When are wheat crops seeded and harvested in Alberta?
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farm environments
Farmers depend on both natural and agricultural ecosystems to grow crops and raise livestock. The practices they use on their farms help maintain the health of these ecosystems.
Healthy natural and agricultural ecosystems rely on factors like soil, sources of water, insects, bacteria and fungi. The sustainable practices used by farmers to address these factors can provide indicators of sustainability.
The Taking Care of the Land video was produced in 2011, but shares many of the practices that are connected to both the past and the future.
Video from Alberta Environmental Farm Plan – Agricultural Research and Extension Council of Alberta. www.albertaefp.com/resources/producers/
Watch this original project AGRICULTURE video interview to find out why the water cycle and carbon cycle are both important to sustainable practices used by these Alberta farmers.
Watch this original project AGRICULTURE video interview to find out why these Alberta farmers use crop rotation to protect soil diversity.
What connections can you identify between sustainability and soil diversity?
sustainable wheat practices
For Alberta wheat farmers, sustainability means using practices that reduce the environmental and ecological impact of farming. Some of the practices used by farmers include the following examples described by the Grain Growers of Canada.
- No till farming is also known as zero-till or conservation tillage farming. This practice means that farmers no longer have to till the soil to kill weeds, conserving moisture and reducing erosion of soils. According to Statistics Canada, more than half of our farmland is cultivated using no till practices.
- Fewer passes over fields are used with no till farming. This means that fuel use in Canada is reduced by over 170 million litres each year.
- Precision agriculture is another farming practice. It uses modern farming equipment (including drones) to target the use of crop inputs only when and where they are needed most.
- 4R Nutrient Stewardship means that farmers only use fertilizer in the right place, at the right rate, at the right time and with the right type.
- Crop rotations help to prevent disease, weeds and harmful pests. Crops that are rotated include winter crops like winter wheat as well as legume crops that build soil health.
- Integrated pest management uses ecosystem-based natural practices. These practices are based on the life cycles of pests and how they interact with the environment.
- Cover crops are used to prevent or reduce weed growth. Leguminous cover crops are used to fix atmospheric nitrogen.
- Environmental Farm Plans help farmers make sure that sustainability goals are reached.
Adapted from Sustainability. Grain Growers of Canada online. www.ggc-pgc.ca/policy/key-issues/sustainability/
why pulses are naturally sustainable
Pulses use soil bacteria to draw nitrogen from the air. This natural process replaces the need to add nitrogen fertilizers in pulse crops, which means pulses use half the energy inputs of other crops.
Pulses also require less water. Many types of pulse crops can grow well in dry environments. This lets them be produced in areas that can experience drought.
Pulses like peas and lentils extract water from a shallower depth. This leaves more water in the soil for the following year’s crop. It makes the water use more efficient for farmers.
After pulse crops like peas and beans are harvested, they can leave the soil richer and more full of nutrients for the next crop that is grown.
Growing pulse crops in rotation with other crops enables the soil to support larger, more diverse populations of soil organisms that help maintain and increase soil fertility.
PULSE CROP WITH NITROGEN FIXING ROOT NODULES
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PULSES GROWN IN ROTATION WITH OTHER CROPS FEED SOIL MICROBES AND BENEFIT SOIL HEALTH
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Information and images from Pulses & Sustainable Food. Pulses.org. https://pulses.org/future-of-food/pulses-sustainable-food
what canola farmers do for sustainability
Canola farmers – like other oilseed, grain and pulse farmers – use no till practices. About 70 percent of the carbon sequestered by Canadian field crops is due to canola.
Find more information and the factsheet on the canolainfo.org website at www.canolainfo.org/news/canola-farming-and-the-environment.
