Crop Rotations???

[Jagfarms]

What crop rotations are you using?
What works for you with lentils and Durum in the
rotation? Do you farm 1/2 and 1/2, 1/3 2/3,
continuous crop? What area is your farm located?

[SASKFARMER3]

Jag here is ours 20 years direct seeding of some sort. HRS or Durum, then Canola or peas, and pea acres become Canola in year three for fields we want to push. Also best HRS ever three years in a row HRS on HRS or Oats ground. It works don't ask why but it works.

[checking]

It looks like you can pretty well get away with anything, provided the previous year did not have disease problems. It is three years of durum in a row, and the stuff is getting better each year out here.

No offense to anyone, but if this is global warming I would like a repeat of this weather pattern every year. Do you see the size and quality of those potatoes?

[SASKFARMER3]

It goes against everything I was taught but we do spray for disease and go with soil tests etc. Oats and Peas seem to mellow the ground. Canola on pea ground is just stupid.

[haveapulse]

We do see canola on the pea/lentil stubble in our area. I am not convined it is so stupid, as absolutely amazing canola yields have been attained without any wrecks to date, despite very wet Julys the last few years. However, fungicides are becoming more commonly applied however, more pea fields are sprayed than canola fields.

While wheat is amazing on peas stubble resulting in higher yields and better protein we see the switch in this area to give the pea rotation benefit to canola.

Do note that in years of low snowfall, germination can be an issue on the pulse stubble for canola.

We use flax in our rotation well, and find it a great alternative to another cereal if we opt for a 4 year rotation.
Not sure how well that works in the future with the current situation in the flax market.

The big question I hear most is how to avoid the cereal grains. With the glut on wheat this year, maybe it should just become a spray out crop?! Planted to maintain soil fibre & allowed to mature only in the years the math works.

[haveapulse]

Hmmm kind of like that idea: if wheat/durum is under, say 6$/bushel we spray it out, if over we allow to grow.

The CWB could actually help to control the price of wheat and make the call, eradiate or grow circa July 1 any year.
We could operate the pool with a phyical inventory carried over when wheat was below 6. Canada simply would not sell wheat under 6 bucks, ever.

Ya I know it wouldn't work but growing 4$ wheat ain't gonna work either and at the moment that appears to be where we are going to have to give this away to keep the CWB and Grain flo working.

[Jagfarms]

We grow Durum on our SF and we do not seed it on
stubble as in a year like this we would not get any
crop ins for our durum acres on stubble as they
take the average yield overall.
We try to seed some thing different in the flats that
have a good chance of getting flooded for crop ins
reasons as well.
Hope fully we will not have to collect crop ins in the
future but this year we will be collecting for all the
crops that were seeded on stubble.

[silverback]

I can't believe I just read that.

Rather than getting out from under gov't control of our lives, we let someone in Wpg tell us to either stop growing a crop or let it mature? Does everyone out there have the financial ability to skip a crop year?

Wow.

[SASKFARMER3]

have a pulse when i say just stupid I am meaning yield is just plain stupid. Like really really good. We always do canola on pea stubble.

[haveapulse]

Sorry Jag to digress on your topic:

(seems to me there is a study that reported Durum /lentil was the best rotation for the south, on average yields, I expect on net return it is likely a better return an SF rotation)

but, Silverback, which is cheaper to grow a crop you loose money on, or hold back/reduce supply until the price goes up. Below a certain price we cannot afford to produce the crop, but we do, and we did in the 90s.

Restricting supply is the tool OPEC employs for market control. Is the theory any different for us? The reason it has never worked for us is that farmers are less organized
and we cannot find a mechanism to enforce the supply reduction. We, unlike an organized coalition, are like the everready bunny of production, we just keep growing and growing as more production is necessary if we are producing at a loss: the give me another bag of hammers theory, or a bigger treadmill theory.

While we grow it, the CWB sells the crop and with this system we have no tool to determine a minimum sales price for wheat and durum produces in Canada. In a competitive market farmers quit selling when the price does not work, thus restricting supply for a period of time.

Supply of wheat from Canada is sold by the CWB, with no idea of what a minimum price to farmers is, (supply is never restricted by farmers refusing to sell at a certain price) and with no idea of how the CWB sells our crop, (no accountability for sales to producers) without supply restriction due to price expectations from farmers the CWB keeps selling and selling, like the everready bunny of sales.

We are all well award of the US has alleged this process of liquidation actually drives the price down.

The reality is the CWB system of sales has no connection between farmers expectations for price and their sales!

Interesting to note that the Ukraine sets a sale minimum sale price.

Reality is Silverback you are right we have not choice but to produce! But we really have to ask ourselves how much our system actually contributes to the lower price of wheat in the world today.

And from a rotational perspective we must grow it our only option becomes how much we spend on the crop basis the expected return as a method to inhibit supply.

[mbratrud]

Cereal - Oilseed - pulse (repeat). SE Sask. This is made possible with the emergance of clearfield lentils.

Or like a buddy suggested with cereals being in the doghouse, clearfield lentiks (trelan odysey) cleafeild lentils
(edge SOLO) then RR Canola.

Hahah

We were c,o,c,p but found cereals were dragging down our bottom line and needed to tighten up.

[mbratrud]

Have a pulse could your poor emergence of canola on pea stuble on dryer springs have anything to do with chemical residual from odysey or pursuit. This is the biggest reason we avoid canola on pulse stuble.

[poorboy]

mbratrud,

Could you use Viper on your peas to avoid the residue issues with canola on pulse ground the following year. I am thinking that the canola could benefit from the black soil of the pulses and extra N more so than a cereal could.

Any issues with sclerotina or other diseases by growing pulses after canola?

[seabass]

Have tried Canola on peas but to high of disease pressure. Sprayed proline then lance and it helped but very expensive. Yield was phenom but will stick to cereal on pea stub in future.
Depends on year but high humidity years are really bad with pea/canola rotation.

[mbratrud]

poorboy, you could use solo. Viper stills has residual concerns I believe. No disease issues yet but we generally hit our Lentils and Peas with fugicide early flowering regardless.