Growing winter cereals is anything but an afterthought on the Meyer farm in the central Alberta Peace River region. For the past 30 years, the family farm at Woking, which is about 45 minutes north of Grande Prairie, has included winter cereals in the rotation, and particularly over the past 10 years, winter crops have been an important part of the grain, oilseed and pulse crop operation.
Winter cereals are an integral part of the farm business at Leo Meyer Grain Production Ltd., says Jesse Meyer. Most years, about a quarter of the farm, or about 2,000 acres, are seeded to a combination of winter wheat, conventional fall rye and winter triticale. They complement spring-seeded crops that include canola, peas, oats and spring wheat.
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“Over the years, we’ve found winter cereals provide several benefits in our overall cropping operation,” says Meyer, who is one of five siblings involved in various aspects of the farm started in the early 1990s by their late father Leo Meyer. “And producing high-yielding and high-quality winter cereals is a big part of the farm brand. Customers have come to know we are suppliers of these grains.” Jesse and his brother Samy are involved in day-to-day operations while Kathy, Tracy and Stefan are also involved although not as directly.
There’s nothing new about growing winter cereals. Statistics Canada reports there are about two million acres grown across Canada depending on the year. In Ontario, for example, winter wheat is the primary wheat crop. In Western Canada, there are many committed growers, but often fall-seeded crops are optional or a crop of opportunity — a field didn’t get seeded to a spring crop for some reason, or a crop got hailed out mid-season, then there might be an opportunity to seed a winter cereal.
But the Meyer farm is serious about winter cereals. “We plan for winter cereals a year in advance,” says Meyer. “They are just part of the rotation. We have a close look at our seeding plan and decide where the winter crops will fit in the rotation. As we get closer to seeding, we can make adjustments as needed.”
There are several benefits from growing these “off-season” crops. One quarter of their annual seeding is usually done in the first three weeks of September, so that helps reduce pressure on the hectic spring seeding season. And similarly at harvest, the combine usually begins rolling in mid-August, helping to spread out the harvest workload.
“They are an important risk management tool as well,” says Meyer. “The 2021 growing season was quite dry, but other years spring conditions have been quite wet — we have a lot of variability in spring conditions. Usually we have good conditions to get the crops seeded in September. Even in drier years, it doesn’t take much moisture to get the winter cereals germinated and growing.”
The crops establish a good rooting system in the fall before freeze-up. “Then come spring, the winter crops can handle a variety of conditions,” he says. “In 2020, we had extremely wet conditions and some of our spring-seeded crops were wiped out, but the root system of winter cereal crops handled the moisture. And then in 2021, it was extremely hot and dry, which was hard on all crops. But the well-established roots of the winter cereals were able to go deeper to find more moisture to keep growing. Yield might be slightly reduced but they still produced. The winter cereals can handle a wide range of growing conditions.”
The seeding program
All winter cereals are ideally seeded in the first three weeks of September. Meyer says there is a definite window. They’ve found for their farm if the crops are seeded too early (in August), they require more nutrients, can actually grow too much, begin to tiller and become a real draw for wildlife over the winter. Also, with more biomass, it appears there is increased risk of snow mould developing. On the other hand, if the crops are seeded too late they don’t have time to get roots established before freeze-up.
“Ideally, we want the crops to be at the two- to three-leaf stage heading into freeze-up,” he says. Also, to be ready for the fall-seeding season, inputs are bought in the summer, which usually affords better pricing opportunities. And for at least one quarter of their inputs there is no need for storage, it just goes directly into the ground.
The crops are seeded in a one-pass, direct seeding operation with a Horsch Anderson seed drill with 15-inch shank spacing, using 7.5-inch paired row openers. Fertilizer, which is a blend of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash, is banded about 2.5 to three inches below the paired row. Seed is placed three-quarters to one-inch deep.
“We also make a point of being prepared,” says Meyer. “The drill is serviced and calibrated, and we have the seed and fertilizer ready. We may have everything sitting in the field a week ahead of time and then when conditions are right, we begin seeding. Once we get going, we can seed 500 to 600 acres a day.”
Another advantage of September seeding — usually more acres can be seeded. Any sloughs or wet spots that would have been avoided in the spring have dried up, so the Meyers can seed right through.
With spring-seeded peas, one of the first crops combined in the fall usually by late August, those fields will definitely be seeded to a winter cereal. Most years, the early-seeded oats and some canola will be combined by early September, so those acres will also be seeded to winter cereals.
Often the preceding crop will have been treated with a pre-harvest herbicide but, if not, then stubble fields are treated with a glyphosate tank mix before winter crops are seeded.
The winter cereals are extremely competitive against weeds, helping to reduce herbicide costs. “The winter wheat is probably the least competitive of the three but, even so, we don’t need to apply a wild oat herbicide with any of the winter crops,” Meyer says. “Some years, we could probably get away without any herbicide, but we do apply broadleaf weed control products just to be proactive and give the crops every advantage.”
The winter cereals don’t have any exceptional disease issues that differ from spring-seeded cereals. The fall rye is a bit more susceptible to ergot, especially under cool, wet conditions. “We pay attention to rotation with the fall rye to hopefully reduce the risk of ergot,” he says. “Research also shows that a copper deficiency can contribute to ergot, so we are planning to apply some copper this year to see if it makes a difference.”
The winter wheat has about the same disease issues as a spring-seeded crop. With other crop pests, such as wheat midge, winter wheat has an advantage as it matures ahead of the wheat midge life cycle, reducing the risk of crop damage.
And winter triticale has no particular disease issues and is not susceptible to ergot.
While timing might vary, usually the fall rye is the first of the winter cereals to be harvested, followed by winter wheat and then winter triticale. “Most years, we are in full harvest mode by August 15 and again depending on the year, we should be done harvesting winter crops within two to three weeks.”
Brand built on winter crops
The Meyer family has continued and expanded the winter cereals marketing program established by their father, Leo Meyer. The senior Meyer, who died suddenly in early September 2020, was not only a great personality and an excellent farmer but was an ardent supporter of the Canadian agriculture industry, establishing solid relationships across the agriculture sector.
“Our father had established a real brand for the farm, particularly with the winter cereals,” says Jesse. “Customers knew we produced good-quality grains and also the quantity the markets required. It has been our aim to maintain that reputation and also to look to expand into new markets.”
With the winter wheat, they produce a high-yielding Canada Western Special Purpose variety. With high starch and low protein, it is well suited for the livestock feed market, although it could also be used in the ethanol fuel market as well.
The open-pollinated fall rye variety can be a bit more challenging to market, but again the farm has established clients looking for the quality and quantity they produce for end use in milling as well as the distilling industry.
Their winter triticale is largely marketed as livestock feed although there are opportunities for it to be used both in the milling and distilling industries as well.
The winter cereals grow well on pea stubble and, similarly, spring-seeded canola seems to perform very well on fall rye stubble. Part of that might be due to the fact that fall rye residue holds the moisture that helps canola get off to a good start. “I’m not sure if there is any science behind it, but there appears to be a real synergy between the two crops,” says Meyer.
While nitrogen-fixing peas are an excellent legume in rotation, with an early harvest that complements seeding of winter cereals, one of the challenges is to keep peas in the rotation as root rot diseases such as aphanomyces become a greater concern.
“We follow proper production practices, use a seed treatment and have extended the rotation as much as possible, but have been forced to reduce pea acres,” says Meyer. “One of our challenges going forward is to find another legume or adjust the crop mix so it supports our winter cereals program.”
