Our Intercropping Journey

We began farming in 2016, but we did not begin to look at intercropping as a doable practice until 2018. We really began to look at intercropping as a viable operation because we saw it as an opportunity to expand our rotation and as a way to begin using some soil health practices. Our interest in intercropping began before we even began farming. While in school I had heard about the practice of intercropping, and it intrigued me. I began to research the idea further and found some researchers who were looking at the practicality of certain mixes. In the spring of 2018, we implemented our first intercrop, field pea and durum. A true strategy was not identified other than we wanted to harvest two crops. We began with 10 acres but did not have a decent turn out at the end of the year. We purchased a Kwik Kleen grain cleaner earlier in the spring, and were able to use it to practice separating two crops.

In 2019 we grew a field of intercropped canola and maple peas. The crop was looking decent and showed promise, until the late summer. Unfortunately as a result of a management decision, I chose not to harvest the intercropped field first. This was a poor choice because unlike any of the other previous years, it decided to start raining in September. In our region in North Dakota we normally receive 8-12 inches of rain from April through September. This particular September we received nearly 10 inches of rain! The excessive rain caused the canola to shatter and the maple peas to be flattened. We had to count this year as a loss.

Twenty-twenty has been the most successful year in our intercropping journey. We planted 35 acres of a yellow pea and canola combination. There was some confusion with 15 acres and the crop was unfortunately destroyed. So we were only able to harvest 20 acres. We went into the year with a strategy where we were going to try and maximize our canola production within the intercrop. The canola was planted at 4 pound of seed per acre (a traditional rate is 4 pounds per acre) and the peas were planted at 60 pounds per acre (a traditional rate is 180 pounds per acre). Since we were trying to maximize our canola production we chose to apply some fertilizer at a reduced rate. A recommended canola fertilization is 120 pounds of Nitrogen per acre with 30 pounds of Sulfur per acre. Peas naturally fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and do not need any applied fertilizer. Research has shown that with no fertilizer, the canola yield is greatly reduced. So, we applied only 60 pounds of Nitrogen and 20 pounds of Sulfur. We also made the decision to modify our drill to plant alternating rows in order to adjust to the desired planting depth of the individual crops. Canola is best grown when planted at a half-inch in depth, while peas can be planted at two inches deep. This was a fun mix to watch grow throughout the year. At harvest time we noticed that the canola looked better than the field of straight canola that we harvested the previous year. Our final yields were 25 bushels of canola and 16 bushels of peas per acre. This gave promise to future attempts of this mix.

Twenty-twenty-one was a very dry year. We received less than 6 inches of rain in between April and September. We planned on growing nearly 50 acres of a pea and canola intercrop. However, this was a year where our air seeder decided not to function correctly. We ran out of canola and had to find another crop to use as a mix with our peas. Our decision resulted in a mix of flax and pea. On top of the imminent drought, fertilizer prices were drastically increasing. In order to save some money and not waste our applied fertilizer, we applied 30 pounds of Nitrogen. I observed that when applied at rates this low the canola did not respond in the same way that it had in the previous year. The peas did perform quite well and shoed a greater yield than the previous year. The pea yield made up for the loss in canola yield.

As mentioned above, we also grew a mix of flax and pea. We saw promise in this combination despite malfunctions with the drill. The peas did not emerge uniformly, and we ended up with more flax than peas. However, the areas where the peas did emerge uniformly, they filled in between the wide row flax quite well. We are going to try this combination in 2022 while performing field trials with six different seeding rates. While we have not yet identified what our objective in this mix is going to be, we are excited to share our results of what we observed.