Cereals Canada released several reports on March 20 highlighting the relatively small environmental footprint of Canadian wheat, durum, barley and oats compared against other top-producing countries.

“Canada is a global leader in the production of high-quality, nutritious, and sustainable cereal grains,” says Mark Walker, Cereals Canada’s vice-president of markets and trade. “These reports confirm that Canadian farmers grow some of the most sustainable crops in the world.”

The reports stack Canada up against Australia, France, Italy, Sweden and the U.S., tracking six sustainability indicators: carbon footprint, soil health, fertilizer use, irrigation, pesticides and erosion. By those measures, Canadian cereals consistently outperform those of other top-producing countries.

What the reports show

Canadian wheat production has a lower carbon footprint compared to the U.S. and Australia, largely due to soil organic carbon sequestration. The report notes Canadian cropland acts as a CO₂ sink, capturing an average of 14.2 million tonnes of CO₂ annually over the past five years. Additionally, Canadian wheat is high in quality and protein, with farmers producing the highest protein yield per acre, resulting in a low carbon footprint per kilogram of protein.

Canadian farmers do a better job of tailoring nitrogen (N) fertilizer application to optimize high-protein wheat growth while balancing environmental concerns than some of their competitors. Irrigation is minimal, as most wheat is grown under dryland conditions, requiring less water than in the U.S. or Australia.

Conservation practices such as no-till management, crop rotation, and cover cropping help sequester carbon. Vegetative buffer strips are also reducing soil erosion. As a result, over 80 per cent of Canadian cropland has “very low risk” of erosion, with soil erosion rates below 2.5 tonnes per acre per year.

How farmers are leading the way in sustainability

“It’s a great time for Canadian farmers to be able to really be proud of all of the sustainable practices that they’ve adopted over time,” says Krista Zuzak, director for crop protection and production with Cereals Canada.

While the reports are comparative of the outcomes in terms of sustainability, they also separate out the specific practices or technologies that are making a difference, Zuzak notes.

Canada’s more widespread adoption of zero-till farming practices, for instance, has been one of the most important factors in Canada’s success in sequestering soil organic carbon. The reports talk about the Saskatchewan-based Prairie Soil Carbon Balance Project that has been monitoring agricultural soils across the province that had been converted from conventional tillage to no-till. The project found soil organic carbon has been rising in those fields.

“Soil health has become a big focus,” Zuzak says. “That’s been a driver in recent years: research on soil health and productivity, thinking about what’s going on under the crop, not just what’s happening with the crop itself.”

The report also discusses fertilizer efficiency. Fertilizer application rates are generally higher in Canada than in Australia or the U.S. because Canadian wheat is grown for high protein levels. But in terms of efficiency, Canada again punches above its weight. The report notes that, compared to the rest of the world, Canada is one of the world leaders in nutrient use efficiency, with an average nitrogen use efficiency of approximately 51 per cent, well above the global average of 35 per cent.

Just days before the Canadian reports dropped, the U.S.-based National Association of Wheat Growers released a comprehensive study analyzing the sustainability of U.S. wheat production. That study, which covers data from 1978 to 2023, highlighted substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, water usage, land use and soil erosion over the time period.

Against that backdrop, the fact that Canadian wheat production outscored U.S.-produced wheat underscores the significance of the findings in the Cereals Canada reports.

Buy-in from growers

Andrew Hector, an agronomist with the Manitoba Crop Alliance, says the reports show the importance of buy-in from Canadian farmers.

“Farmers from across western Canada have been willing to embrace these technologies and adopt these innovations to increase efficiencies and reduce costs,” he says.

Hector points out that early adopters — those willing to test new concepts such as cover cropping or emerging crop varieties — play a key role in driving broader adoption. Their willingness to experiment has contributed to Canada’s success in sustainable agriculture.

“Understanding what works best on your farm, and trying to continue to move that needle, is what will keep Canada’s sustainable edge,” he says.

Looking ahead

However, Hector says he’d like to see more farmers adopt GPS technology and sectional control. The technology improves crop production and reduces waste by ensuring crop protection products aren’t over-applied and areas aren’t over-seeded.

“It’s one of the technologies that are a bit under-recognized,” he says. “But GPS technology can save money and improve the overall sustainability.”

For Zuzak, there’s still room to fine-tune decisions based on factors such as wheat variety selection or soil differences.

“That really can drive those best management practices that the farmers are using; what might work in one region might be slightly different than what works in another,” she says. “Some of these are more long-term adoptions, things that have evolved more slowly.”

Every five years, Cereals Canada updates its “National Wheat Research Priorities,” an initiative developed in partnership with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Its 2023–2028 priorities include cropping system sustainability, which emphasizes sustainable wheat rotations, maximizing input efficiency and improving decision-making tools that enhance wheat crop sustainability.

“Growers really do understand the importance of crop rotations as part of their best management practices and their role in sustainability,” Zuzak says. “But a theme around research for cropping systems sustainability also demonstrates the role that we can play.”

Those research priorities also emphasize the importance of improving disease and pest resistance — an area where significant progress has already been made. Breeding efforts are cutting the need for pesticide applications while helping maintain strong yields and crop quality.

“We’re looking forward to having one of the first varieties with ergot resistance in the coming years,” Zuzak says. “That will allow growers to use fewer pesticides, which supports sustainability — not just in producing the crop but also in reducing inputs.”

While these advancements are significant, there is still room for improvement. Zuzak points to emerging technologies that will be key in addressing ongoing challenges, particularly with rising herbicide resistance and changing climates.

Gene editing, for example, has the potential to accelerate breeding timelines, making it possible to develop more resilient varieties faster.

“Once gene editing is fully adopted and accepted in the marketplace, we could see faster response times when new challenges arise,” Zuzak says. “That means growers could get new varieties onto their farms even faster.”

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To review, soil organic matter (SOM) is the small fraction of the soil that is mostly derived from plants and microbes. Most of Western Canada’s agricultural soils have between two and 12 per cent organic matter (OM). The table here shows typical organic matter levels for the various soil zones in Western Canada.

The amount of organic matter that accumulated in native soils prior to breaking was result of several thousand years of plant, microbial and animal residue additions to the soil. At the same time, soil organic residues were constantly breaking down and in various stages of decomposition.

The amounts and types of SOM were strongly influenced by climatic factors, which in turn, dictated the types of native vegetation and growth that contributed to soil formation and OM additions to soil. For example, in the Brown soil zone, the warmer, drier climate meant short prairie grasses dominated the landscape and added relatively lower amounts of OM to soil — versus the Black soil zone, where a cooler, wetter climate meant fescue grasses dominated the landscape and added relatively higher amounts of OM to soil. Landscape and geographic location also played an important role in soil formation and OM additions and decomposition in soil on upper-, mid- and lower-slope positions.

After many years of soil formation and development, the amount of OM in soil reached a steady state or equilibrium. As a result, soils in drier regions of the Prairies in the Brown soil zone typically have two to three per cent organic matter, versus those in the moister regions of the Black soil zone with seven to 12 per cent OM.

Parton et al. (1983) suggested soil organic matter is made up of different components or fractions that can be grouped into four types:

• Plant residues: Typically break down in one to five years.

• Active: Organic matter that breaks down over five to 10 years.

• Slow: Organic matter that breaks down more slowly, over 10 to 100 years.

• Passive or stable: Organic matter that takes more that 100 years to break down and is commonly referred to as humus.

Soil microorganisms break down plant residues, active and slow fractions of soil organic matter. Humus is the passive or stable fraction of the soil organic matter that results from decomposed plant and microbial matter. Humus is dark and gives soil its brown to black colour; typically, the darker the soil colour, the higher the level of humus. Organic matter plays many important roles in soil and has many positive effects on soil properties.

Chemical benefits

• Soil organic matter is a storehouse for various plant nutrients.

• As soil microbes decompose organic matter, nutrients are released for plant uptake.

• Increases the soil’s ability to hold positively charged cations, which is referred to as cation exchange capacity (CEC).

• Increases the soil’s ability to resist pH change and increased soil buffer capacity.

Physical benefits

• Acts like a glue to bind soil inorganic particles together to improve soil structure.

• Improved soil structure, which reduces surface soil crusting issues.

• Improved soil structure also reduces wind and water erosion potential.

• Iimproved soil structure also aids in water infiltration and water penetration in soil.

• Acts as a sponge to increase soil water storage and helps to reduce water runoff.

Biological benefits

• Increased organic matter increases soil microbial biodiversity and activity.

• Humus gives soil a darker colour, which helps enhance absorption of the sun’s energy. Darker soils warm up more quickly in spring, which stimulate more rapid crop germination and emergence.

• Increased nutrient cycling in soil provides nutrients to other soil microbes and plants.

• In healthy topsoil, organic matter stores significant amounts of N, about half of all the phosphorus and much of the sulphur.

The graph you see here shows how cultivation affected the various SOM fractions after 100 years of cropping. The amounts of plant residue, active and slow fractions of OM significantly declined over 100 years of cultivation using the wheat-fallow system. Summerfallow, which left the soil idle for a growing season, resulted in increased stored soil moisture. Tillage aerated the summerfallowed soil, which stimulated microbial activity, resulting in accelerated SOM breakdown and nutrient release. In the fallow year, there are no plants growing to contribute to the SOM pool. As a result, many years of summerfallow had very negative effects on SOM, soil quality and soil fertility.

The graph shows how using a crop-fallow rotation resulted in the decline of soil carbon by up to 50 per cent in Prairie soils over 50 to 100 years. The plant residue, active and slow carbon fractions were most affected, but the passive fraction (more stable organic matter) was relatively unaffected by cultivation.

Over the past 30 to 40 years, many Prairie farmers have shifted to continuous cropping, more diverse crop rotations and direct seeding of crops and have used adequate rates of fertilization to achieve optimum crop production and increased SOM additions to soil. The interaction of these practices has been very positive to improve crop production. Also important, significant progress has been made to increase SOM, which in turn, has improved soil quality.

Direct seeding and continuous cropping have meant plant residues are returned to the soil every year and the rate of decay of organic matter is much slower with the elimination of summerfallow. By cropping the land every year, organic residues are produced every year to maintain and increase soil OM levels compared to the old wheat-fallow system.

Applying optimum rates of fertilizers ensures optimum crop yields and provides increased crop residue return to soil. Returning more residues to the soil can increase SOM content. Farmers who have been direct seeding and continuous cropping for over 30 years are likely reaching a new SOM equilibrium or steady state level.

Can we expect to see SOM levels increase to original native prairie levels? Not much, when only growing only annual crops. Native prairie grasses pumped considerably more carbon back into soil versus our annual crops. For most Prairie farmers who have been direct seeding, continuous cropping and fertilizing to optimum for that past 30 or more years, odds are most fields are now near a new steady state level of SOM. This means less opportunity to sequester and hold additional carbon in soils. Odds are the amount of carbon added to your soils each year will be similar to amounts mineralized from annual breakdown of SOM. There will be some fluctuation in SOM over years due to effects of droughts or wetter growing seasons.

Can additional soil organic carbon be sequestered when switching from annual crops to forage crops? The short answer: “Yes.” Forage crops pump more carbon into soil versus annual crops. When putting land back into a forage crop for a number of years, a significant increase can be expected. For example, our long-term crop rotation study at Bow Island, Alta. found a significant change in soil organic carbon over 24 years. The adequately-fertilized forage treatment had 61.8 Mg carbon/ha versus the adequately-fertilized continuously-cropped treatments at 45.5 Mg carbon/ha in the top 30 cm of soil after 24 years of cropping. Plots seeded to permanent grass had by far the greatest increase in soil organic carbon capture versus all other crop rotations after 24 years.

In summary, Prairie farmers have done an excellent job shifting to direct seeding, continuous cropping, using much more diverse crop rotations and fertilizing crops adequately, along with various other good agronomy practices. This has very positively improved soil organic matter levels and improved soil health across all the soil zones of the Prairies.

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Nick Betts, CANZA’s managing director, announced the project Monday morning at CANZA’s Seeding New Ground event in Ottawa.

“For the last year, CANZA has been working on understanding how we can measure soil carbon and soil nutrition in a way that works for farmers (at) a lower cost, that can still meet global reporting requirements verification requirements,” Betts said.

The $4 million project is funded by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) along with partners Maple Leaf Foods and Nutrien Ag Solutions.

“We did this at a pilot stage in 2023/2024,” Betts said. “What was announced this morning was an opportunity … thanks to Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, to take this to the next level.”

CANZA conducted two pilot projects in Saskatchewan and Manitoba to test out its MRV Framework. The framework was developed in collaboration with the Smart Prosperity Institute (SPI), informed by a four year AAFC-funded research project at SPI. CANZA said in a release the results of these pilots provided critical and positive insights into the framework’s effectiveness, accuracy and scalability.

The $4-million project aims to expand upon the MRV framework and the 5,000 acres tested in Saskatchewan to 15,000 acres across four different locations in the province. CANZA said with its partners, it will facilitate three activities: 1) optimizing the soil sampling process; 2) developing a handheld, in-field MRV tool; and 3) facilitating knowledge sharing of the MRV system. CANZA said farmers and agronomists will also be engaged in this project “as critical partners in testing and demonstrating the processes and tools ” which will help ensure the MRV system’s effectiveness and widespread adoption.

Tim Faveri, vice-president of Sustainability & Stakeholder Relations at Nutrien said the initiative is “very farm-centred” and will allow producers to”make thier business choices and provide tools for them to be successful and monetize their practices.”

CANZA said the goal of the program is to develop a “regionally relevant, cost-effective, and scalable MRV system” which aims to “enable farmers to quickly and cost-effectively measure the environmental outcomes of their climate-smart farming practices.”

Farmers can monetize outcomes by selling credits to companies looking to offset emissions or “increase the profitability of their commodity within their value chain or other sectors.”

Kathleen Sullivan, vice-president of Government Relations at Maple Leaf Foods, said this initiative would contribute to Maple Leaf’s vision “to be the most sustainable protein company in the world.”

“By developing advanced MRV tools and processes, we are together taking a significant step towards a more sustainable, and really importantly, a more profitable future for Canadian agriculture,” she said.

Betts said the purpose of this project is to give producers “another tool in their toolbox, to be able to value environmental outcomes, value the carbon in their soil, but also understand what their soil competition system looks like in a better way, so they can manage it better and get better yields.”

He said farmers are already doing a great job, “but if we can make it even easier, it’s going to make it even easier for them to stay afloat, build a secure system, give them profit.”

He said the need for this program came from CANZA’s partners.

“One of the core pieces they wanted to work on was climate smart agriculture and understand, what does it mean to measure carbon in a field?”

“We’re not very good at measuring what it means when we’re talking about a rotational crop,” Betts said, “so taking that and giving farmer credit for what they’re actually putting in the ground and storing for the rest of us is going to be really a key piece of giving them the value they need.”

AAFC contributed $2 million to the project from the Agricultural Clean Technology Program – Research and Innovation Stream. Nutrien and Maple Leaf Foods matched these funds.

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“We’re making an assumption that sustainability isn’t going away,” said Bryan Prystupa, senior product owner for FCC AgExpert. “Regardless of campaign slogans or what political colour is leading our country, if we focus on the value we can deliver for the farmer, none of that should matter.”

Prystupa was talking about AgExpert’s new feature at Manitoba Ag Days 2025 in Brandon on Wednesday.

AgExpert is two different, but related software products. AgExpert Accounting, which Prystupa describes as similar to QuickBooks, delves into the bookkeeping and financial management of a farm. AgExpert Field is a field record keeping tool that tracks things like field boundaries, yield data, and various other activities associated with farming to help calculate that cost of production. The sustainability tool is an option that was recently added to AgExpert Field.

Basically, the tool takes the data already being collected to track production costs and creates reports that give farmers insights into their net carbon footprint.

“It can estimate the carbon my farm sequestered last year and the history of my soil organic carbon going as far back as 40 years, all with two clicks,” said Prystupa.

He stressed that greenhouse gas emissions are only half of the equation.

“It was very important for us to also measure the carbon sequestration getting pumped into the dirt, the soil organic carbon, thanks to the crops, the pastureland and the tree belt.”

Prystupa said the developers made certain that the sustainability feature is non-judgmental. It won’t tell a farmer that they need to do better. “We are neutral,” he said, adding that the feature is also optional. “If there’s interest by a user, great and if there isn’t, no sweat either.”

Read more about AgExpert’s sustainability tool in an upcoming print edition. For more stories on Manitoba Ag Days 2025, visit, our landing page.

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“The United States and Mexico are working on implementing measures to resume the normal flow of Mexican exports,” it said in a statement.

It added that the measures did not apply to other exports and control measures were being implemented.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Friday said that Mexico’s chief veterinary officer had notified it of the detection of NWS in a cow at a checkpoint near the southern border with Guatemala.

NWS maggots often enter through an open wound and feed on living flesh of warm-blooded animals, including people, USDA said.

It warned that infestations can be difficult to detect at first but can manifest itself through growing wounds, creamy larvae and signs of discomfort.

USDA said it was working with partners in Mexico and Central America to stop the screwworm’s spread and asking producers in the area to monitor their livestock and pets, and immediately report potential cases.

— Reporting by Sarah Morland

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The government has provided funding to help producers cut methane and nitrous oxide emissions from primary agriculture, while constantly beating the drumbeat of emissions, emissions, emissions.

What has sometimes been missed in this focus on emission reduction are the improvements made on Canadian farms over the last 35 years.

“We are producing the lowest emission metric tonnes of crop commodities in the world,” Kristjan Hebert, a farmer from Moosomin, Sask., told the Canadian Crops Convention in Winnipeg in March.

“So, if you’re focused on global emissions and you’re buying commodities, you should buy them from Canada.”

It’s frustrating for Hebert and many others that the federal government doesn’t promote that good news about Canadian agriculture on the world stage.

However, Statistics Canada recently published a Census of Environment data portal this winter. The census is loaded with facts and figures about farming and the positive changes made in agriculture since the 1980s.

It requires a lot of digging to find the data, but Statistics Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada do have some complimentary things to say about farming and how it has become more sustainable.

In Central Canada, soil organic carbon declined over the same period, partly because of a shift from perennial to annual crops.

“Soil organic matter has been increasing on agricultural lands in Canada. In 2016 Canadian agricultural soils removed 11.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” an AAFC website on soil organic matter reports.

The website contains a Soil Carbon Change Index, which shows that soil carbon conditions have gone from “moderate” in the 1980s to “good” in the 2000s.

“The index illustrates a strong upward trend through to 2006 from an index value of 48 in 1981, to a higher value of 78 in 2006,” AAFC says.

“This national scale improvement came about primarily as a result of widespread adoption of reduced (conservation) tillage and no-till, a decrease in the use of summerfallow and an increase in the use of perennial forage crops in the Prairies.”

The website notes that there’s a significant difference between Central Canada and the Prairies for soil carbon. Soil conditions in the East have declined over the last 30 to 40 years.

“While the national trend for soil organic carbon is positive, this has been slightly offset by localized decreases in soil carbon in parts of eastern Ontario and southern Quebec,” AAFC says, mostly because of a land use shift from pastures to annual crops and more tillage.

AAFC also has some upbeat information about soil erosion and salinization.

Thanks to the adoption of reduced tillage and the near elimination of summerfallow, the risk of soil erosion has “declined greatly” since the 1980s, AAFC says.

The changes in soil management have also cut the probability of soil salinity and the yield losses associated with salinization.

“From 1981 to 2016, (the changes) have lessened the risk of salinization and indicate a trend towards improved soil health and agri-environmental sustainability,” an AAFC document says.

The tone of the AAFC documents on soil erosion, salinity and soil organic carbon suggests that government and the public should acknowledge the positive changes within agriculture.

Setbacks

The documents, however, also make note of recent trends that could make farming less sustainable.

The soil health benefits from reduced tillage and eliminating summerfallow have levelled off since the late 2000s. Soil erosion risk is increasing in Manitoba and other parts of the Prairies as tillage returns to some farms.

And in the last 15 years, more farmers have plowed up pastureland to plant canola, wheat and other crops.

“Conversion of native grassland or long-term perennial hay-land to cropland causes soil organic carbon loss,” AAFC says.

“The long-term merits of breaking this often-marginal land for crops needs to be considered carefully.”

The post Prairie soils’ organic carbon climbing appeared first on Grainews.

Those gains were partially offset by increasing emissions from diesel fuel, nitrogen fertilizer and land-use changes.

In a report released this week, the National Farmers Union (NFU) quantified agricultural emissions from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador.

The research compiles many data sources, including national inventory reports (NIRs), and Environment and Climate Change Canada data.

Without accounting for carbon sequestration or desequestration, the report estimates that emissions from agriculture fell to 1.5 million tonnes in 2021 from 1.8 million tonnes in 1990–a 17 per cent reduction.

The largest source of emissions continues to be cattle. Enteric methane from beef and dairy cattle, along with manure management, accounted for 0.52 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2021. This total has steadily decreased since 1990 as the cattle numbers declined. Efficiency gains have also decreased emissions, the report noted.

The NFU added that it’s difficult to draw a boundary line between emission that are and are not from livestock, as significant emissions come from production of feed grains.

Emissions from farm fuels decreased slightly to 0.21 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2021 from 0.29 million tonnes in 1990. This includes diesel and gasoline use, fuel oil, natural gas, propane, and emissions from fossil-fuel-fired electricity generation.

Between 1990 and 2021, the composition of fuel use changed significantly. Fuel oil accounted for about three-quarters of farm fuel emissions in 1990. In 2021, they made up under a third of emissions. Meanwhile, emissions from diesel fuel went from about a quarter of fuel emissions to about two-thirds.

Emissions from nitrogen fertilizer, including fertilizer production, also increased by almost 60 per cent in from 1990 to 2021.

The report also examined carbon sequestration since 1990. This included changes in woody biomass (e.g. removal of trees, shelterbelts), land conversion to cropland, crop residue carbon input, and others.

It concluded that each year since 1990, Atlantic agricultural soils have experienced a net loss of soil carbon. Desequestration seems to be increasing, the NFU noted, with the most significant factor being conversion of land–mainly forest–to cropland. Smaller areas of perennial crops are also behind the change.

Meanwhile, manure application has been the most steady source of carbon addition to soils, the report said. As livestock numbers waned, so did sequestration from manure.

The NFU acknowledged that work needs to be done to reduce uncertainty in emissions numbers. However, it said there is enough data to move forward of agriculture emissions reduction.

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Cover crops actually include a wide variety of cropping sequences, and many do have positive effects. We usually think of the “shoulder” season as the main target for cover cropping. The shoulder season is the time after crop No. 1 is harvested and crop No. 2 is planted.

For decades now, I have been a member of the U.S. Tri-Societies: the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America and the Soil Science Society of America, with the Soil Science Society as my main allegiance.

In recent years, I have paid the extra fee (very reasonable) to have open access to all of the scientific journals of the society plus books published by Wiley. Just weeks ago, I was able to download a PDF of the new book Cover Crops and Soil Ecosystem Services by Humberto Blanco, published by the Tri-Societies under the Wiley banner.

This book by Blanco runs to 16 chapters. Each chapter has a long list of references to original works, so it is a great source of information for a current hot topic.

Benefits

The Blanco book lists erosion reduction, nutrient retention, weed suppression and carbon sequestration as benefits of cover crops. One major problem listed is excess water use by the cover crop in dry areas where lack of moisture puts a lid on crop yields.

On the nutrient retention topic, on my bookshelf I just stumbled on an old newsletter from the then-IPNI (International Plant Nutrition Institute). That piece provided data from Maryland to show that a rye cover crop soaked up the extra soil nitrate left behind after a dry year for a corn crop. Thus, nitrate loss by leaching or denitrification was avoided.

Blanco also points out that the benefits are often “blown up” while the challenges are underemphasized. The results of cover cropping are also site-specific. Degraded soils low in organic matter and subject to erosion may benefit the most from cover cropping but not always. Soils “degraded” by soil salinity will not benefit from cover cropping but can benefit greatly from establishing a permanent stand of salt-tolerant grass like Saltlander Green Wheatgrass.

In the Palliser Triangle

The Palliser Triangle of central and southern Saskatchewan and southeast Alberta is prone to drought. Water is often the factor determining how hard the trucker must work in the fall.

By the time the crop is off, the topsoil is often dry and there is little time to seed and establish a cover crop. Our “cover crop” is the stubble of the previous zero-till crop. If any plant has nerve enough to grow we spray it out, so it does not use up the moisture for next year’s crop.

We cannot take practices that seem to work in the Corn Belt with long rains and short winters, like Des Moines, Iowa, and expect them to work in dry and short-season Saskatchewan with long winters with no winter growing days. Much of the U.S. Corn Belt has temperatures that permit fair plant growth in October and November, but that is not the case in the Palliser Triangle. Annual precipitation is 15 inches at Swift Current, Sask., and 39 inches at Des Moines.

In the Canadian Prairies there is often little or no time to plant a cover crop after the main crop has been harvested. In many areas and years, surface soil moisture will not be adequate for germination and early growth. A winter annual like rye could work in some years but not consistently.

So, enough already about cover crops! For the most part, in the Palliser Triangle, they are a non-starter.

University of Manitoba survey

The University of Manitoba has recently conducted a survey of cover crop adoption in the Prairie provinces. It shows the adoption is quite widespread. The report is a good source of information on cover crops and the range of farm types and crops that are included in the practice.

Intercropping

The practice of planting two crops in the same field in the same year is advancing slowly and has much to offer. The practice really goes back to the 1970s when peaola was a unique intercrop. Early pea varieties tended to fall down when ready to harvest, so canola was used to provide the pea crop something to climb on.

The peas were planted as normal and then canola was broadcast and harrowed. In those days, canola seed did not cost $500-plus per bushel, so 10 pounds per acre could be broadcast without upsetting the crop budget. At that time, the crop was harvested and hauled straight to the elevator where the peas and canola were separated, and the farmer was paid for each crop minus the separation cost.

Lana Shaw at the Southeast Research Farm at Redvers, Sask., has conducted many experiments with the practice and is the best source of information. Colin Rosengren, a farmer from Midale, Sask., has many years of experience with intercropping.

I think intercropping is what we should concentrate on. For years, I have stated that we are painting ourselves into a corner with herbicide-resistant weeds. Two crops in the same field leave very little space for weeds to get a foothold.

By the time you read this, winter will be in full force. Enjoy the farm shows, meetings and information gathering for the 2024 crop.

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We spend the most time researching annual crop rotations, but perennial grass has received much less attention. This piece will summarize a detailed study with smooth bromegrass on a Thin Black Loam soil near Crossfield, Alta., which is about 20 miles north of Calgary.

The experiment was conducted by the then Westco Fertilizers led by John Harapiak. It carried on for 27 years, so it is not a one-year wonder.

PAg and CCA types who want to see the original data can find it with Google by searching, “Influence of long-term N fertilization on quantity and quality of organic C stored in a grassland soil.”

Tables 1 and 2 below show the increase in soil C and CO2 mass after 27 years of fertilization of bromegrass with nitrogen (N). For CO2, the actual mass rather than concentration of C is used. The mass data takes into account the differences in soil bulk density.

The amount of carbon sequestered in the soil is significant and continues to contribute as long as the stand is maintained. At the same time, annual hay yields increased by four tonnes per hectare or more with 112 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare.

However, the Crossfield area of Alberta is special.

The foothills hay country

The foothills hay country along Alberta Highway 547, west of Crossfield, we used many times to avoid Calgary traffic on the way to a summer rest at Radium Hot Springs. It was clearly “hay country.” Haybines could barely cut it. In the odd pasture situation, cows were up to their bellies in grass.

The area is at a high elevation (3,900 feet), and with 17 inches annual precipitation it is ready-made to grow grass and sequester carbon to soil, especially with a good nitrogen fertility program.

Cattle and carbon: Why beat up on the cowboys?

So, why all the fuss about cattle and methane release. A highly grass-productive area like Crossfield is productive because it supports cows — and perhaps a few chuckwagon and racehorses.

In the Brown and Dark Brown soil areas of Saskatchewan and Alberta, we cannot expect the kind of grass growth and carbon sequestration that occurs in the Alberta foothills.

However, in the drier areas, the cow-calf operation utilizes land not suited to annual grain production. Feed problems and market conditions of recent years have reduced the North American cow herd to frightening levels. There was a buzz about plant-based “pretend beef” but that has fizzled out quickly. For my money, I will take the real thing, thank you!

So what if cows eject a bit of methane out both ends. What in the name of common sense do climate alarmists think the 60-million-plus buffalo did when they roamed freely on the open Plains up until the late 1800s?

If readers want more info on buffalo hunting, they can try to snag a copy of The Last Buffalo Hunter by Norbert Welsh as told to Mary Weekes. Norbert Welsh was 80 years old and blind when Mary Weekes interviewed him and wrote the book.

Norbert was a tough old bird. He was a Red River Metis who led buffalo hunting excursions to various areas, including the Dundurn area where my farm is located. He would come in the fall and “build a house” (that is, a poplar log shack) and spend the winter. He was there at the time of the 1885 unrest but kept clear of it.

I stumbled upon the book at the University of Saskatchewan library, while looking for something else, and read it. Later, I ordered a paperback version from Amazon to have a copy at home — but that is now missing? In the meantime, the Amazon price has gone too high so I will keep looking for my copy.

I hope you all get a holiday somewhere warm to break up our frigid Prairie winter.

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The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate) was launched one year ago and seeks to accelerate innovation in “climate smart” agriculture globally up to 2025, as the world races to contain global warming below 1.5 C.

At the COP27 climate change talks in Sharm el-Sheikh it announced commitments for $7 billion (C$9.29 billion) of investments from 42 governments, and $1 billion in innovation initiatives aimed at small-holder farmers in developing economies, new technologies, agro-ecological research and methane reduction (all figures US$).

Farming is on the frontline of extreme weather but is also a major contributor to global emissions that cause warming.

AIM will help farmers deal with challenges that have become more apparent this year, said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack: productivity losses linked to climate change, and higher input costs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

“I think there’s an opportunity here for us — for the United States in particular — but for large-scale agriculture, to help inform smallholders about the knowledge and information we’re getting about more efficient use, more precise use of fertilizer and other inputs which can lower costs for farmers and also without jeopardizing productivity,” Vilsack told Reuters in a call.

Agriculture could get to net zero “a bit faster than maybe some of the other industries that are commonly discussed when we talk about climate,” he said.

“I think there’s just tremendous carbon sequestration capacity, there’s tremendous opportunities to reduce methane, there’s tremendous opportunities to convert agricultural waste into a variety of products that would significantly reduce the greenhouse gas footprint of agricultural production.”

Vilsack said the UAE, which imports about 80 per cent of its food and will host the COP28 climate talks in 2023, wanted to help shore up production in food exporting countries as well as boosting self-reliance through innovation.

— Reporting for Reuters by Aidan Lewis.

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