Lakehead University’s agricultural research station is studying a phenomenon usually only associated with blissful cows burping and breaking wind on farmers’ fields.
Researchers say agricultural sources of greenhouse house gas (GHG) emissions don’t just come from livestock; they can also be exacerbated by the use of fertilizers on crops.
“This is the first time we are evaluating GHG emissions from these fertilizers vis-a-vis urea (soluble nitrogen) in canola,” station director Tarlok Singh Sahota said in a bulletin.
Sahota is to lead next week’s annual tour of the Highway 61 facility just west of Thunder Bay.
The GHG study is being led by LU physics professor Gautam Das.
In 2020, the Canadian government announced “a national target to reduce absolute levels of GHG emissions arising from fertilizer application by 30 per cent below 2020 levels by 2030.”
The research station’s mandate is to experiment with various varieties of crops, fertilizers and herbicides to see if they might benefit Thunder Bay-area farmers, who contend with cooler temperatures and a shorter growing season compared to their southern Ontario counterparts.
More than 50 experiments are being conducted this year, including the effects of Holganix Bio 800, a soil additive that is used to increase crop yield and reduce fertilizer use,
Sahota said researchers are particularly “excited” about the planting of winter camelina, which survived the previous winter.
The oilseed crop, which is similar to canola “is resistant to flea beetles and black leg (fungus) disease,” the bulletin said.
It added: “Pod shattering is not an issue in camelina; therefore, it can be straight cut (during harvesting).”
Though winter camelina is not being grown by Thunder Bay-area farmer as yet, Sahota said, canola has become a major plant, accounting for about 1,000 acres of field crops on farms within the research station’s orbit.
Of the 16 new crop varieties being studied at the station this year, three are canola-type crops, the bulletin said. The station is also evaluating flax, soybean and alfalfa varieties.
Last fall, the 32-year-old facility was given $1.65 million in provincial and federal funds so it can operate for another five years. The amount was the same as what it received in 2018.
The station tour is to take place Thursday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
