Winter lentils and winter peas, great new tools for a rotation and potentially the farm’s bottom line
In some areas, farmers managed to get their crop harvested last year, then seeded fall rye or winter wheat. Given our spring conditions so far, they are the lucky few.
It’s a classic case of how the insurance policy works when you have a viable crop waiting to grow sequestered under the snow, said Ken Greer of Western Ag.
He adds that a fall-seeded crop is good risk management in any kind of negative spring conditions: too cold, too hot, too dry, too wet or frost. Greer says the introduction of winter pulse crops is another rotation tool for combatting disease cycles and herbicide resistance.
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“It’s great for rotations. It’s especially appealing for anyone who grows rye or winter wheat, or anyone who’s considered it but didn’t like the options for following the harvest of that fall-seeded cereal.
“That’s always been a big problem with winter wheat. What crop goes into the rotation following winter wheat?
He says the yield advantage for winter lentils or winter peas is the same as for any fall-seeded crop. It’s ready to get an early start once the snow is gone. It out competes weeds. It takes full advantage of available soil moisture. Difficult spring-seeding conditions don’t affect it.
Greer says he started the winter lentil selection process 13 years ago. Seed increase is in the ground now, ready for harvest this summer. Commercial seed will be available to growers for this fall. It’s selected from a variety originating in Washington state called Morton. He says Morton is about 50 percent as hardy as winter wheat, which is the standard for comparing winter crops.
“In 2007 we were able to identify a Morton sub-type we named SuperCool. It can take about 85 percent the cold abuse winter wheat can take,” explains Greer. “So this red lentil is getting much closer to the criteria we accept as a successful winter crop.”
Greer says Western Ag uses the Winter Cereal Survival Model. This interactive simulator was developed by Brian Fowler and can be found on the web at https://wheatworkers.ca/wcsm.php. The field survivability index (FSI) for SuperCool is around 380. The hardiest winter wheat has an FSI of 500. But many of the winter wheats are only in the range of 420 FSI to 450 FSI. Greer says that if you play with the survival model, it becomes obvious that a 380 FSI number will give you a successful crop nine years out of 10 in most locations on the prairies.
Greer explains there’s another way to quantify winter survival of fall-seeded crops. The freezing tolerance of a fall-seeded crop is measured as lethal temperature 50 percent (LT50). This is the temperature at which 50 percent of the plants die due to freezing. It’s the standard method, expressed in minus Celsius degrees, used by scientists for measuring cold tolerance.
Using this criteria, the hardiest winter wheat survives the LT50 at -24 C. Greer’s SuperCool Winter Red Lentils have an LT50 of -19 C, meaning half the plants will survive winter temperatures of -19 C.
“We went through our selection program, starting with five bags of Morton Winter Red Lentil seed. We planted them and they grew in optimal conditions that first year. We harvested that crop, then planted that seed on summer fallow. We wanted to kill off all the weak plants. If they all succumb to winter kill, then we know we’re on the wrong track.
“We were able to kill everything except for nine plants. We did a study on those nine plants to verify that there were valid genetic reasons they survived. Then we took seed from those nine plants and multiplied them back up. We have quite a bit of early generation seed in the ground right now for seed increase. That’s in Lethbridge and Riceton, Sask.
“We’re going to release an identity-preserved seed loop for this fall. We sell you the seed, then we’ll buy back all the product after you harvest it. It will be commercial production, but only through the IP-closed loop. We’ll have enough seed for about 2,000 acres, so right now we’re looking for contract growers.”
Winter Peas — Alberta Agriculture ran trials on winter lentils and winter peas from 2008 to 2012, releasing their report in October 2015. The following is an excerpt from the report, titled Adaptability and Quality of Winter Pea and Lentil in Alberta.
“The trial set out to determine the adaptability of winter pea and lentil. Two winter pea cultivars, Specter and Windham, and one winter lentil cultivar, Morton, were seeded at three fall-planting dates and three seeding rates. Spring cultivars were grown for comparison. In southern Alberta, winter pea and lentil yielded up to 39 percent more than spring types. The highest winter pea yield was achieved when planting was completed during the first three weeks of September. The highest winter lentil yield was achieved when planting was completed in the second and third weeks of September. Seeding rate had little or no impact on yield.”
Greer says winter pea research in Alberta has since been dropped. Instead, Western Ag is now working with ProGene in Washington state.
“When we’ve tried the Washington state winter peas up here, we found they have pretty good winter hardiness, but our lentil is better. Lentils are probably 20 to 30 percent more winter hardy than the peas.”
Greer says peas are more prone to damage from a late spring frost. Canadian winters are hard to deal with because you never know when they start and when they stop. Further south, in Washington for example, when spring comes, it remains spring until summer arrives. They don’t suffer from these damaging relapses back into winter we have on the Canadian prairies.
“Although varieties coming out of ProGene have potential, we’ll need to do more field trials here before we’re confident. If things go well, we might see some of these ProGene varieties available on the prairies by 2022.”
Stephen Guy is an agronomist at Washington State University. He says introducing winter pulses in rotation with winter wheat can increase winter wheat yields because the roots fix nitrogen in soil. As well, as the pea residue is returned to the soil, its roots, stems, leaves and pods contain nitrogen at higher levels than wheat residue.
“Peas don’t root as deeply as wheat to extract moisture. So when soil moisture determines yields in dry production areas, that’s a benefit of pea over wheat.”
In higher rainfall areas, Guy thinks winter peas could replace spring peas because it’s more productive and would spread the work load. Research shows that many varieties of dry peas planted in autumn pushed through the soil within weeks to create a winter-hardy crop. A 2015 study in Davenport, Washington, showed that peas planted 4.5 inches deep in late August were able to germinate and push through the soil crust a few weeks later.
“Pea has a huge advantage under those circumstances. Winter wheat could not have pushed its way through that soil crust. Two months later, the plants show an extensive root system, which allowed for good interaction with the soil.
“Winter peas are generally ready for harvest two to three weeks earlier than spring pea. In most situations, winter pea should be ready before winter wheat,” says Guy.
Greer adds, “In order to make the winter pulses more effective, they’ll have to live in amongst other crops. Every winter pea acre or winter lentil acre will have a canola acre in it.”
