Grainswest - Fall 2023

Fall 2023 Grains West 38 BY ADELINE PANAMAROFF FEATURE Research carried out in Alberta and Iowa suggest there may be benefits to leaving certain marginal areas of farmland uncropped. Profit margins Research finds agronomic and economic value in uncultivated land H edgerows, hillsides too steep for tractors to climb and even grassy margins along fencelines serve as havens for beneficial insects and birds that play a pivotal role in pest control. Since the dust bowl days of the 1930s, shelterbelts composed of trees and mixed vegetation have mitigated soil erosion by wind and water. More recently, research has been carried out to assess the additional benefits such uncropped land may provide. Paul Galpern is an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Calgary. Since 2015, he has monitored the biodiversity and potential pest control and pollinator benefits created by these uncultivated areas of Alberta farmland. Such marginal areas may include shelterbelts, wetlands, field margins, roadside ditches, treed areas and even patches of forage and pasture areas within or adjacent to crop fields. “We’re doing this because we know growers need economic reasons to conserve or create non-crop vegetation areas,” said Galpern. “It’s dollars to them, and I totally respect that. What this [research] shows is it doesn’t mean you’re going to get a lot richer if you create non-crop vegetation areas. It means that it’s probably going to even out [economically, over time].” As the Canola Council of Canada is a major funder of Galpern’s research, his work focuses on the high-value crop. He has used the Prairie Precision Sustainability Network to employ monitoring systems to study the potential positive effects of existing and newly created natural marginal areas adjacent to cropland. Using a variety of methods, Galpern’s team has measured the distance beneficial predatory insects and pollinators travel from uncropped areas into crops. They have used various traps to capture and count insects such as beetles, spiders and pollinators. An innovative, new method used to evaluate insect activity involves the use of green, plasticine caterpillars. Hungry insects leave bite marks in these decoys that can then be counted. Another method uses dead moth eggs glued to paper slips. Predatory insects signal their presence by eating the eggs. The researchers identified a spillover effect that creates a halo of activity around natural areas. Insects, spiders and pollinators travel a certain distance into cropped land, which tends to have better pollination rates and pest control as a result. Over a 10-year span, Galpern has used satellite imagery to identify farmland where such conservation measures may prove beneficial. His calculations consider the crops being grown, local weather conditions and predicted market demand for canola. The imagery pinpoints land that has perennially underproduced. These areas can then be evaluated by the farmer, who decides whether to take them out of production. It may make economic sense to do so, such as when the cost of inputs outweighs a crop’s