Yellow Pea Seed Offerings & Agronomy

AAC Julius Yellow Pea

• Medium season
• 20% smaller vs. other varieties helping save on seed treatments.
• Good for seed coat breakage.
• High Protein

CDC Meadow Yellow Pea

• Early season
• 20% smaller vs. other varieties helping save on seed treatments.
• Good for seed coat breakage.
• Lodging can be a risk
• May be lower yielding vs newer varieties but some farmers love CDC Meadow
  • Registered in 2006, the year I graduated university and started working on the farm :)

Green Pea Seed

CDC Huskie green pea (New):

• 5% higher yielding vs existing varieties
• better green colour retention
• Medium season
• Good seed coat breakage

Maple Pea Seed

CDC Mosaic Mosaic maple pea:

• Accepted buy buyers (check with brokers)
• Small seed size lowering cost per ac
• Improved yield and standability compared to CDC Acer

Forage Pea
Black forage pea seed
Most of our customers use these in forage blends to increase protein in silage. 
This variety will go flat if seeded on its own. So roll your land and ideally seed between stubble, so the stubble holds up the plants better when they lodge.

Pea Management
Plant Stand:

• Plant stand recommendations in peas has been at 7-8 plants per sq foot for a long time. There was some research into lower use rates by Alberta Pulse Growers (APG) : https://albertapulse.com/response-to-seeding-rate-and-insecticide-seed-treatment/ 
• It found that there was not a large yield drop by lowering rates but maturity was increased. I feel there is risk to lowering rates too much if there is more damage to seed though your drill than expected, environmental stress, insects that would bring the population lower than expected. I do have a couple customers using planters to seed peas and lowering their rates. They are using a fungicide and insecticide seed treat & peat inoculant on seed that is good for up to 30 days without a polymer.

Fungicides:

• On irrigation we usually do 2 fungicides of different groups one at 1-5% flowering and again about 10-14 days later. I think some of the benefits from the second fungicide could be cleaner stems which can help the crop stand later in the season, but that is assumptions on my part. Is it economical? I'm not sure. 

Mid Season Nitrogen

• Steve Larocque of Beyond Agronomy had this article on mid season N applications in peas to boost yield. Since peas stop fixing N at flowering and for some soils this could be interesting. I don't know of anyone doing this right now: http://beyondagronomy.com/newsletter-archive/january-24-2012

Peat Inoculant on Seed for up to 30 Days

• Agtiv Fuel has been used by us for a number of years now. We use the peat based and meter it on as we treat seed. 40 ac per pail on peas = $9 per ac
• It's good for up to 30 days on seed with treatment. If the temperature is high when seeding (over 20C) then they recommend only 20 days. No polymer coating needed. 
  • I like not having to deal with granular as well as knowing that as long as seeds are in the ground inoculant is on them vs bridging, meter shutoffs when traveling and high humidity issues of granular. 

Seed Treatment

• Most people do seed treat peas with at least a fungicide and most of those use an insecticide as well. 
• Where pea leaf weevil is a risk or you are seeding very early an insecticide may be needed. On our farm we always do the fungicide and insecticide to reduce our risk of insect problems and to tolerate very cold soil from seeding early.

Pulse Crop Storage
Sask Pulse has some information on safe storage of pulse crops. Unfortunately this may be important reading!
https://saskpulse.com/resources/post-harvest-and-long-term-storage-of-pulses/?utm_source=pulse-advisor&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=agronomy

China Access
Those curious on the timelines and process for restoring market access for peas to China can click here