SUNDRE, Alta. – Bob Mastin scans the horizon west of his Sundre, Alta., pedigreed seed farm and prays the hailstorms bypass him this year.
With small plots of new feed and malting barleys, an early maturing Polish canola, as well as an unnamed forage pea scattered across his farm, he worries the great white combine will beat him to the harvest.
“My turn could be tomorrow or next because the weather is so volatile,” he said. Last year, his farm narrowly missed a devastating storm that started in his area and wiped out crops from central Alberta to Montana.
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Part of his strategy is to scatter the plots and plant these new varieties in sheltered spots so he can safely multiply the seeds.
One of his newest projects is a forage pea that grew at least five feet tall by the beginning of August. The peas are standing tall with scads of sweet tasting peas up and down the vines.
The seed came from the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers Association and he took up the challenge to see if the crop can survive and work in a silage mix with oats and barley.
“Getting peas to stand is a big problem,” he said. “This is one time they did what the breeder said they would do.”
He has grown some other varieties that stand reasonably well but he thinks this is a superior type.
“I hadn’t grown peas for 15 years because they were so hard to handle, they were more trouble than they were worth out here where our weather isn’t real conducive to growing peas because of the cool, wet falls,” he said.
He estimates a 26 percent higher grain yield than the traditional 40-10 silage peas and hopes producers could mix them at a higher proportion than normal.
Most people do not add more than 15 percent peas to the silage mix but based on the strength of these plants, he thinks growers could try a higher blend.
“You could go to a 20 or 30 or even 40 percent blend, which you can’t do with 40-10s because it will be on the ground,” he said.
He would like to see a three way cross where the blend was a third each of barley, oats and peas.
“I am anticipating the price of seed on these will be less so farmers can grow them and it won’t cost them an arm and a leg. If they want to stay with a 15 or 20 percent blend, it won’t be that much cost per acre,” he said.
In addition to the peas, he is working on an early maturing, unnamed Polish canola on 70 acres that he thinks could come in a month earlier.
He is also multiplying Busby, a two row feed barley that he has not grown on a field scale to this point. It is a possible replacement for Xena, the number one feed barley. It has longer than average heads but rougher awns.
He is also growing Sundre, a six row feed barley that came out of the Alberta Agriculture barley breeding program at Lacombe.
Sundre has smooth awns and works well for grain, silage or swath grazing. Smooth awns are better for green-feed or swath grazing because they do not damage animals’ mouths. Last harvest, it weighed 60 pounds per bushel cleaned.
Sundre grows well in Alberta and Saskatchewan conditions but could be more susceptible to disease pressure in Manitoba
He also has a new malting variety he named Cerveza, the Spanish word for beer.
“Every time a farmer goes to Mexico and orders a beer, he’ll be saying the name of my barley,” said Mastin.
“There are seven acres of this in the world right now,” he said as he walked through the plot checking the plants and assessing deer damage.
He has seeded small plots throughout the farm near tree lines to protect his investment against hail or other weather damage.
He hopes this could compete against Metcalfe malt barley. It was developed at the Brandon Research Centre and there should be some available for seed growers next year and for test malting runs the following year.
It will be another three years before farmers can grow it commercially.
