It wasn’t too long ago that Don Connick religiously summerfallowed half of his land every growing season.
This year, he plans to chemfallow 10 percent of the 1,600 acres on his farm south of Gull Lake, Sask., and that’s only because it is a new parcel that needs care and attention before planting a crop.
“We will phase out of the summerfallow rotation there if we can,” he said.
The same thing is happening further south in places like Shaunavon, Consul and Frontier, some of the driest areas of Saskatchewan that have traditionally relied heavily on the outdated agronomic practice.
Read Also
Going beyond “Resistant” on crop seed labels
Variety resistance is getting more specific on crop disease pathogens, but that information must be conveyed in a way that actually helps producers make rotation decisions.
“Boy, you don’t even see a lot of chemfallow down there anymore. The trend is definitely away from it,” said Connick.
That observation is certainly reflected in the latest seeding intentions numbers released by Statistics Canada.
Farmers plan to grow more of almost everything in 2012, aside from lentils and a few minor crops. So where are the acres coming from?
The answer is summerfallow. Farmers intend to idle 3.97 million acres in 2012, down from 12.4 million last year and 10.8 million in 2010.
If growers stick to their word, summerfallow will take up the least amount of land since 1915, when farmers set aside 3.76 million acres.
“I just think it’s very encouraging that farmers are reducing their summerfallow,” said Glen Shaw, executive director of the Soil Conservation Council of Canada.
“It’s a very good sign for maintaining our soil quality and actually improving the soil quality that we have.”
Summerfallow totals were artificially inflated the last two years because of the amount of farmland in Saskatchewan and Manitoba unintentionally sidelined by excessive spring moisture.
Aside from those two abnormal growing seasons, there has been a steady trend of rapidly declining summerfallow acres. Farmers idled 18 million acres annually just 20 years ago.
Saskatchewan Agriculture soil specialist Ken Panchuk said it’s no coincidence the demise of the agronomic practice has occurred at the same time as the rising popularity of canola.
“If we’re going to seed more canola acres, it’s got to come out of somewhere,” he said.
The widespread adoption of zero-till practices and improved in-season moisture use efficiency is another major factor in the reduced reliance on summerfallow, the primary purpose of which is to conserve moisture.
Strong prices for most crops have only accelerated the shift to continuous cropping.
“(Farmers) are losing money if they summerfallow, so I think the economics is driving it,” said Shaw.
Panchuk said some acres will always be in summerfallow. It will still be used to conserve moisture in extremely dry areas, by organic farmers as part of their regular rotations and by growers shifting out of forage production and into grain production.
“It’s a practice that is not going to go away entirely,” he said.
However, he noted that the modern practice of chemfallow is more environmentally friendly than the older tillage methods of summerfallow.
Shaw said tilling the soil is one of Connick is happy to be getting away from the practice on his farm for both economic and conservation reasons, but he agreed that it won’t disappear altogether anytime soon. He said he spoke to a woman the other day who wants her rented land in summerfallow this year because “it needs a rest.”
“These old ideas are quickly dying out, and I think that is a progressive trend,” said Connick.
