b'COVER CROP CORNERTHE CASE FOR BRINGING FORAGES BACK INTO ROTATIONMOST AGRONOMICsystems start with crop rota- and orchardgrass. These will be productive for tions, trying to reduce disease and insect inci- three to six years. Other species, like Russian dents while creating returns on investment. Thewildrye, can stay productive for over 10 years. advantage we have in Western Canada is ourThe indirect benefit of having a perennial climate and soils will allow us to grow a veryin rotation is being able to build a healthy and diverse list of different crops. This gives us thefunctional fungal population. This will help build opportunity to have a long rotation withoutstable soil aggregates, help reduce salinity, improve growing the same crop within that crop rotation.water infiltration, reduce erosion and improve By Kevin Elmy Many producers rotations today will have two orsoil health. Plus, the cash crops that are grown Elmy is founder of Covermaybe three crops to help reduce the stress of theafter terminating the perennial will have access to Crops Canada. His booksoperation. the legacy effect as presented by Dr. Christine Cover Cropping in WesternBefore the mindset of bigger is better inJones. This means the crops that follow will be Canada and Not Just Dirt are available throughagriculture, farms were more diversified, grow- using old root channels in the soil, exposing the Friesen Press, Amazon,ing more crop types, having some animals, androots to the rhizosheaths from the previous plants and digitally throughhaving part of the land in perennial forage. Itgrowing in the soil, thus enabling the new plants Apple Books, Kindle, andwas a different time with different situations, butto improve their microbiome (making them more Google Play. For more infomaybe there is something we can learn from thisresilient).on Cover Crops Canada visit covercrops.caadding forages back into our rotation. The positives of using a hay crop in rotation Adding forages does not mean necessarilyare no fences or watering systems are needed, needing to go out and buy animals and put upweed issues can be managed effectively by timing fence. It might, but a grain farm can look atof cuttings, and plant residue amounts can be growing perennials as another cash source. It maymanaged. mean developing a business relationship withGrazing helps build soil quicker than haying a local livestock produceryou grow it, theydue to the manure and urine staying on the field, harvest it. Whether it is harvested through hay orbuilding the available nutrients for the microbes silage or grazing, it is another income stream. and plants. That said, improper grazing tech-If partnering with a livestock producer is notniques can degrade the soil.in the cards, getting into forage seed productionForage seed production will allow some of the is an alternative. Most of the forage seed compa- positives of both grazing and haying. With forage nies are looking for more acres of seed productionseed production, only the seed is being removed of various forage species, grasses, legumes andand the straw can be left on the field, so only a forbs. Most companies have agronomists to helpsmall portion of the carbon and nutrients are growers learn the ropes of growing forage seed tobeing exported. help with the learning curves.One of the biggest downfalls of seed produc-There are options of either contract productiontion is the restricted ability to have plant family or growing seed for the open market. Contractdiversity when producing pedigreed seed. Crop production is usually reserved for propriety varie- inspection during a growing season that has plant ties that the company has control overopendiversity may result in non-pedigreed status. market production is usually reserved for publicBy getting some perennial forages back into varieties such as meadow brome, sweet clover, androtation, our soils will respond positively. Disease common pedigreed lots. pressure will drop, water infiltration will improve, Some forage species are biennials like peren- early successional plants that we call weeds will nial ryegrass, and yellow blossom sweet clover.disappear for a few years, nutrient cycling will These will be seeded with a nurse crop and willimprove, and normally, soil will have less erosion be vegetative in year one, then will produce seedpotential. in year two with harvest occurring earlier thanMarkets have been good for foragesthey annual cash crops.are not in the same condition as annual grain crop There are short-term perennials like alfalfa,markets. Once perennials are used in a rotation, timothy, Dahurian wildrye, slender wheatgrassthey will stay as the main management system. MARCH 2025SEEDWORLD.COM/CANADA 27'