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Winter
2018
Grains
West
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Experimenting with the makeup
and seeding rate of these mixes is also
important, she noted. Zavala suggested
that the choice of cover cropping
species is dependent on the needs of
the individual farmer. If the need is for
reducing erosion, the best cover crop
species are going to cover and protect
most of the soil surface area.
From one season to the next, the plots
produced deep rooting and increased
aggregation—the tendency of soil
particles to bind together—as well as a
decrease in compaction and substantial
weed suppression. “I thought, ‘OK,
there is something here. We need to
measure it,’” said Zavala.
She wants to quantify the results of this
promising cover crop experimentation
and has been approached by
approximately 40 farmers who’ve taken
an interest in the practice or are actively
carrying it out. On their own or with
input from agronomists, many farmers
in northeast Alberta are planting cover
crops and, little by little, farmers across
the province are trying it, she said. They
likewise want to see Alberta-specific
data on infiltration rates, the stability of
aggregation, alleviating compaction and
so on.
“It’s a learning process,” said Zavala,
and one that requires benchmarking. To
this end, she has initiated the creation
of a soil health lab at the CARA facility,
patterned on the soil health lab at Cornell
University where she completed her PhD.
Once she received approval to proceed,
Zavala began to plan its creation. With a
launch tentatively scheduled for spring of
2018, the lab is located in a former school
building CARA has purchased. Its lab
equipment was received as a donation
from a shuttered soil lab in Vulcan. The
facility is being renovated by a supportive
local farmer.
“I’m very excited because the lab
is going to allow us to establish the
benchmarks for soil health. Benchmarks
will allow farmers to know if they are
doing the right thing. Because if you
don’t have a benchmark, and you don’t
know what you started with, how can
you compare?” Observing results over
time will allow adjustments to be made
in the suggested cover crop species
mix for various agronomic needs. For
example, if the cover crop is intended
for cattle feed, the species mix can
be adjusted to also target whatever
constraint exists in the field, like the
need for weed suppression or moisture
conservation.
Alberta farmers are taking interest
in both rotation and cover cropping
out of curiosity and necessity, said
Kirschenman. Where no quick fixes
exist, diseases such as clubroot in
canola and Fusarium head blight in
cereals threaten the place of individual
crops within narrow rotations.
“Management has to commence,” he
said. “Thinking through it and having a
plan makes a huge difference.”
There are roadblocks to implementing
these practices, however. “Rotation is
a hard one in some areas because of
cash rent,” said Kirschenman. Where
it’s necessary to grow the same two or
three crops to compete, it’s difficult to
bring another crop in that may have a
lower return, but will have long-term
benefits. “In a single-year contract, like
most cash rents are, you’re not worried
about the mid- and long-term soil
health,” he said.
Even in areas that enjoy Alberta’s
lengthiest growing seasons, such as
Kirschenman’s own southeast quadrant
of the province, the Lethbridge area
and the Red River Valley, there may
not be adequate moisture to easily
accommodate cover crops. And where
moisture is sufficient, such as further
north, a killing frost may come in early
September.
The biggest uptake in cover cropping
in the province is with cattle operations,
said Kirschenman. “It’s a no-brainer after
a barley silage or a winter cereal silage. I
think that is where a lot of the cover crops
are happening now. If you’re silaging
cattle, some farmers will go out and get
another cut of silage off of that cover
crop rather than just let that ground lay or
they’ll graze it going into fall and winter.
They’re basically growing two crops in
one year and putting one through a cow
and converting it to pounds of beef.
That’s very important.” He also noted that
cover crops are being used on potato
Photo:Michael Interisano
The biggest uptake in cover cropping in Alberta is with cattle operations, said Andy Kirschenman, a farmer in the
Hilda area who has adopted a comprehensive programof soil health practices.