BROOKDALE, Man. — Cover crops and forage crop cocktails have been a popular topic over the last five years at forage, livestock and crop production conferences in Western Canada.
Most of the discussions were hypothetical because few prairie producers were seeding a mixture of six, 10 or 20 crops to enhance soil health or improve livestock production.
However, producers may finally be jumping on the crop cocktail bus.
“There’s been a shift happening, primarily in Alberta,” said Brent Difley, who operates a ranch near Moose Jaw, Sask., and works as an agricultural consultant with AgriClear and Genome Quebec.
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Difley’s most recent venture is a partnership with Union Forage, which specializes in annual and perennial forage seed. He is a dealer for the company in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Difley said most Union Forage customers are using mixtures for summer grazing, extended fall grazing or both.
“(The) initial sales goals were pretty modest, and the business really took off (in Alberta),” Difley said. “Guys went from doing 40 (acres) or a quarter section to increasing use 10 fold…. For example, WA Ranches at Madden, (Alta.) had 160 (cow-calf) pairs on 60 acres of ultimate mix for 20 days last October.”
He said sales are at the development stage in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where 80 producers are using Union Forage products.
One of the Union Forage mixtures is being tested this summer at the Manitoba Beef and Forage Initiative research farm near Brookdale, Man.
Pam Iwanchysko, a Manitoba Agriculture forage extension specialist, seeded three forage mixtures at the research farm to evaluate their impact on soil micro-organisms. Iwanchysko is looking at:
- a three way mix with oats, peas and radish
- six species mix (oats, peas, radish, brassicas, Italian ryegrass and hairy vetch)
- nine species (the six species mix plus sorghum, crimson clover and another brassica)
Luke Bainard, an Agriculture Canada scientist in Swift Current, Sask., will test the soil biology from the different mixtures to identify the optimal combination for soil micro-organisms.
Iwanchysko said livestock producers are latching on to complex forage mixtures.
“There is way more interest, in terms of poly-cropping mixes, right across Western Canada,” she said.
“Producers are seeing the benefit of switching to monoculture to a more diverse mixture.”
Next year she plans to grow a monoculture crop at the test site near Brookdale.
“To see the effects of a forage species blend on a monoculture (crop) yield and quality,” she said.
robert.arnason@producer.com
