LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – Amaranth, quinoa, borage, fenugreek and lathyrus sound like ancient Greek gods, but they are actually some of the exotic special crops available for viewing at the Soil and Crop Diagnostic Field School at the Lethbridge Agriculture Centre.
Beata Lees, who works for Alberta Wheat Pool in Lethbridge, said there are three major special crops categories at the school.
The plots, a focus for part of the six-acre demonstration project, give agri-business, government specialists and farmers a bird’s-eye view of commercial special crops like peas, lentils, beans, mustard and safflower.
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It also contains crops like chick peas, crops Lees calls precommercial special crops that have a large market potential but which aren’t grown in southern Alberta.
Search for alternatives
The other category is exotics, crops with names like Greek gods.
Economic pressures and crop diversification are the driving forces behind the search for non-traditional crops.
The plots contain some interesting crops, such as buckwheat, which isn’t suited to southern Alberta because of the likelihood of heat stress, or lupins, which while a major livestock feed crop in Australia, isn’t feasible in this area because of the shortness of the growing season.
Then there is sunola, an oilseed crop. It can readily be grown in southern Alberta, but the only processing plants to extract the oil are in Manitoba and North Dakota.
Special crops can pose special problems, said Lees.
That is why she is quick to encourage farmers to investigate special crops, but always with a big caution to learn all one can about the crops.
“The more questions you ask, the better educated you will be.”
She said any farmer considering growing a new crop should start with small demonstration plots or small acreages. Growing them on their own land will let the farmer know how the seed reacts with his soil, and how it might fit in with the rest of the farm.
Part of the education process is knowing what to do with the crop after it is harvested.
Growing 200 or 300 acres of a special crop and then, after harvest, asking what to do with it is not wise, she said. “This is a more common occurrence than one might think.”
For instance, borage is a contract crop grown for a marketer in Saskatoon. Borage can be grown by anybody, but without a contract, farmers will be stuck with a crop they can’t sell.
