NEW TEAM MEMBER
Cropping Systems Research
By David Morris

Integrating all the facets of modern agricultural technology into a system that is economically and environmentally sustainable is no small undertaking. Yet that’s the challenge taken up by Dr. Bill Deen, the newly appointed cropping systems agronomist in the Plant Agriculture Department of the University of Guelph. (This is the position formerly held by Dr. Tony Vyn.) Prior to accepting the position at Guelph, Deen served as a senior instructor at Ridgetown College (since 1997), where he was heavily involved in teaching, research and extension, related primarily to integrated weed control systems for soybeans and for a variety of horticultural crops.

Deen is no stranger to Ontario agriculture or to a systems approach to crop management, as both have figured prominently in his education and career. He grew up on a farrow-to-finish farm near Drayton, in Wellington County. He graduated from the University of Guelph in 1985 with a BSc in agriculture, with an emphasis on crop science, crop protection and economics. For the next five years, he worked in the agrochemical industry, first with Union Carbide Agricultural Products Canada Inc., and then with the Niagara Business Unit of Rhone-Poulenc Canada Inc.

In 1990, Deen went back to the University of Guelph to obtain a Master’s Degree from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Business. (He must find something particularly attractive about Guelph, since he seems to have been unable to stay away from it very long!) In his thesis project, he examined economic thresholds for weed control and the impact of risk and uncertainty on producers’ optimal weed control strategies. This was followed by a two-year stint as a research project leader with the George Morris Centre in Guelph, where he examined the effects of government pesticide policies and regulations on Canadian farmers, industry and consumers.

Deen decided, however, that he did not want to spend the rest of his career trying to make sense of government policies. So he returned to university again to obtain his PhD with Dr. Clarence Swanton of the Plant Agriculture department. The objective of Deen’s research project was to develop a model for describing the competition between crops and weeds that could be applied to a range of crop-weed combinations.

Deen is quick to acknowledge that the cropping systems agronomist position represents a major shift of focus for him and that he is on yet another steep learning curve. To orient himself to his new area of emphasis, he has spent much of his first few weeks on the job determining how best to build upon the cropping systems research previously done at Guelph, in a way that will also complement related work being done by other scientists in Ontario. His time is to be divided equally between teaching and research. From his initial discussions with producer groups, researchers and other agricultural professionals, Deen has already identified several areas where he feels his efforts could be applied profitably.

Many questions related to no-till remain unanswered. Of particular interest to Deen is continuing Vyn’s work, directed toward overcoming the factors limiting no-till adoption for corn, especially on the heavier soil types. For example, he sees techniques such as fall zone tillage and semi-ridge-till as having sufficient benefit for soil warming and fertilizer placement to merit further investigation and development.

On a less complex front, Deen hopes to shed some light on the relative importance to corn yields of uniform plant spacing within the row, compared to the uniformity of time of emergence.

With his strong background in economics, Deen is also interested in collaborating on projects to analyze the economics of various cropping systems. He feels that the breadth of his experience will enable him to bridge the gap between researchers whose main strength is economics and those whose primary emphasis has been production.

Deen also identified the need for continued work in nitrogen use efficiency, noting that it is a key factor in three major issues – economic viability, water quality and global warming. He sees the whole realm of the effect of agricultural practices on greenhouse gas emissions – and on global warming – as a growth area for research. Developing systems to maximize the storage of carbon in the soil and minimize the release of greenhouse gases will entail integrating work on tillage, crop rotations, nitrogen management, crop residue management and the use of cover crops and forage legumes. Because these are also all areas with considerable agronomic importance, it looks like a marriage made in heaven.

Deen has already discovered that there are as many visions for his position as there are agricultural groups, and that his challenge is to integrate them all into a viable research project. However, it is a challenge for which he appears to be uniquely suited, and one which he is looking forward to taking on with enthusiasm.

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