Profitable Practices: Intercropping with Colin Rosengren

For more than 10 growing seasons, some fields around Midale, Saskatchewan, have looked just a little different. Instead of solid fields of yellow canola or green pea stands, those traveling through might think they're seeing both.
And that's because they are. Intercropping, the practice of growing two or more crops at the same time on the same acre, is something Colin Rosengren has been doing for over a decade.
While there are about 10 different crops being grown at any time, Rosengren says it's most commonly a pulse and oilseed that get intercropped. Canola and pea (peaola) is typical, but lentils, flax, and others have found their way in to mixes.
The original impetus to try it came during a time of really low crop prices. The farm was looking at ways to eek out extra bushels and reduce input costs at the same time. Rosengren says that observing volunteer plants in crops that seemed to do just find tweaked him to wonder, "Why do we think we should only grow just one [crop at a time]?"
Rosengren says that by planting two crops at time, the plants can make better use of nutrients and water through different rooting depths and input demand curves. Plus, plant architecture plays a role: peas climb on canola and keep the stand thick and knitted, decreasing shatter risk and making harvest easier. It also helps to take advantage or mitigate risk in the field - peas thrive in lower spots where lentils perhaps would do best on a knoll in the same field.
#farming #intercropping #soil #soilhealth
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