DEREK AXTEN STARTED inter- cropping 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 inten- tionally?’” says Axten, who 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 aver- age somewhere between 1.25 and 1.3, although they have seen years over 1.5, says Axten. In 2017, some of their inter- cropped 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 (N) on their intercrops, because N is supplied by the pulse in each combination. Added to this, disease and insect pressure is so low on their intercropped fields that they almost never have to spray. Axten says intercropping is an attempt to mimic what happens in a “highly function- ing, 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,” he says. “But we’ve been seeing an improvement with two crops over one, and since then we’ve added clovers as compan- ion crops.” But intercropping is not about altruism: it’s a business 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.” Disease and Insect Pressure It’s not known exactly why most intercrops see a reduction in disease and insect pres- sure, according to Scott Chalmers, diversifi- cation specialist for Manitoba Agriculture’s Westman Agricultural Diversification Organization (WADO). But the data is there to prove this is often the case. Chalmers has been studying intercrop mixtures since 2009, focusing on yield and nitrogen and phosphorous interactions in pea/canola (peanola) intercrops. Intercropping with canola has major benefits for peas: because peas, which typi- cally fall to the ground, are held up by the canola, they experience less disease pres- sure and are also much easier to harvest. “You’re not having to drag your combine knife through the ground,” says Chalmers. 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 Is Intercropping the Future? Sunflowers intercropped with vetch. COURTESY DEREK AXTEN 30 / SEEDWORLD.COM SEPTEMBER 2018