Released on February 24, 1999
Agriculture and Food Minister Eric Upshall today said thatSaskatchewan farmers can obtain important information for crop
planning decisions through enrolment in the Saskatchewan Management
Plus Program (SMP).
Upshall made the comment when he launched the 1999 SMP program at a
conference in LeRoy.
"SMP is an unbiased research program, based on field level information
submitted by farmers," Upshall said. "The information is based on
what works in their local area and can help make their farm operation
become more profitable.
"SMP is a volunteer program offered at no cost to the producer. It is
designed to provide crop production information based on actual
producer data. The information collected from producer participants
is summarized and returned to those producers for use in their crop
planning decisions."
Producers who enrol in the program are given a handbook to record
personal crop production information. After harvest, farmers send
their information to SMP, where it is summarized into a Farm
Management booklet that is returned to participants in the SMP
program. There are over 3,400 producers around the province who are
enrolled in the program and in the RM of LeRoy, 186 out of the 205
active producers participate.
"The success of SMP and the data relevance depends on the number
of producers responding to the program," Upshall said. "That's
why we launched the 1999 program in the RM of LeRoy where
90 per cent of the producers recognize the value of farm level,
unbiased producer data."
The information returned to producers who take part in the
program includes: average crop yields by variety on a localized
basis, area yields by crop variety, yield by seeding method and
average grade of crops produced.
Based on producer participation, the RM of LeRoy is the only
location where data is returned to producers on a RM basis at
this time. All other participants receive data summarized on a
crop district basis so that confidentiality can be maintained.
Information packages with summarized data will be mailed to all
participants in early spring.
SMP is a free farm level research program where farmers are the
researchers. "I encourage producers to participate in SMP
because it is a new source of crop production information to help
them make more informed management decisions."
SMP is modeled after a similar program in Manitoba which has been
very successful.
For more information, or to sign-up, visit the SMP web site at
www.agr.gov.sk.ca/saf/smp or contact your local rural service
centre.
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For more information, contact:
Paul Johnson Michael Zentner
Agriculture and Food SMP Provincial Co-ordinator
Regina LeRoy
Phone: (306)787-8077 Phone: (306)286-3433
SMP Backgrounder
What is the Saskatchewan Management Plus (SMP) program?
SMP is a voluntary Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food program that is designed to provide information on crop production technology based on actual producer data.
Information collected from producer participants is summarized and returned to the same producers for use in their production planning decisions.
It is a new source of crop production information designed to help farmers make more informed farm management decisions.
It is field level unbiased research.
How does SMP work?
Once you have volunteered, you will be given an information handbook that you can use to record your personal crop production information.
After harvest you will receive a form in the mail that asks you to transfer the data that you have recorded in your field record book throughout the production season on to the form and return it.
Information collected from farmers includes: crop and variety, land use (summerfallow, stubble), seeding date, rate and method, chemicals/fertilizers applied, average grade produced, and crop yields.
After all of the individual forms are returned the information will be summarized and a Farm Management booklet will be returned to you with the cumulative information of all of the participants in your area.
Information returned to producers includes: average crop yields on a localized basis, area yields by crop variety, percent of normal yields by crop, yields by seeding method, and average grades and yields of the crops produced.
Individual confidentiality will be strictly maintained. Your data will not be given or sold to private companies.
What's in it for me?
This program was designed to give farmers good data that can be used to make their crop planning decisions.
In the Farm Management information package that is returned to participants, local data is included. Much of this data is available from other sources, but it is based on provincial or test plot data, not actual, local producer data.
As an example, consider the number of canola varieties on the market today. The vast number of choices makes your decision very difficult. With SMP, you will have additional and local information that will help you make your choices. You will be able to choose the variety most suited to your area. For example, research can show what
grain variety in your local Rural Municipality (RM) outperformed other varieties over time.
Other information such as a complete field-by-field record keeping system will be returned to participants. This record keeping will be useful when considering budgets, crop rotations, chemical carryover and fertilization needs. If enough data is collected in a RM, for example, data will be returned for that RM. Currently, data is returned for crop districts, so that individual confidentiality can be maintained. SMP will provide producers and researchers yield and agronomic benchmark data to be used in making management decisions.
Some samples from the Farm Management package:
One of the most popular portions of the package is the yield-by-variety comparison.
Producers can use this information (a summary of many farmers experience in the area) to select the best crop variety in their local area.
Another popular feature of the SMP program is a comparison of yields of crops to the way they were seeded. If, for example, it can be demonstrated that seeding lentils in your RM with one piece of equipment consistently does better that seeding it with another, you
may want to consider a different seeding system for planting lentils.
Other information such as optimum seeding dates and rates and fertilizer to yield graphs may be returned to farmers, depending on the number of volunteers in the program.
How to participate:
The first step of becoming a part of SMP is to volunteer. Participation is free.
Your information will be sent to a database with over 3,500 other producer volunteers.
The more volunteers, the better the data that is returned to you. If enough producers from your RM decide to participate, SMP can return information on a RM level (but only if individual confidentiality can be maintained).
To enroll, you can sign-up over the Internet at SMP's web site at
http://www.agr.gov.sk.ca/saf/smp or contact you local Rural Service Centre.