ROBLIN, Man. – Brian Wilson squats, sighs and searches for signs of life in a row spotted with sow thistles.
“This is probably cumin without a nurse crop,” he said, peering closely at the ground before finding a tiny sprout poking through the soil.
“There’s one!”
Cumin is one of about 20 different demonstration crops planted by the Parkland Crop Diversification Foundation in the gently rolling mixed farming region around Roblin, Man.
Wilson, the local agriculture representative, said it’s important for farmers in the northwest region of Manitoba to look into diversifying because of the high freight charges they now face for shipping traditional crops to port.
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“Quite simply, we don’t know right now if farmers can grow some of these crops,” Wilson said, looking at the cumin. “But farmers can at least see what it looks like and how it grows.”
Canada imports cumin, so there’s definitely a domestic market for the spice, Wilson said. However, farmers need more agronomic information.
Shelter important
Last year, the first time for the test plots, Wilson noticed the spice did better when it was sheltered. So this year he intercropped it with winter wheat and lentils.
A few rows down at the foundation’s main site, caraway is thriving.
It’s a biennial spice that is ready for harvest this year. It too has a domestic market. Some farmers in the region already have production contracts for the spice with Pizzey’s Milling and Baking Company in nearby Angusville.
The plot gives other farmers the chance to see how the spice grows and what it yields.
Other plots include chinese broadbeans, quinoa, canaryseed, herbicide-tolerant canolas, linola, hulless barley and oats, forage oats, timothy, amaranth, millet, buckwheat, coriander, fenugreek, fibre flax and faba beans.
Low acreage probable
“A lot of these crops may never have the kinds of acres we have in wheat or canola,” Wilson said, but he noted that 30 years ago, canola would have been grown in similar test sites.
The foundation gets about $70,000 from federal and provincial governments to run the experiments. The provincial government also loans Wilson and other staff for the job.
The town of Roblin and local farmers donate land, while some of the supplies are donated by seed and chemical companies.
Next year, government funding runs out. Foundation president Blair Buick said the group may have to do some fundraising.
Buick farms at nearby Tummel, Man. and got involved when he heard about the foundation at a marketing club meeting.
“I thought it was an opportunity to find out about different stuff that was being grown in the area, with maybe a little bit better financial return,” Buick said.
He planted about two acres of black beans in the corner of one of his fields this year. It’s part of a trial to see if they’ll grow well in the area, and can be seeded and harvested using conventional equipment.
“I guess they’re doing all right,” Buick said of the beans. “But I’ve never seen them grow before.”
