The so-called ‘Plowdown Challenge‘ returned for another season in 2024 on Canada’s Prince Edward Island. It is one of many ways Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) scientists and farmers are continuously working towards an even more sustainable agricultural sector. Will last years’ winner make it a double-double or does another farmer take the crown?
Once again, the AAFC Charlottetown Research and Development Centre challenged Canadian farmers to put their knowledge to the test with the 2024 AAFC Plowdown Challenge.
As in 2023, AAFC knowledge transfer specialists Scott Anderson and Roger Henry planted the Mountain Gem potato variety on a field without using traditional fertilizers following a cover crop of red clover at AAFC’s Harrington Research Farm, located on Prince Edward Island.
In addition to the potential benefits of using leftover nitrogen from the soil and a cover crop, there was a twist this year – they added manure. Farmers were encouraged to guess the potato yield of these fields.
“Word of mouth spread a bit from last year’s challenge and Roger used the various meetings and tradeshows throughout this year to garner more than three times the number of guesses compared to last year,” says Scott.
When grading the harvested potatoes was done and dusted, the actual potato yield for this years’ AAFC Plowdown Challenge field was a whopping 293 hundredweight per acre. That compares to 169 hundredweight from the challenge in 2023 when no manure was used. This yield comes close to 2024’s estimated Prince Edward Island average of 304.7 hundredweight per acre for potatoes.
“Adding manure put the potato plant growth into hyper speed when combined with the soil nutrients left over from the previous red clover crop,” says Scott.
“The potatoes were a good size and very uniform which is excellent for table stock and processing into chips or french fries.”
After all of the guesses were tallied, one happy farmer was crowned the 2024 winner of the AAFC Plowdown Challenge.
Prince Edward Island organic vegetable farmer Matt Dykerman was the winner of the challenge with the closest guess of 275 hundredweight per acre. Island potato farmer Ashley Ching was the runner-up, with a guess of 269 hundredweight per acre. The average of the overall guesses was 192 hundredweight.
Some farmers may have underestimated the power of manure along with the nitrogen left in soil from previous crops, but as an organic farmer, Matt knows a thing or two about growing crops without inorganic fertilizer.
“With the outpouring of support for this challenge, we believe that we’ve been able to inform more and more farmers on the benefits of factoring in the leftover nitrogen from the previous crops or cover crops as well as the value of manure as a natural fertilizer,” says Scott.
After two years, what does the future hold for the Plowdown Challenge? Scott and Roger have taken this challenge further than they could have imagined but don’t count them out just yet on cropping up with another idea soon.
The Plowdown Challenge serves as a demonstration of previous AAFC research, with the goal of increasing adoption of these types of beneficial management practices. It is one of the many ways AAFC researchers and farmers are continuing to act as stewards of the land, contributing to an even more sustainable agricultural sector.
Considering leftover nutrients in the soil when making decisions on fertilizer-use can be added to the toolbox for farmers along with other AAFC-researched beneficial management practices such manure, cover crops and enhanced efficiency fertilizers.
Source: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
Cover image: Scott Anderson and Roger Henry sorting potatoes. Credit Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
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