Growing Pulse Crops

Kyle Okke is an independent crop consultant in Dickinson, North Dakota with his own company, Agile Agronomy. Before starting Agile Agronomy three years ago, he had worked for several years as a regional agronomist in the area with Winfield United. Kyle deals with a wide variety of crops in his area including pulse crops, specifically lentils, chickpeas and field peas. He also has farmer clients that grow durum, wheat, flax, canola, corn, soybeans and sunflowers. In this episode, he discusses the various details about products, timing, water rates, adjuvants, and other considerations for controlling broadleaf weeds.

“ You get what you get as far as options for broadleaf control in pulse crops. So there's no perfect product in a broadleaf sense on a post emergent basis. So you're never always going to have excellent activity in everything. That's why there's so much emphasis on fall residuals and spring applied residuals, because that's going to do a lot of the heavy lifting for you that hopefully either you don't apply post-emerge products, or if you do, you keep the weeds small enough that you get the activity you need out of those post-emerge broad leaf products.” - Kyle Okke

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Kyle Okke, an independent crop consultant in Dickinson, North Dakota with his own company, Agile Agronomy
• Explore the many considerations needed to be addressed to manage broadleaf weeds
• Understand the value of finding weeds early and selecting the correct surfactants for the type of weed you are targeting
• Discover how certain chemicals can uniquely work together to enhance weed control

Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Dr. Kevin McPhee is a pulse crop breeder at Montana State University. He’s been there for just over eight years after building a similar program in pulse crop breeding at North Dakota State University. Prior to that, he was working on pulse crops with the USDA ARS based in Pullman, Washington. Together we discuss the pulse crop breeding program in Montana, including their goals for the program in pea, chickpea and lentils. He describes varieties they’ve released and what’s in the pipeline that growers might want to know about for the future. 

“  What really separates the winter peas from the spring peas and gives them the advantage is when we have a dry year and there isn't the in-season moisture rains for the spring crop. With the winter peas already in the ground…they don't have to worry about planting them in the spring. That's one big advantage. And then they can take advantage of all of the winter moisture that's in the soil and any of the spring rains that occur. They flower a month ahead of the spring types. So they're well on their way before we get into the heat of the summer and the potential dry conditions, and that's where they shine.” - Dr. Kevin McPhee

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Dr. Kevin McPhee, a pulse crop breeder at Montana State University
• Discover new pulse crop varieties that are being introduced and the benefits they offer producers
• Explore major advantages offered by winter peas that may benefit producers looking to be more water efficient

Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Chris Holzapfel is the research manager at the Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation (IHARF). IHARF is a producer-led not-for-profit organization based in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. Their mandate is to provide extension type work for agricultural research and demonstration, including a lot of work with pulse crops.  Holzapfel started in his role at IHARF in 2005 and over the years they've grown to now conducting 40 to 50 small plot trials as well as some field scale research on crops relevant to the area.

He shares some of the research they’ve done with seeding rates, fertility and with supplementing phosphorus in particular. 

“ Phosphorus is, without a doubt, by a large margin, the most important nutrient to manage. That's the one that we've gotten the most consistent responses to in our work…You know with phosphorus you're almost fertilizing the soil as much as you are the plants.” - Chris Holzapfel

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Chris Holzapfel, the research manager at the Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation (IHARF)
• Discover the soil and weather particulars of the Saskatchewan region
• Explore the research being done to evaluate different seeding rates and their impact on competing with different weed populations
• Learn about the potential benefits of a phosphorus supplement and how to evaluate its benefit on your operation
• Read more about IHARF at their website

Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Dr. Brian Jenks is a weed scientist at North Dakota State University based in Minot. Jenks has been in this role since 1997 and over that time he has seen an alarming rise in resistance to many of our herbicides from certain weeds, especially in kochia. In this episode, Jenks shares about the latest in kochia management including what’s working and not working, which products have built up resistance and which products are still effective. We also talk about a few other key weeds like palmer amaranth, wild oat and green foxtail. 

“ And if there's anybody listening who's thinking about using Tough on lentil, please call me before you use it because there's some things that you need to know. I mean just reading the label, you're not going to have sufficient information because all they say on there is spray 6 to 20 ounces and oh, by the way, you can tank mix with Metribuzin. Well, that is a recipe for potential disaster if you do that. Because we need to talk rates, we need to talk timing, we need to talk adjuvants, and I'm encouraging growers to do this only as a last resort because you will see severe injury.” - Dr. Brian Jenks

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Dr. Brian Jenks, a weed scientist at North Dakota State University based in Minot, ND
• Discover the rising risk of herbicide resistance in weed management especially with the weed kochia
• Learn the process to evaluate the type of kochia resistance producers may be facing and how to get that service for free
• Understand the significance of a weed being on the noxious weed list and the impact that has on producers
• Contact Dr. Brian Jenks with any of your weed biology or herbicide questions at (701) 857-7677

Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

After a tough year in 2023, agronomist Jeannie Rude and Northeast Montana farmer Blake Rasmussen were part of a project to create a video about their experiences with Real Ag Radio’s Shaun Haney. That video documented the far reaching impacts root rot can have on farmers and the local community. 

Blake is a fifth generation farmer on an operation that has included lentils and chickpeas in their rotations for the past 25 years. He has also been an active member of the Northern Pulse Growers Association for the past five years. Jeannie Rude is an agronomist with Pro Coop also located in northeast Montana.  She returns to the podcast time with Blake to share their experiences with root rots. 

“ The root diseases impact the lentil crop and that has an impact on the grower, the health of their soils, and the health of their farm economics. We just got this awesome Columbia grain pulse facility completed in the last few years. So it affects everything from the soil health right down to Main Street in this community.” - Jeannie Rude

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Northeast Montana farmer Blake Rasmussen and hear again from Northeast Montana agronomist Jeannie Rude
• Discover the impact Blake had while participating in the Gulf Food Show in Dubai
• Explore the longterm challenges root rots presents for producers and the lack of information regarding it for how to manage it
• Learn about the efforts being made to better identify the cause of these issues and what can be done to improve their management

Watch the video featuring Jeannie and Blake on the Real Agriculture YouTube channel coordinated by the Pulse Crops Working Group with funding from the North Central IPM Center. 

Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Dr. Ian Burke is a weed scientist at Washington State University. His work focuses on weed biology and ecology, and he does a lot of work with herbicides. Dr. Burke discusses his research evaluating herbicides for use in peas, lentils and chickpeas and how to manage herbicide carry over issues that can impact these crops. This is the deep dive into herbicide carry over that you might not have even realized you needed.

“ We have not enough moisture during the summer to break down the herbicides and not enough heat units during the winter to break down the herbicides. So we really have sort of a perfect storm, a very unique situation, in the United States where herbicides applied in our important rotational crop like wheat persists for far longer than than anywhere else.”  - Ian Burke, Ph.D.

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Ian Burke, Ph.D. and learn about cropping systems in his area of the Pacific Northwest
• Understand herbicide carryover and the factors that causes herbicide persistence like the characteristics of the products themselves, environmental conditions, and soil properties
• Discover how farmers can manage herbicide carryover while still maintaining the efficacy of their herbicide program. 

Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Paul Kanning is a farmer in Montana who grows mostly red lentils and yellow peas as well as wheat and canola. He also serves as the chairman of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council. Lewi Crow is a Risk Management Specialist with the USDA Risk Management Agency that services Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas. Lewi and Paul talk about the importance of RMA and crop insurance, but also the process behind developing crop insurance programs for pulse crops. 

“ As an individual farmer, I have to provide them data and the way I do that is by making transactions, right? And so selling pulses in the fall helps establish the harvest price for the fall. That's the only way that they can come up with the data is by farmers putting product out in the stream… That makes the whole wheel turn.” - Paul Kanning

 ”...some of the things that I do with that is reviewing plant dates, basically just kind of pulling apart crop programs and reviewing all aspects of it that goes on with rates and t-yields for individual counties, rotation requirements, various things that farmers tend to encounter when choosing crop insurance.”  - Lewi Crow



This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Paul Kanning, a pulse crop farmer in Montana and the chairman of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council, and Lewi Crow, a Risk Management Specialist with the USDA Risk Management Agency 
• Understand what the RMA provides for producers and the insight they can offer when making production decisions
• Make a note of these important dates:
• January 15th is when the harvest price is released 
• Beginning of March is when projected prices for this 2025 crop year are released
• March 15th is the sales closing date for most of the spring seeded crops so Lewi recommends reviewing your crop insurance prior to that date 

Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Chuck Penner founded Leftfield Commodity Research in 2010. The company provides market analysis and economic research focused on the crops that are important to farmers in Western Canada and the northern parts of the US. Penner shares about the global marketplace for peas, chickpeas and lentils. This episode was recorded on January 10th, 2025.

“ One of the things that I've been telling Canadian farmers… is to forget about being the only show in town anymore. Now you have Australia producing more red lentils than Canada does. You have Russia, you have Kazakhstan, and you have the US production going up there as well too…So you need to think globally about not just demand, but the supplies as well.” - Chuck Penner

Penner shares about drivers both on the supply side and the demand side that are impacting the trajectory of these global and domestic markets. Through his many newsletters and research projects he aims to keep producers informed about the current state of industries they need to know about. He shares the potential impact on the pulse crop market of different tariffs and what that could mean for producers

“ In some ways geopolitics is a factor that's always there, but this year it's kind of amped up a lot and not just in Canadian-US trade, but Canada and India and Canada and China and those types of things where you have potential for those sudden moves.”  - Chuck Penner

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Chuck Penner founder of Leftfield Commodity Research where they provide market analysis and economic research focused on the crops in Western Canada and the northern parts of the US
• Explore the potential impact of tariffs on the pulse crop markets and what producers need to know
• Discover the growing global pulse crop markets and the impact that can have on North American prices

Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Dr. Clain Jones is Montana State University Extension’s soil fertility specialist. In this role he covers anything that has to do with fertilizer or nutrient cycling in both agriculture as well as home/garden systems. He started at MSU as a tenure track faculty member in 2006, and has ended up doing quite a bit of work with pulse crops over the years. He joins me today to talk about fertility in pulses, the importance of inoculation, nitrogen credits, soil pH, and the overall importance of pulse crops to soil health.

“Adding five pounds of sulfur per acre to lentils, what we found at least here in Bozeman, was that nitrogen fixation increased at a much faster rate than yield did. What that told us was that by applying sulfur, maybe we're not going to see a huge yield response, but we're going to contribute a lot more nitrogen both to that crop and to the next crop.” - Dr. Clain Jones

Dr. Jones stresses the importance of plant nutrition and pH when it comes to optimizing a pulse crop's ability to fix nitrogen. Limestone deposits in the soil can make pH values highly variable even within a field. This can make accurate soil testing a challenge. An acidic pH has a significant impact on rhizobia viability as they don’t tolerate low pH values very well. Along with pH, many micronutrients such as sulfur, potassium and phosphorus also need to be considered when assessing overall soil health and nitrogen fixation efficiency.

“We have low phosphorus because our high levels of calcium tie up that phosphorus making it less available to crops. Knowing that phosphorus is essential for nitrogen fixation, my gut feel is that phosphorus is probably the nutrient most limiting nitrogen fixation and probably pulse crop growth in our two state region.”  - Dr. Clain Jones

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Dr. Clain Jones, the Montana State University Extension’s soil fertility specialist
• Discover the impact of pH and micronutrients on a pulse crop’s ability to fix nitrogen
• Explore the recommended testing and values of soil nutrition to allow for optimal nitrogen fixation

Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast. 

Kim Sauressig is a fourth generation farmer in Central North Dakota where he grows a wide range of crops including corn, wheat, durum, barley, soybeans, lentils, chickpeas and pinto beans. He also raised cattle until a few years ago when they decided to focus exclusively on crops. When not farming, Kim chairs the North Dakota Dry Pea & Lentil Council and has a seat on the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council where he serves as the chair of the research committee. Kim shares his journey into pulse crops, what roles they play in his overall rotations, the value of associations like the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council, and why he believes more farmers should consider including pulse crops in their crop rotations. 

“So we started seeding pintos and we were putting a little bit of “N” down. My agronomist called me and he got our soil test back from the laboratory and he is like, just drop your fertilizer. He said, “You don't have to put anything down.” And I truthfully, honestly think that that's because the lentils from the two years previous had fixated it in there. We didn't need it anymore.” - Kim Sauressig

Kim highlights the many benefits of pulse crops that he has experienced including their nitrogen fixation capabilities and their efficiency with water use. Through his work on the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Council and the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council he has expanded his personal network to include many agronomists and research scientists that have really helped him not only fine tune his operation but also support future pulse crop growers. He goes on to share the many advantages the councils offers producers by way of research and financial support.

“Your revenue protections and your crop insurances and stuff, that's kind of directly put together by the US Dry Pea and Lentil Council….They were a dog in the fight that helped get dollars to come back into the specialty crop side of things. I mean we're talking millions and millions of dollars that went back to producers that were growing pulse crops that were very, very beneficial.”  - Kim Sauressig

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Kim Sauressig, a fourth generation farmer in Central North Dakota, chair of the North Dakota Dry Pea & Lentil Council and chair of the research committee on the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council
• Discover Kim’s experiences with pulse crops and the insights he has gained from participating in both the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Council and the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council

Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.