Is it possible to grow more with less

Timing is everything

For 20 years Morley Wallace, President of GPS Ontario, has been in business and has tried to come up with a complete solution for reducing the inputs required to grow crops.

GPS Ontario has developed a system called Innovative Fertile Stripping, what he believes is the next step beyond strip till.

GPS Ontario applies the fertilizer through its system, metering it out and blowing it into the lead of the trench they are going to make. Then the cultivators up that fertilizer and the soil, blends it and converts it into a light, fluffy, moist, soil.

“When we go in and do fertile stripping, we're going to create a field and it's going to look like this when we pull out – he showed a 6 inches wide strip, 4 or 5 inches deep, but the 24 inches in between gets no fertilizer,” explained Wallace at the 2022 Great Ontario Yield Tour.

“The process is all based on timing. The time it takes for that seed to germinate, the time it takes for that root to germinate, the time it takes for the root to find fertilizer so that it can start to grow.”

GPS Ontario believes the amount of fertilizer being used by farmers can be reduced. GPS Ontario is currently conducting experiments with the University of Ottawa testing to see fertility results. It is the first year of the experiments, so no data has been released yet.

Watch the full 2022 Great Ontario Yield Tour presentation “Grow more with less”.