Curt Gessell is the third generation on the family grain farm west of Delisle, Sask. He works with his father Brent and his brother Clint and they grow wheat, canola, sometimes peas but always lentils. “Growing lentils is a very important part of what we do. The crop has allowed us to diversify our crop rotation over the past 30 years,” says Curt.
Curt says they choose lentils because their land seems to suit the crop. And while he believed the crop needed to be grown in a drier climate, he found it tolerated a few years of wetter conditions fairlywell.
One of the reasons may be continuing improvements in the varieties available. “These varieties seem to have better disease tolerance and the yield potential has also come along with that. We have seen new weed control options as well,” says Curt.
Moisture creates challenges
Disease in lentils is an ongoing concern for farmers. “One of the challenges is definitely keeping disease in check on those wetter years, when you get frequent small little showers and the crop canopy grows rank and it starts to canopy over. It’s just like a greenhouse down at the bottom of the crop, so keeping the disease out of it is critical for producing a good lentil crop,” said Curt.
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They have learned over the years that if conditions are good and prices are favourable for the crop, they take a proactive approach with disease management in lentils. If conditions for disease look favourable they make sure to treat the crop to keep disease out.
“We get our seed tested and make sure disease levels are acceptable. We use seed treatments to protect it early on as it’s coming out of the ground and then we use foliar fungicide in-crop during the season.”
Curt added that over the last few years they have seen improvements in the fungicides and other treatments they use. “But as we are continually challenged to increase our yields we will need to rely on companies to bring new products to meet those challenges.”
Continual improvement is part of the conversation when talking with Curt. “It’s always a challenge to keep disease out of the lentil crops. We need to use high water volumes and any new option to make disease management easier is always a good thing. Better genetics so we can reduce the number of times we need to apply fungicide would be a big improvement,” said Curt.
When it comes to weed control, Curt feels lucky in the options that are currently available but said, “There’s a lot of concern among farmers about weed resistance and we will need to rely on crop protection manufacturers to bring us new alternatives so we don’t paint ourselves into a corner with weed resistance issues.”
From the field to the table
As a lentil grower Curt relies on the processors as they play a critical role in getting his crops from the farm to the store shelves and the consumers. “We need the support of the processors and we also have to support them – they are a critical link in getting our product to market,” said Curt. With increased demand over the years and more growers getting into pulse crops, they are seeing more pulse processing plants and companies getting into the business.
Curt takes a global view of the lentil crops he grows annually. “Sometimes I see a sea can going down the highway, knowing that it is getting loaded on a train and eventually will go overseas and I wonder if it’s lentils that we grew on our farm. I think sometimes it would be neat to trace the steps from the fields of our farm to the store shelves across the world in other countries. To see the journey our crop takes to get to dinner tables of the people who consume our crops.”
He is complimentary of the work currently being done by Pulse Growers to promote and market pulses. “I would like to see continual promotion of the health benefits of pulse crops in new markets – like the United States and Canada. It’s one of the crops we grow where people are actually promoting the health benefits. We get scrutinized for some of the genetically modified crops we grow, but pulse crops have a real health benefit so I think continual promotion of that, even domestically, would be a good thing just to expand those markets.”
His pride in the crop he grows and its final destination is obvious. “Pulses are an important food source for a number of countries and they look to Canada to meet their needs. It makes me proud to be a pulse grower knowing we are playing a small but critical role in supplying other countries with healthy food like peas and lentils,” said Curt.
Above all else, Curt is very proud to be producing food for other families around the world.
Lentil facts
- Canada is the world’s largest exporter of lentils, selling to over 100 countries per year
- Most commonly grown are the large green “Laird” lentil and the red lentil
- Often sold to the consumer in dry form but also used as ingredients in the food industry in soups and stew or are rehydrated for canning.
- Lentil flakes are used in nutritional bars and breakfast cereals. They have twice as much protein as other cereal grain.
- 99% of Canada’s lentils are grown in Saskatchewan Source: Pulse Canada
This is part two of three-part sponsored content series profiling pulse growers in Canada. Click here for Part 1
