The South East Research Farm (SERF) located southeast of Redvers is one of eight Agriculture Applied Research Management (Agri-ARM) sites in the province. Focused on keeping up with the ever changing agricultural industry, SERF has been hard at work this year. Meeting on Thursday, Oct. 6, was manager Lana Shaw a few interested individuals in a late-season crop plot tour.
Some of the main features this year included work with intercropping and cover crops. The late-season tour included walks through corn trials, a corn soybean mix forage demo, chickpea flax intercrop, sunflowers variety trials, tillage radishes, and mustard trials, as well as millet varieties.
This year we looked at grain crops and cover crops, so this time of year is good to get out there because the grain crop has been cut and the cover crops are growing,” Shaw explained. “Cover crops need moisture later in the year and sunshine. They’re intended to build soil and nutrients, either putting nitrogen back in the soil or helping relocate nitrogen; they can stop weeds from growing which just take nutrients and it can lessen the need for fertilizer and spraying. So, we’re very interested here on the implications of cover crops.”
“As long as it’s not taking the yield away from the cash crop, then it might be worth a closer look. If we can maintain or even increase yields while using less chemical fertilizer then we’re happy to spend time pursuing that.”
Shaw also explained that this type of research may be more important in coming years as the carbon tax could affect chemical fertilizer pricing. Natural gas stores hydrogen, which when combined with nitrogen creates ammonia, which is the foundation of nitrogen fertilizer.
“We’re looking at maintaining or increasing food production while using less urea or chemical fertilizer and less fungicide,” Shaw said. “Over time plants can develop a resistance to chemicals, so finding a different way to manage crops and reduce production risks is at the top of our list. It’s leading us down some innovative avenues here.”
One of the other focuses this year at the research farm was intercropping.
“Intercropping is not new, but it’s definitely not main stream,” Shaw explained. “There’s a lot of interest particularly amongst commercial growers right now. Being able to seed and harvest two crops together, it’s a very exciting time for agronomy.”
“Learning the best techniques in this is important. One of our trials for intercropping included chickpeas and flax. When people see two crops growing together though others assume it was a mistake, that it wasn’t intentionally done, so one of the biggest things to overcome is your neighbours thinking you’re a little crazy.”
“If we can help you produce more and make money while doing it, then that’s what we want to do.”
Currently the research farm has 90 percent of its crops off and will, weather permitting, harvest the remainder.
For more information on SERF’s findings regarding cover crops and intercropping contact Lana Shaw at (306)452-3161 or email her at [email protected].
“In 2010 this particular research farm was on life support, there wasn’t much going on with the program, we were at a quarter of the research we’re doing now,” Shaw explained. “We’re bringing in different crops and attracting good research funding for proper scientific trials; we’re generating a database that could be published in a scientific journal, but what’s at the top of our list is how do we benefit farmers? We’ve expanded the farm, so we’re not limited to this quarter; we’ve had plots near Moosomin, Halbrite, and Langbank over the past few years which makes us relevant to farmers across the southeast.”
