Western Manitoba Producers Boost Soil Health via Cover Crop Project
First-year Conservation Trust program extends growing season on more than 2000 acres
Winnipeg, MB – (December 10, 2020) – Shaun Cory knows that when it comes to farming, Mother Nature bats last. That’s why the Wawanesa-area farmer was quick to sign up for a Manitoba Conservation Trust-funded project led by Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA) on cover crops across three Watershed Districts in western Manitoba. Support for the cover crop and soil-health project has been provided by The Conservation Trust, a Manitoba Climate and Green Plan Initiative delivered by the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation.
“Soil health is the way of the future in my books,” says Cory, who farms with his son Jeremy and his dad Gene and also sits as an elected councillor for the Rural Municipality of Oakland-Wawanesa. “We have a diverse rotation that helps buffer excess moisture and the cover crop project we took part in will help that to continue.”
After signing up with the Central Assiniboine Watershed District (CAWD), the Corys sowed down their project-based cover crop after harvest this year and Shaun expects they will see full results next spring. The Corys were among 25 Westman producers enrolled in a one-year Manitoba Conservation Trust-funded soil-health building project to plant 2000 acres of cover crops. At the end of the one-year 2020 project, the leaders from the project partnership were pleased with the response and outcomes and gearing up to adapt any future phases to include a relay crop option as well as the cover crops.
“Relay crops may represent a better option in that they address two of the five soil health principles and are timed with avoiding the operational and agronomic constraints of seeding during the harvest season,” says Ryan Canart, manager of the Assiniboine West Watershed District (AWWD). “The key to continued uptake of these practices is better understanding the benefits that can be accrued over time and applying producer knowledge and ingenuity to the combinations of plants and crop rotations for the best results”.
Relay cropping is simply adding additional non-competitive species at time of spring seeding, with the intent of adding plant diversity and lengthening the growing season beyond harvest. Nearly all the focus was on post-harvest cover crops which turned out to be a challenge for producers juggling time and labour in a busy time of year. Still, while the project team looked forward as to what the next project might look like with relay crops added to the mix, the project was very successful and fully subscribed almost right from the get-go.
“Relay crops planted in the spring provide added diversity which has a host of benefits that include feeding soil microbes a more complex diet, reduced disease pressure and other agronomic benefits and provides another soil-health tool for those producers that are finding it difficult to get their cover crops into the ground due to harvest pressures,” says Yasemin Keeler, regional manager of the Souris River Watershed District in Deloraine. “With relay crops, both crops share a portion of the growing season and provide producers with another choice for better soil health.”
The one year project has concluded and the group is waiting for soil samples to be returned to start the baseline data. MFGA has reapplied to the Manitoba Conservation Trust’s 2021 intake to renew and expand the project for another year.
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