DEREK AXTEN STARTED intercropping by accident in 2009, when he seeded a field of brown mustard into lentil stubble. When he harvested the field, he expected to see an overall loss. Instead, the lentil yield matched that of his other lentil fields—and he got a great load of mustard to boot. “I thought, ‘What if we do this intentionally?’” says Axten, who together with his wife Tannis was named Saskatchewan’s Outstanding Young Farmer in 2017. “It took us until 2011 to get to an organized intercrop. Since then, we’ve always seen a net benefit.” On their land near Minton and Milestone, Sask., the Axtens grow peas/canola, flax/chickpea, flax/ lentil, lentil/mustard, and forage pea, maple pea or winter pea with mustard or canola. In terms of land equivalency ratios, or the amount of monocropped land needed to achieve yields equal to those of an intercropped system at the same management level, the Axtens average somewhere between 1.25 and 1.3, although they have seen years over 1.5, says Axten. In 2017, some of their intercropped fields were a wash. “But averaging with the other years, we’re still ahead of the game,” he says. This is in part owing to the fact that they don’t use any nitrogen on The data is in: yield boosts, lowered disease and insect pressure are just some of many benefits of planting two or more crops together. Julienne Isaacs ISINTERCROPPING THEFUTURE? their intercrops, because N is sup- plied by the pulse in each combi- nation. Added to this, disease and insect pressure is so low on their intercropped fields that they almost never have to spray. The year they did spray a fungi- cide — 2016 — “was the wettest year I’ve ever experienced,” says Axten. “All my buddies and neighbours were going on their fourth round of fungicide. You go out there and you can talk yourself into anything, so we sprayed once. But I’m definitely going to deliberate a lot more in the future.” Axten says intercropping is an attempt to mimic what happens in a “highly functioning, highly diverse” native ecosystem, where some 120 or more species might coexist. “We’ve been growing two crops together, which is nothing like it is in a native system. But we’ve been seeing an improvement with two crops over one, and since then we’ve added clovers as companion crops.” But intercropping is not about altruism for the Axtens: it’s a busi- ness decision. “We’ve never ever had less profit from intercropping,” he says. “And with the reduction of inputs you’re carrying so much less risk. It’s about how much money you keep as well as how much you make.” 10 GERMINATION.CA SEPTEMBER 2018 Sunflowers intercropped with vetch. Courtesy Derek Axten