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The Land Institute’s Brandon Schlautman joins the show about the work he is doing to breed perennial pulses. Brandon is the lead scientist of the perennial legumes program at the Land Institute which is based in Salina, KS. The 40 year old non-profit ag research institute tries to find solutions that balance short term economic realities with long term conservation goals. They’re known for their work in kernza, and hope to make similar progress in pulses. In this episode we talk about why developing a perennial pulse crop is worthwhile, where they started down this road, how they settled on sainfoin for the perennial pulse development, and the road ahead towards commercialization.

“My program at The Land Institute focuses on perennial pulses and we're exploring various candidates and are starting to work towards something that can kind of mimic a pea or a chickpea or a lentil, but be something that has living roots in the ground year round, and gonna make it through our winters and recover and always be there. It's kind of a plant once and harvest many times type of deal.” -Brandon Schlautman

So when Brandon arrived at The Land Institute, one of his early challenges was to find the most promising perennial legumes to consider for commercial development. This open ended task was the first step to narrowing it down to a plant he could work with. He eventually settled on sainfoin. One big plus about sainfoin, is that it actually is already grown in some areas as a commercial crop. But settling on sainfoin is just one of the many challenges of bringing this new crop to production. The hope is this will find a premium market, reduce soil disturbance, and thrive on minimal inputs. 

“There are a couple thousand acres of production in the western part of the US. And I really like that there's a sainfoin seed industry already. We've talked with multiple growers in Montana that they grow and clean seed and sell it to other producers mostly for forage production. So we have some of this knowledge about how sainfoin can be grown and how to do the seed production. The eating it is the next step and so we're excited.” - Brandon Schautman

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Brandon Schautman the lead scientist of the perennial legumes program at the Land Institute 
• Explore the journey towards developing and producing a perineal pulse crop
• Discover the benefits of having a perennial crop and the possible opportunities sainfoin can offer producers
• Learn more at www.landinstitute.org

Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Cody Creech and Dr. Carrie Eberle join the show to talk about new frontiers for pulse crops in Nebraska and Wyoming. We’ll explore where and how these crops are fitting into rotations, the challenges of growing pulses in new areas, double cropping, and water use efficiency. 

Cody is a dryland cropping systems specialist with the University of Nebraska Lincoln located at the panhandle center in Western Nebraska. He focuses on crops that can be grown without needing much water including soil water conservation, fertility, weed management and ways to improve overall use efficiency in Western Nebraska. 

“This area of Nebraska and Wyoming has not been a target for breeding programs for these pulse crops. And so in the past 10 years, there's been a lot of improvement in these varieties, much better varieties that are much better adapted, but there's still a long ways to go in that realm. If we can keep working on that breeding side of things, I think we're gonna see continued success in pulse crops in both Nebraska and Wyoming.” - Cody Creech, Ph.D.

Carrie, at the time of this interview was a cropping systems agronomist with the University of Wyoming located studying alternative crops for the region and looking at sustainable farming practices. Since the time this interview took place back in January, she has since gone on to work for the USDA ARS as an agroecologist based in Morris, Minnesota. 

“I think for the Wyoming system, our farmers are mostly looking to understand if the crop is going to work for them. So there's questions just about growing in the region and when they should plant, how they harvest, what their populations look like. There's a lot of questions around weed control in those crops. And then the other big challenge for our farmers is always access to markets.” - Carrie Eberle, Ph.D.

This week on Growing Pulse Crops: 

• Meet Dr. Cody Creech and Dr. Carrie Eberle
• What is prompting growers in Wyoming and Nebraska to consider pulse crops for the first times
• The need for genetics, research, and markets in order to expand the production of pulses in this area
• How pulse crops figure into the need for water use efficiency in these dry areas

Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

In this episode Dr. Tyler Wist discusses the impact caused by grasshoppers and aphids in pulse crops. Tyler is a field crop entomologist with Agriculture and Agrifood Canada based at the Saskatoon Research and Development Center. He does research on field crop insects to find ways to better protect crops, establish economic thresholds, and identify and understand plant-insect interactions. He starts the conversation with personal insights in grasshoppers.

“The real trouble is when grasshoppers get into a flowering crop. You can have a beautiful green lentil crop and they'll move in and they'll just clip the flower off….If it drops its flowers, you get no pods, then you get no yield. So the grasshoppers like to clip those flowers off, especially in lentils. So our threshold that we use up here in Canada is actually really low.” - Dr. Tyler Wist

With this potential for yield loss, it is important to understand exactly where that threshold should be. Another pest that causes substantial damage in pulse crops is the aphid. Tyler says they started using the cumulative aphid density to identify thresholds and found out that the economic threshold actually comes before the economic injury level. While counting aphids might sound tedious to some, rigorous scouting is of the utmost importance during the susceptible period. 

“If you're not careful with aphids at the flowering stage of your fava bean plants, you could lose your whole crop.” - Dr. Tyler Wist

There are so many dynamics at play here including the biology of the insect, field conditions, overwintering, and timing. Tyler said all of this research he is involved in comes together to provide the most accurate economic thresholds possible. Along with continual monitoring, introducing beneficial insects can be an important part of an effective integrated pest management program. Tyler says Field Heroes have a great website with resources for learning more about beneficial insects.

“We're doing the science for you and those economic thresholds are there to help you save money, to know when you don't need to apply insecticides.” - Dr. Tyler Wist

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Dr. Tyler Wist, a field crop entomologist with Agriculture and Agrifood Canada based at the Saskatoon Research and Development Center. 
• Explore the effects of grasshoppers and aphids in pulse crops
• Discover the economic thresholds, research and resources available to producers to better mitigate insect pests

Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

In this episode we continue our conversation with Greg Busch, a farmer in the far northwest corner of North Dakota. In case you missed Greg’s introduction, he farms with his wife Jessica and they’ve been growing pulses as part of their rotation for over thirty years. We talk about what led Greg to try intercropping, which combinations have worked for him, the benefits and challenges of this approach, and his advice for others who might want to experiment with intercropping.  

“I was thinking I was going to still see the same root rot that we had seen five or 10 years before, but that didn't happen. It just seemed like the two grew together and they formed a really good synergy. In the areas that are a little more saline prone, where peas do very poorly, the canola was thicker. In the areas on hilltops, where the canola tends to run out of moisture, the peas did better. The combination far exceeded what we would've gotten with peas alone.” - Greg Busch

Greg continues to adjust his protocols as needed. One priority has been to even out the maturity of the crops to maximize their harvest. He mentions there is an added cost in cleaning and separating the crops he harvests but is hopeful he may someday find a market that will accept the mix. Initially there were concerns that the moisture content in the peas would be too much for the canola while storing the two together but Greg was surprised to find that that wasn’t the case. 

“They store very nicely together…. We were quite concerned that we were gonna have moldy canola when we opened the bin door, but that just wasn't the case. In fact, we let that combination sit in the bin for a year and a half till we got around to cleaning it. And trust me, I was checking it because I was concerned. I didn't want to burn up a bin of combined grain, but when we cleaned it a year and a half later, it came out just as nice as when we put it in. So it's amazing that they do store that way.” - Greg Busch

Greg initially incorporated intercropping to feed “the soil microbes and the different soil life that is out there.” He has also experienced an overall price reduction in production costs by reducing input needs. 

“When it comes to chemical, you have these two crops competing with each other and shading out most of the other weeds that are out there. And we're seeing a reduction in weeds and a reduction in the need for additional chemical.” - Greg Busch

Greg continues to make adjustments as needed based on market prices, water availability and input costs.

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Continue our conversation with Greg Busch, a farmer up in the far northwest corner of North Dakota
• Discover his journey into intercropping and the results he has enjoyed
• Explore the trials and lessons he has learned by adding intercropping to his rotation

Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Greg Busch is a farmer in the far northwest corner of North Dakota. He farms with his wife Jessica and they’ve been growing pulses as part of their rotation for over thirty years. Greg joins us over the next two episodes to talk about what led him to diversify his rotation to include up to ten different crops. He tells us what he has learned through these experiences and where pulses specifically fit into the mix. 

“When we first started farming and specifically when we first started no-till we were a monoculture and we saw a lot of problems with that, a lot of disease. It took a lot of extra fertilizer to keep growing crops like that.….We couldn't continue to do that. We were seeing depletion in our soil, erosion and land costs were getting higher.” - Greg Busch

A local extension agent introduced the Busch operation to field peas in an effort to more efficiently use his land. With that addition, they noticed not only could they grow the crop but they had reduced fertilizer inputs as early as the next year. Forgive the pun but with that the seed of crop diversity was planted. This crop diversity quickly enhanced their soil health by decreasing erosion and fertilizer needs confirmed with the Haney Soil Test.

“We do have a nice residual of nitrogen when we've done our soil tests. It comes back telling us that. We do the Haney Soil Test on most of our ground every year and they give you a soil health score based on a number of different things, carbon release is one of them. And those fields always seem to show higher and we’ve been very pleased.” - Greg Busch

Greg has noticed that there is much less tillage in his area in North Dakota. Less labor, less equipment costs, less passes in the fields and not to forget many soil health benefits have enticed many producers to pursue no-till practices. A major goal for Greg on his operation has been to increase the organic matter in his fields. His soil tests have proven that he has certainly accomplished that goal with a 3-4 times higher organic matter observed since adopting these rotations and practices. 

“It just seems like the ground is a lot more forgiving. It seems to absorb heavy rainfall events better than fields with low organic matter. And it also seems to carry us through short droughts better than the ground with less organic matter. ” - Greg Busch

Join us in the next episode where Greg share’s specifically about his experiences with intercropping. 

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Greg Busch is a farmer up in the far northwest corner of North Dakota
• Explore the journey he has taken from a monoculture operation to one with 8 to 10 rotations including pulse crops
• Discover the many soil health benefits he has observed and how he identifies them and uses them to his advantage
• Stay tuned for the next episode where Greg joins us again to share his experience with intercropping

Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Mark Jirik of the Northern Crops Institute joins the show to talk about their value-added product development and their role in education of a variety of crops. Northern Crops Institute is an international meeting and learning center that unites customers, commodity traders, technical experts, and professors for discussion and education. Since 1983, over 133 nations have sent participants to NCI who are government representatives, private industry agriculture workers, or from other commodity utilization industries. 

“95% of our course participants had a better understanding of the US supply chain. 99% had a better understanding of quality and 51% increased their purchase of US commodities as a result of what they learned in our courses.” - Mark Jirik

To carry out their mission, NCI focuses on product development work and technical training and education. And like everyone else, they really had to adapt to the events of the past couple of years. 

“The pandemic has really forced us to take a look at how we do things. So when we talk about education and technical education, historically, that has been in person training….We do some domestic facing courses as well. And obviously with a pandemic that couldn't happen. So we ended up moving a lot of that education online.” - Mark Jirik

Along with extensive education services, NCI services producers by identifying best product development processes. What they do is not really research, but everything related to the development of a process to get the final product consumer-ready.This unique vantage point has given Mark a special perspective on the global agricultural industry. 

“Pulses are a very versatile crop. And when you start looking at the last 10, 15, 20 years, we've been in this protein pool market and pulses have been a very important component….whether you start talking Africa or other parts of Asia, there’s gonna be people that are hungry for protein and I think pulses fit a very nice niche for those people.” - Mark Jirik

To continue to meet the developmental needs of the global food industry, NCI is going to be moving into a brand new facility on the North Dakota State University campus. This new facility will help NCI’s work on behalf of farmers to best position themselves for the future ahead.

“(We are making) sure that people know who NCI is, but more importantly, when they think of quality pulses, they think of our region…it's about increasing the bottom line for growers.” - Mark Jirik

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Mark Jirik, Director of the Northern Crops Institute
• Explore the benefits NCI offers producers and the education services they provide to global markets to encourage US commodity consumption
• Learn about the new facility NCI will grow into to better facilitate their end-product development process and educational services

Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Arti Singh joins us to talk about a lesser known pulse crop that is showing a lot of potential for increased commercial production in the U.S.. The mungbean, which has traditionally been grown for bean sprouts, is seeing increased demand due to its ideal properties for many plant-based proteins. 

“The mungbean is a very versatile crop when it comes to uses and the quality of protein. The market is just amazing right now it's opening up in all different directions. I see there is a lot more benefit in growing this crop which is right now in a minor stage.” - Dr. Arti Singh

Dr. Singh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University with more than 15 years of plant breeding experience. After obtaining her PhD degree from G.B. Pant University in India, she worked as a Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan and then at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada prior to joining Iowa State University. Her breeding program focused on developing new varieties for plant-based protein markets. Her research projects are geared towards harnessing genetic diversity for genetic gain, utilization of advanced data analytics particularly machine and deep learning for early disease and stress signatures, and genetic/genomic studies on abiotic and biotic stress resistance.

“I know farmers are very innovative and those growers who are looking for a new crop or they are looking to incorporate more diversity in their crop portfolio, please try mungbeans..This industry is going to grow…However, to reach there we’ll need a collective effort in industry, private and public, to bring this crop into the mainstream.” - Dr. Arti Singh

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Dr. Arti Singh, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University
• Explore the mungbean and the potential benefits it offers US growers
• Discover the research in plant breeding that Dr. Singh is involved in and the results they are producing

Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Steve Shirtliffe joins us to talk about weed management in lentils. Steve is a professor in the department of plant sciences at the University of Saskatchewan. His research over the past couple of decades has focused on agronomy, with extensive work on weed management in pulses specifically. Steve and I talk about some of the challenges specific to lentils when it comes to weed management, and some of the latest research, innovation and best practices in this area. Steve and his colleagues and graduate students have had the chance to explore a lot of different possibilities for integrated weed management in pulses. One practice that has made a significant difference has been increasing seeding rates. 

“We found that basically as soon as you started to increase your seeding rate, You got more crop biomass that meant there was less weed biomass that was there. So it was essentially just kind of almost a replacement thing that the more crop biomass you got there, you got that much less weed biomass.” - Dr. Steve Shirtliffe

But of course increasing the seeding rate isn’t the only answer for organic weed management. They’ve also looked at a variety of mechanical control methods, and tried to determine what would give producers the most optimal weed control. With resistance to group two herbicides, conventional farmers are benefitting from these practices as well. Although Steve admits that herbicides are still mostly preferred while available and still effective. 

“If you can keep them weed-free from the five node stage to the ten node stage, if you can control weeds in that zone, you're home free, that's it. You don't have to worry about the weeds that start after that. And if you control them by the five node stage, they haven't done enough damage. So if you can keep them weed free in that period, you've done your job.” - Dr. Steve Shirtliffe

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Dr. Steve Shirtliffe, a professor in the department of plant sciences at the University of Saskatchewan.
• Explore the effect of seeding rate in organic weed management especially with limited options for inputs when growing pulse crops
• Discover equipment and timing options that most efficiently and effectively manage weed populations

Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Steve Zwinger joins the show to talk about variety development, intercropping, and organic pulse production. Steve is a research specialist in agronomy at NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center. One of his primary responsibilities is research into organic production, and pulse crops are an important part of these rotations. Steve has been involved in this type of research since the 1990s, and works with a number of crops, including small grains, pulses, and some work in ancient grains as well. You’re going to hear about what he’s discovering in his intercropping research, the benefits he sees in organic variety development for both organic and conventional growers, and the importance of seeding rates.

For those that might be new to intercropping, we’ve done some episodes on the topic in episode three of this season as well as last season episode six and an intercropping panel bonus episode. Steve says research has shown other benefits as well, such as disease suppression in a chickpea/flax intercrop. Disease resilience could be a reason to do further research into intercropping, but it also guides Steve’s work in breeding organic varieties in general.

“So basically intercropping is really looked at as a practice of growing two or more crops together in the field at the same time. And basically what we're doing is we're looking for combinations of plants that will compliment each other better than when they're planted alone. This can lead to increased yield and increased quality…. I thought it seemed to make sense from a number of standpoints, maybe it might have a fit in organic. And that's why I started looking at some of that.” - Steve Zwinger

He sees benefits of organic variety development not just for certified organic producers, but for conventional farmers as well. This concept of developing varieties in an organic system is an interesting one. As we think about trying to develop more resilient varieties that can prevail in less than ideal conditions, there’s a real argument to be made that more varieties should be developed this way. Overall one theme that definitely runs through a lot of Steve's work is this idea of building resilience, building it into varieties, but also just building it into agricultural systems.

“The variety choice is the easiest decision that can be made that's going to have the biggest impact for the farmer. So variety development is really important and I can't stress it enough. Where we really, really need to go for the future is developing varieties specifically for organic agriculture…Having those types of genetics is very important for all agriculture, of course, but particularly when your tools are limited by the amount of inputs that you can use.” - Steve Zwinger

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Steve Zwinger, a research specialist in agronomy at NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center.
• Explore the value of intercropping and the research Steve is involved in to determine this methods potential in organic farming
• Discover the benefits of intercropping with peas and the research being done on adjusting seeding rates

Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

If you’ve ever thought that direct-to-consumer farm businesses are only for those located close to urban centers, this episode will challenge that thinking. Scobey, Montana is considered the second most middle-of-nowhere town in America. That’s where Terry grew up on the farm, and where he and Shauna have built their farm and business. Together they share about their journey on Farver Farms from farming to building their own farmer-direct brand of lentil snacks and mixes. 

“Our kids were getting ready to graduate from high school and talking about wanting to come back to the farm. As anyone in agriculture knows, there's only so many acres and only so many cows you can put on those acres or so much crop…So then the question became, how do we bring these two kids back and support two more families? And we knew that part of that was going to have to be off farm income.” - Shauna Farver

The Farver’s have developed and sell Lentil Crunchers as well as lentil-based cooking and baking mixes. This is a great story of finding creative ways to add value to a pulse crop marketing plan. It’s no easy undertaking, but it can be done. At the onset, Terry and Shauna pursued lentils as a part of the rotation to help with weed management.

“They didn't really have a good chemical yet for getting wild oats, which is a grass out of wheat, which is a grass. And growing a legume which is a lentil, they had a chemical that was very inexpensive and worked really well. So you go in on your wheat ground that has bad wild oats, you grow legumes or lentils, and you spray this chemical and all your wild oats are gone. And it does a really nice job. It's a really good rotation.” - Terry Farver

Like any new venture, they had to start with what they had and sort of figure it out on the fly to get established. From the initial task of production, they have expanded into direct-to-consumer lentil products. Once they started gaining some early traction it was time to increase their capacity so they could meet the demand they were creating. They also increased the number of products they offered. The Farvers estimate that in a normal year, they're still selling less than 10% of their lentil production through this food business, but it's working and it's growing. Shawna said there still is one main challenge though, that she sees for other aspiring value added farmers out there.

“Infrastructure, I think is probably our biggest barrier. I know that there's a group working on some infrastructure particularly related to food production here in the Eastern side of the state. And I'm anxious to see what happens there. That might make things a little easier….it doesn't mean it can't be overcome. It just takes a little creativity sometimes.” - Shauna Farver

This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:

• Meet Terry and Shauna Farver, owners of Farver Farms and developers of Lentil Crunchers.
• Discover their journey into pulse crops and the evolution of an alternate source of income for their operation
• Explore the pitfalls and successes they have experienced with their lentil products

Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.