Crop rotations

[dnach]

We have been working on several different crop rotations over the past ten years and have found that a five year crop rotation seems to be the most viable for our area. What type of rotaions are guys using that best suits crop residues, herbicide rotaions, cash flow and sustainability?
The five year rotaion we are using on most of our land is as follows:
year1 - Canola
year2 - Barley
year3 - Flax or linola
year4 - Peas or lentils
year5 - Wheat
on 20 feilds this gives us 4 canola, 4 barley, 2 flax, 2 linola, 2 peas, 2 lentils and 4 wheat.
We also use a 3 year rotation on some land: year 1 - cereal
year 2 - mustard
year 3 - peas
The cereal here can be wheat, barley, oasts or canary seed.

[lakenheath]

Dnach:

The rotation I am putting in place is simple:

Year 1 - Durum
Year 2 - Pea
Year 3 - Durum
Year 4 - Pea

If the markets look strong for something like Flax I would enter it into the rotation replacing a couple of durum fields. Ross McKenzie with the Goverment of Alberta has experimented with this rotation on a farm for the last 10 years. He said he wouldn't recommend this rotation in Dark Soil Zones (as he is in the Brown Soil Zone). He has seen no impact of disease with this rotation.

When I look at my input costs the largest cost in Nitrogen fertilzer. This rotation allows me to manage nitrogen inputs a lot better. I am not forced to place over 100 lbs per/acre of actual N on stubble crops other than pulses.

Another benefit from this roation is that peas are done extracting moisture in late July allowing those fields to regenerate soil moisture level in August and September when other crop are still extracting.

I know a lot of large, innovative and diversifying operators are moving to simpler rotations that provide the best returns.

The herbicide rotation is nice with this cropping rotation also. Wild oats are smoked in the pea years easilly with cheap Poast or you can get absolute weed control with the more expensive Odysey.

[danm]

Southern MB here,we use a 4 year rotation
Cereal
Canola
Cereal
Flax
Our baisic limitation is disease.We are seeing some pretty incredible disease pressure if we go say cereal on cereal. I think the guys that have a tendency to do abit a tillage its not that big an issue but min/zero till has brought on some other considerations.

[dnach]

good point lakenhealth, what happens in years when both durum and peas take a dive?

[cris]

I use a rotation of
Wheat/ HRS of CPS
Canola
Barley
Peas sometimes Flax/Solin

wheat on pea stubble for protien, barley on canola stubble to manage protien for malt. If oats would turn around sometimes oats in place of barley

[lakenheath]

Dnach:

I took somewhat of a historical approach to this rotation. It seems that year after year in our area (southwestern saskatchewan) that durum proves the best return (lower inputs and typically higher yields). I've considered including Canola into the roation, but it doesn't suite our area that well. You might get lucky on year and have a good crop, but it is not as hardy as durum. Once you get into the heavier soil zones this is opposite. Durum get diseases while Canola prospers.

Peas have been added to roation to add some much needed cash-flow in the fall (there have been historically decent prices off the combine for field peas). Once again field peas are a high yielder in our area.

If the prices for durum and peas is low, i'll store the peas until the markets recover (bearing I can meet all cashflow needs). This could be as long a full year.

The bigget reason for the rotation is agronomic benefits. The nitrogen fixation with this rotation saves an incredible amount of input. Plus the pesticide rotation is much cheaper than other roations with excellent weed control.

I look at a 160 acres field with moderate weed population. If in year one I time my pre-seed burnoff nicely, seed the peas, time the Odysey application properly, I end up getting incribly clean fields the next year.

In year two I can make really good money on Durum. I save on the N cost which is one of the highest on the farm, then I can go with a cheap rate of Amine (ultra safe on the crop) and get good weed control (a durum is a very compeitive crop with weeds).

Like I said, every area is different, but I am finding this roation is simple and effective.

Usually too when Durum and peas prices are low, most other commodities are low also (with the odd exception on some years).

As I also mentioned before if there is a crop that looks to be excellent I can enter it into the rotation for a year.

Another benefit of peas/durum is the build-up of organic matter in the soil. With peas fixing there own N each year, it doesn't take much to get a heavy pea stand and dense root grow adding plenty of matter to the soil.

[lakenheath]

I tried Barley but it is frusterating. Looking for premium in the malt market is frusterating. I try to limit my rotation to one CWB product. Waiting to have it called, hoping it goes malt, fighting the weather in the fall to protect the malt characteristic, less flexibility in herbicide options. Trying to find the fine line between yield and low protein.

I believe barley does wonders for the soil (fibourous root system and crop matter) but it just doesn't seem to add up on the books.

Feed barley seems to be a better option for me (cashflow and ease of growth). But it is high input fertilzer plus if you grow a crop with yield high enough to make a good return i run into bin space problems (which is a good problem, but a problem nevertheless).

I might start rotating barley into some fields just for the sake of improvingn the soil structure and maybe hopeing to capture some high feed prices along the way.

Spring Wheat has been a definite disapointment from my experience. Lower yield than durum and lower prices in general. One benefit is that the CWB usually calls it in before durum providing some much needed cashflow.