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By Chris Brown

How they're working and how they're not

Researcher wants to hear about cover crops from farmers

Mar 19, 2021 | 12:32 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – A post-secondary researcher wants to hear from as many Alberta and prairie farmers as possible to understand the full picture of cover cropping in the region.

Callum Morrison, a second-year Ph.D. student at the University of Manitoba, is running a crop cover survey to learn what farmers are already doing with cover crops and what could be done.

“Cover crops are usually grown to provide cover in what we call the shoulder season which is the period of time between when two cash crops are grown,” says Morrison. “In Alberta, these will typically be planted to grow over the fall and will either be killed in the winter or they’ll have to be terminated by tillage or herbicide in the spring before you can plant the next cash crop.”

Common cover crops planted in Alberta are clovers, oats and radishes.

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Each has a unique benefit such as atmospheric nitrogen capture (clovers) and storage and reducing compaction issues and increasing water infiltration into the soil (radishes).

Morrison says most farmers in Alberta are not using cover crops. Adoption is increasing but it’s still a vast minority of farmers growing them.

“We really want to know what is limiting cover crop adoption. We want to also be able to highlight how are these innovative farmers using cover crops, how are they fitting it into their rotation,” he says. “And that will give other farmers ideas as to how possibly they could grow a cover crop in the future.”

“We’re also hoping to listen to those farmers who grew cover crops so that we can gauge what benefits are these farmers actually getting out of cover crops, in what time periods. So how feasible is it to grow them, how did it affect these farmers’ incomes?”

The survey will help guide researchers and policymakers involved in agriculture to better help farmers and ensure that agriculture in Canada remains healthy and is supported, says Morrison.

If you operate a farm on the prairies, Morrison wants you to take the survey, whether you grew cover crops in 2020 or not.

He even wants to hear from farmers who have no intention of ever growing a cover crop, those who are curious or those who have grown them in the past but abandoned it.

“We really want to understand the entire picture of cover cropping in Alberta,” says Morrison. “We need to be able to demonstrate these challenges so we can get the best advice for farmers and our research can be as comprehensive as possible.”

The survey will wrap on April 1. Anyone interested in taking part can fill out the survey here.