years because we have a four-year crop rotation and we thought it made sense to have all our crops involved in the trial.”
Boulet explains 11-52 is the commonly available fertilizer farmers use to provide crops with the required nutrient phosphorus. Monoam- monium phosphate (MAP) is 11 per cent nitrogen and 52 percent P205. He explains when applied at 50 lbs per acre, it provides 5.5 lbs/ac nitrogen and 26 lbs/ac phosphorus.
“We were shooting for four to five inches deep but ended up more like three to four inches deep,” Boulet says.
“We wanted to ensure it was low enough it wouldn’t be disturbed and brought to the surface with our normal seeding or tillage operations, but not so deep the plant roots wouldn’t find it when the crops required it. Phosphorus is quite immobile in the soil, and our heavy clay tends to trap nutrients in place. I don’t know that we would consider this practice if we farmed a very sandy soil.”
Boulet says the yields and the grain quality tested after using deep banding, (inclusive of protein, bushel weight, and grade), were not significantly affected or changed with the use of deep banding.
“We harvested strips on and off the treatment area and weighed the samples using the grain cart which is equipped with scales,” Boulet says.
“We were not expecting a yield increase but were concerned that as the phosphorus was used up over time, we might see a yield decrease. 2025 was the fourth year and yields were still the same on the trial and the normal practice of applying 50 lbs/ac 11-52 at seeding.”
Boulet says the major benefit, if adopted on their farm, would be less product handling in the spring and thus extending the number of acres seeded per tank.
He adds this would allow them to seed crops more quickly, potentially taking advantage of soil moisture.
“The second anticipated advantage would be to purchase nutrients at lower fall fertilizer prices which could be put into the soil bank rather than carrying it over in bins,” he says.
“Unfortunately, fertilizer prices jumped drastically the year following the trial establishment and adopting it didn’t seem to make economic sense for us.”
Boulet notes that farmers who are feeling the time crunch in the spring, especially people using smaller carts with only two or three compartments, could find deep banding a good fit.
“If I were to be offered a very good price on MAP in the fall and had the time to deep band the product, I would certainly consider it,” he says.
“If it were a very good price, I would consider banding four years’ worth of phosphorus on all our farm.”
Boulet says in his family’s farming operation they do a one in four sulphur application, broadcasting 100 lbs per acre of elemental sulphur (ES) on 25 per cent of their acres every year.
“We do this to ensure our soils have sufficient sulphur to meet our crop needs, and to reduce the fertilizer we have to put through the drill, and tender to the drill at seeding,” he explains.
“Elemental sulphur needs to be broadcast so it can be weathered and broken down in the soil by microbes to be plant available. If we were to couple the ES application with a deep banding of phosphorus, doing 25 per cent of our acres every year we could significantly reduce the fertilizer going through the drill at seeding, do more acres per fill, and it would reduce the number of trucks needed in the field and how often they need to be filled. We could seed more acres per day and potentially gain yield by ensuring our crops have more spring moisture available to them.”
Boulet says the main takeaways of the trial were pretty evident after the four-year period.
“We were not expecting to increase yield with the practice change, we were just hoping there would be no yield loss,” he says.
“There was no measured yield loss or quality loss from the deep banding, deep banding phosphorus could benefit a farmer by streamlining the seeding process, and could be a financial benefit if the fall price of MAP were to be significantly lower than the spring price, and this was a good example of small plot research being taken to field scale and giving the same results.”
Farming Smarter from Lethbridge also conducted an identical trial on a field in their community.
It was a joint project to determine if deep banding would work in the two areas.
For more information about deep banding practices, phone the SARDA Ag Research office at (780) 837-2900.
Emily Plihal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter – South Peace News – southpeacenews.com
