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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 specialistDiscover the impact of pH and micronutrients on a pulse crop’s ability to fix nitrogenExplore the recommended testing and values of soil nutrition to allow for optimal nitrogen fixationGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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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 CouncilDiscover 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 CouncilGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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At the time of this interview, Steve Sebesta was the director of the Foundation Seed Program at North Dakota State University and the Deputy Commissioner of the North Dakota State Seed Department. Steve has since retired from these positions, so we were very lucky to capture his years of experience and expertise in this area before his retirement. In this episode, Steve discusses the critical role of the foundation seedstocks program, how the plant variety protection act works and why seed needs to be certified.
“North Dakota is a little unique compared to most other states in that we have a county seed increase program. So when a new variety is released and we have foundation seed available, the counties decide whether or not they want to produce seed in their county of that new variety. And if they do, then their county grower, who is typically an experienced grower, will produce seed essentially for the county. It's not his seed. He doesn't have ownership of it. It's for the county seed grower. So it's a really good way to increase the amount of seed available of a brand new variety very quickly.” - Steve Sebesta
Germination success, variety identification and weed presence contribute to the certification of seed that allows for the label required for selling seed in North Dakota. North Dakota has the largest seed certification agency in the country, with between 250,000 and 300,000 acres of seed production every year. Of that, field peas is their third largest crop, with over 21,000 acres in 2023.
“A lot of the public varieties were funded by government programs, federal government programs. And so they needed a way to try to incentivize investment in research and development and production of new varieties. So they implemented the Plant Variety Protection Act which gives the variety owner the exclusive authority to determine who can and cannot produce seed of their product and market that seed. So there are a lot of infringements that are possible on a PVP variety that people need to be aware of.” - Steve Sebesta
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Steve Sebesta who recently retired as the director of the Foundation Seed Program at North Dakota State University and the Deputy Commissioner of the North Dakota State Seed DepartmentDiscover the function, purpose and process of the Foundation Seed Program as well as the requirements that must be met for seed to be labeled as certifiedGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Nicole Atchison is the CEO of PURIS Holdings, a vertically-integrated plant-based food company that operates from field to fork in primarily yellow peas. Nicole leads the agriculture side of the business, including contracting with growers, seed development and breeding, and innovation in product development. Her brother Tyler leads the ingredient side of the business. PURIS operates throughout the entire supply chain from developing genetics to developing new markets.
“So if you're making a high protein cereal, you need a different pea protein than if you're making a plant-based beverage, which is still using a pea protein. But those two pea proteins are slightly different. And that's really the innovation that we do on our processing side, is we create these different proteins with different functionalities so that they can work in these different applications.” - Nicole Atchison
Atchison describes the wet protein processing they are using that provides a unique protein stream with a lot of potential for furthering plant-based protein production. She sees potential for pulse proteins in providing protein sources for both consumer beverages and medical nutrition. As they ramp up production, PURIS Holdings is also active in ongoing efforts to regulate the impact of foreign pulse crop processing and imports affecting both global and domestic markets.
“I'm a huge advocate for pulse based ingredients because I do think that as much as we want and encourage people to have and eat whole pulses, that's not where the American consumer is today. We like convenient foods, packaged and processed. That's where our market is. And so we need to be able to drive these crops into those channels as well and that's why processing is so critical to the market.” - Nicole Atchison
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Nicole Atchison is the CEO of PURIS HoldingsDiscover the journey PURIS Holdings has taken to develop plant-based proteins and their initial introduction to pulse cropsExplore the global ingredient market for pulses and the operations of processing pulse cropsGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Dr. Eric von Wettberg is a professor at the University of Vermont and the director of the Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station. His research program focuses on understanding crop domestication as a means to harness the diversity of crop wild relatives to breed crops with improved climate resilience and stress tolerance. In this episode we discuss Von Wettberg’s work in pulses, his adventures in germplasm collection, the challenges and opportunities of maintaining genetic diversity, and the importance of protecting crop wild relatives.
“We're never fully done with collecting germplasm because there might be more out there and those plants are in a natural habitat. That habitat is not static, so they may be changing over time. There's diseases in some natural populations and disease resistance can actually evolve. So we need to be collecting germplasm continually, and we should even have preserves or parks that hold crop wild relatives. To let them evolve so that we can let evolution generate more resistant varieties for us.” - Dr. Eric von Wettberg
Von Wettberg shares his concern with the loss of genetic variation in crops, particularly pulses, as a result of human cultivation and selection. A lack of genetic variation reduces resilience of these crops to expected effects of climate change such as drought and disease. In his research group, they are using a new collection of the wild relatives of chickpea to restore genetic variation to cultivated chickpea, and to better understand the genetic basis of flowering time and drought tolerance.
“Any mutation, whether it's a new mutation or an old mutation, is helpful. But by collecting, we're more likely to find the old mutations… By looking in wild populations, there's just been more time for those mutations to occur, which makes them a helpful place to look.” - Dr. Eric von Wettberg
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Dr. Eric von Wettberg is a professor at the University of Vermont and the director of the Vermont Agriculture Experiment StationExplore the impact the loss of genetic variation can have on crop varieties and what is being done to mitigate that riskGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Charlie Cahill developed his knowledge of dryland farming during the 1990s, ultimately becoming what one nominator called “the go-to guy” for information on agronomic practices and seed genetics in the region. A graduate of Montana State University, Cahill has served on the board of the Montana Seed Growers Association and helped create the pulse checkoff program in Montana, which allows growers a voice in how their contributions are invested around the state.
“Farmers traditionally have been used to being able to keep and trade their own seed amongst other growers, and this has been going on (for) an exceptional amount of time. Well, if you don't have money to actually go into the breeding programs, you don't get new stuff. And if you look at all of the crops that have money in them: corn, canola, soybeans. We spend a lot of money for the seed, but at the same time, you'll notice we also get really neat stuff.” - Charlie Cahill
Cahill joins the show to talk about the current state of the seed industry in Montana, some inside information on the seed business and what’s driving seed choices, and trying to bring together market demand and producer needs into a valuable and profitable seed technology.
“The demand right now is far outstripping the supply on (lentil) seed. We are probably one of the largest sellers of lentil seed in the United States and we're sold out at the moment, and our production was okay. So that gives you an idea.” - Charlie Cahill
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Charlie Cahill of Cahill Seeds, and learn about the history of pulse seed production in MontanaLearn about some of the drivers of pulse crop seed developmentHear more about what buyers of pulses are looking for in genetics in the futureDiscover what it’s like be an independent seed producerGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Dr. Michelle Hubbard leads a field, greenhouse, growth chamber and lab based research program at Agriculture and AgriFood Canada, a part of the Canadian federal government. Based in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, her work focuses on pulse pathology, including important diseases like ascochyta blight of chickpea, root rot of pea and lentil and anthracnose of lentil. Hubbard discusses a mystery illness that has been popping up in parts of Saskatchewan and other areas in recent years. She shares the symptoms of this disease and the extensive research that has been done to try to understand what exactly is going on so that we can start to manage for it in the future.
She provides insights not only into pulse pathology, but also into the approach scientists like herself take to try to find answers for farmers.
“It is frustrating, but it's also interesting and I keep going by thinking we're learning other things. Even if we're not finding an answer to this problem, we're learning other useful things like about drought and Verticillium and nematodes.” - Dr. Michelle Hubbard
The exact pathogenesis of the mystery illness in chickpeas continues to elude researchers despite major efforts. The disease first emerged in 2019 and made its mark by creating severe crop loss similar to ascochyta blight. However, these chickpeas did not demonstrate obvious girdling and patterns of being transmitted airborne like typical ascochyta blight. Drought stress followed by rainfall was another factor explored for explaining the unique symptoms observed in the field but this too was disproved in trials. Herbicide application without moisture was another factor explored and it too could not be replicated successfully. The investigation continues with Dr. Hubbard offering this advice to producers.
“Keep an eye out for it, but (don't) panic about it. If they want to find out more information or pictures, there's a lot of pictures on the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers website, as well as some old reports dating back to the beginning of the issue that explains it really well and shows pictures and examples. Or if somebody wants to contact me, I'm happy to send pictures or to help you find a link where you can find more pictures.” - Dr. Michelle Hubbard
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Dr. Michelle Hubbard a plant pathologist who leads a field, greenhouse, growth chamber and lab based research program at Agriculture and AgriFood CanadaUnderstand the emergence and research related to identifying this mystery chickpea illnessLearn more about Dr. Hubbard’s work at AgriFood Canada by visiting her webpage Check out the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers webpage as well to learn more about this emerging concernGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Dr. Tom Warkentin is a professor at the University of Saskatchewan where he is part of a team at the Crop Development Center. He has been a pulse crop breeder for about 30 years, mostly focused on field peas. Warkentin discusses the progress of his pulse crop breeding program over the decades, including varieties that have had a big impact on the industry. He also shares how he balances the need to improve genetics on multiple fronts all at once, like yield, quality, lodging, disease resistance, protein and a number of other factors. He’ll also cover what’s in the pipeline currently for new varieties and what questions and areas of research are still left unanswered.
“Definitely yield is first and we keep pushing to improve yield. I think if we go through the records we’ve probably boosted yield 1 to 2% per year if you take the long-term average over a couple of decades. Second trait that farmers definitely like is lodging resistance, so the ability to stay upright. That has remained as probably the second most important trait in pea varieties over the last 30 years.” - Dr. Tom Warkentin
Other priorities they focus on include protein quality and quantity, root rot resistance and ascochyta resistance. Dr. Warkentin discusses where these priorities come from including producer requests, processor preferences and consumer demands. Employing different techniques to highlight different characteristics is a lengthy difficult process in plant genetics that Dr. Warkentin’s team have been fine-tuning for years.
“So a combination of conventional breeding and marker assisted breeding and screening material with the actual pathogens, either indoors or outdoors. All of those approaches we're using.” - Dr. Tom Warkentin
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Dr. Tom Warkentin, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan where he is part of a team at the Crop Development Center.Discover the priorities of genetic traits that his breeding program is addressing in peas and the impact this development is having on the pulse crop industryExplore the process the plant breeding team is employing to improve pulse crop geneticsLearn more about Dr. Warkentin’s work at the University of Saskatchewan by visiting his research webpageGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Zack Bateson is the Research Manager at the National Ag Genotyping Center based in Fargo, North Dakota. You heard a little bit about the work the National Genotyping Center is doing in episode five with Dr. Brian Jenks. In this episode we dive deeper into the services they offer to provide DNA testing for farmers and agronomists. Bateson got his start in DNA-based testing working in wildlife biology with prairie chickens and lizards, but says all of the skills can be applied to any organisms including variety detection, herbicide resistance, and soil pathogens, which is where he focuses today.
“Growers can send us kochia and we can genotype them for the resistance to group 14. Then they're able to have a discussion with either their agronomists or other consultants to see whether it can be another actionable spraying opportunity or if there's something else that they can do about these resistant weeds.” - Zach Bateson
The National Ag Genotyping Center is a private nonprofit diagnostic lab that provides genetic testing to identify pathogens, pests and genetic traits such as resistance to herbicides. This valuable information can help growers determine next steps in treatment of fields without having to rely solely on potentially costly trial and error practices. Alongside these established practices they are also developing identification testing for different causes of root rot.
“The work involved is simpler for a person to do, especially with robotics, we can not only do tens of samples per day, but we can extract from hundreds of samples per day. We can test for multiple genetic markers throughout the day, so we're talking hundreds and almost thousands of data points that can be processed and reported out.” - Zach Bateson
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Zack Bateson, the Research Manager at the National Ag Genotyping Center based in Fargo, North DakotaExplore the work done at the National Ag Genotyping Center and the value they provide growers in North Dakota. Discover the support and research being developed at the National Ag Genotyping Center and the future projects they expect to participate inGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Dr. Brian Jenks is a weed scientist at North Dakota State University based in Minot. He 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 discusses the resistance problem and some of the work underway to help farmers manage these weeds that are getting tougher every year to control. He also shares an exciting new offering from the Ag Genotyping Center to identify resistance.
“I've been polling farmers this winter and the most common answer I get is about 80%. Farmers think about 80% of their kochia is roundup resistant. So it's a majority of the kochia and we know that there's group 14 resistance out there to Aim and Sharpen. So if we want to control kochia in a burn down, we need to know if Aim and Sharpen are going to work for us.” - Dr. Brian Jenks
Spray droplet size, travel speed when spraying and the height of the kochia when treated are all factors that greatly affect the success of herbicide use. True resistance however will be able to survive each of these adjustments. Developing new mechanisms of action and products to circumvent the resistance is a lengthy difficult process with no clear immediate solution in site. With resistance observed in many commonly used herbicides, gramoxone seems to be the only one that remains consistently effective. Unfortunately resistance is likely to emerge here too without other measures being taken.
“The worst thing we can do is probably a two year rotation where we're using the same herbicides and the same crops over and over. I'm optimistic if we can diversify our crops to get a minimum of 3, 4, 5 crops in the rotation, and then use 5, 6, 7 different modes of action with our herbicides.” - Dr. Brian Jenks
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Dr. Brian Jenks, a weed scientist at North Dakota State UniversityExplore the growing problem of herbicide resistant kochia and the impact this problem will have on pulse crop productionUnderstand the significance of different spray techniques and following up on spray treatments with early season monitoringGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Dr. Chris Graham is an associate professor at South Dakota State University. He’s also the manager of the West River Research Farm near Sturgis, South Dakota. At that facility they focus a lot on regenerative agriculture, including doing a lot of work with peas and other pulses to extend crop rotations in that semi-arid region in the western part of the state. Graham shares about pulse production in South Dakota, focusing mostly on field peas. He also shares some of the complexities of nitrogen fixation, including what it might look like to have farm-specific microbial inoculant mixes in the future.
“When you look at the growth of wheat, generally the yield is set first and then the protein is made later in its life cycle. And so we often see peas, obviously they're harvested and they start to decay, and that slow decay releases nitrogen later in the wheat growing season. And so we often see a protein bump with wheat following peas.” - Dr. Chris Graham
While there isn’t a lot of acreage in pulses in South Dakota yet, Graham calls field peas the “nickel slots” of the pulses. In other words, a great place to start incorporating them into a rotation with a low barrier to entry. He highlights that your soil nitrogen content will likely not increase but your input needs may decrease when pulses are used.
“It's still nitrogen that you didn't have to apply and it's also nitrogen that the plant did not necessarily take up from the soil. And so it's conserving some of that nitrogen that's being made available just on that baseline level. ” - Dr. Chris Graham
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Dr. Chris Graham, an associate professor at South Dakota State University and the manager of the West River Research Farm near Sturgis, South DakotaExplore the potential use of pulse crops in rotations in South DakotaDiscover the niche pulses can fill in rotation as a broadleaf crop capable of nitrogen fixationVisit Dr. Graham’s webpage here.
Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Dr. Breanne Tidemann is a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada based in Lacombe, Alberta. As a weed scientist, her job is to explore new and novel ways to manage weeds. Her focus is to research applied management strategies, weed biology and ecology, and screening for herbicide resistance. In this episode, Tidemann discusses the work she has been leading in Canada on the effectiveness of weed seed destruction technology including the use of mills and shares that this approach can be a very helpful tool in the toolbox especially in pulses.
“By and large, on the vast majority of weed species that have been tested in Canada and the United States, we're seeing greater than 95% control of what goes into those mills…There's the odd one here or there that's a little bit lower, but when I say it's a little bit lower, we're typically still talking greater than 80% control.” - Dr. Breanne Tidemann
Tideman shares the concern that at the end of the season the remaining weeds have managed to survive everything the farmer has put them through. They are therefore the fittest weeds that are the most difficult to get rid of. She proposes that rather than spreading those weed seeds all over the field with a combine we need to focus on destroying them. This process may not solve any weed problems for the crop you're harvesting, but it does start the weed management for the next year early and can have real impacts on future production.
“So there's six main methods of harvest weed seed control. Some of them are things we would consider using in North America, like the weed seed destruction technology.…it's basically trying to turn the combine from a weed seed spreader into a weed seed predator” - Dr. Breanne Tidemann
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Dr. Breanne Tidemann a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada based in Lacombe, AlbertaExplore the value and purpose of research regarding harvest weed seed control especially as it relates to crops with limited herbicide options such as pulse cropsDiscover current methods and equipment that are effective for harvest weed seed control and are available in North AmericaConnect with Dr. Tidemann on Twitter @breannetidemann or visit her website here.
Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Farmer and Northern Pulse Growers Association president Sam Arnson and executive director Shannon Berndt join us to talk about their work at NPGA, the importance of bringing the industry together to fund research, marketing and education efforts, and how other pulse growers can get involved. They share what NPGA has accomplished and what the future holds for northern pulse growers in the region.
“This is an exciting time to be part of this industry because we are still a fairly small industry, but we're growing. We're seeing a lot of additional states coming on board with acreage and production that face some of the same challenges that North Dakota and Montana producers face. And so as a collective group of growers, I think it's important that y'all have a voice.” - Shannon Berndt
The Northern Pulse Growers Association is a nonprofit association representing dry pea, lentil, chickpea, lupin and fava bean growers from Montana and North Dakota. Shannon Berndt has been serving as the assocation's executive director since 2007. When not acting as president for NPGA Sam is found farming northwest of Williston, North Dakota.
“People are overall excited next year for pulses to be put into their rotation if their rotation allows it. And I mean by that is their crop rotation and or chemical herbicide usage if it's opened for pulses. I think a lot of acres are gonna go in next year.” - Sam Arnson
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet farmer and Northern Pulse Growers Association president Sam Arnson and executive director Shannon BerndtExplore the progress in development and collaboration between producers the organization has accomplished for pulse growers in the northern regionDiscover what future opportunities the NPGA feels pulse growers have available to them as the industry grows and expandsGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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In this episode we’re looking at a new pulse crop: sweet white lupins. Dr. Mike Ostlie is the director of the Carrington Research Extension Center at North Dakota State University. In the early 2000s a private company that was developing lupin varieties had gone out of business and the germplasm was given to NDSU to work on varieties. Now they’re close to releasing new varieties and Ostlie joins us to share why this is exciting for growers and for the pulse crops industry in general.
“It's actually really an exciting time to be in the lupin world right now because there's a lot of interest in it I think all around in people looking for some new food ingredients, for instance, on the buyer side. As well as some farmers that are interested in getting something a little bit different in their crop rotation.” - Dr. Mike Ostlie
While these varieties of sweet white lupins will be new to many US growers, there is also an initiative in Canada to develop and release blue lupins which have a lot of the same qualities. These qualities include being a strong nitrogen fixer, a phosphorous scavenger, and a high protein legume. Ostlie noted that there is some existing production of sweet lupin in Australia that mainly goes to the pet food and livestock feed industries there.
“The lupins have pretty wide adaptability in the northern plains in the fact that they produce reasonable yield under those very large drought conditions. When they're provided water, the yield potential is quite high….We've seen yields get up to 60 to 70 bushels an acre with lupins, which again, is very competitive with a lot of crops in the area.” - Dr. Mike Ostlie
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Dr. Mike Ostlie shares the development and potential of white lupins where varieties are being developed at the Carrington Research Extension Center at NDSUDiscover the yield potential and resilience of the Lupin plant that is also known for its ability to scavenge phosphorus and fix nitrogenLearn the unique characteristics and input needs for this up and coming pulse cropGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Whether you’re from Nebraska or elsewhere, this is a great episode about what’s possible for the future of pulse crops. We talk about peas and chickpeas, but we also get into other niche opportunities like mung beans, cowpeas and more. You’ll get a sense of the emerging pulse industry in Nebraska, but also what it takes for the development of pulse crops everywhere. We discuss genetics, agronomy, disease management and marketing strategy. We start with Steve Tucker. Steve farms near Venango, Nebraska in the southwest part of the state. He has built his operation on the principle of diversity and grows up to 14 different crops.
“We can grow mung beans, I mean, there's different...aspects of these different things that we can do. What does the market need? And so I just had a conversation with a company that's looking for lupins. I don't know if you've ever heard of lupins before and so there are more various different kinds of pulse crops that who knows what else is out there and what people are looking for to utilize in food products.” - Steve Tucker
When plant pathologist Dr. Bob Harveson came to the University of Nebraska in 1999, chickpeas were really on the rise in the state. Sometime in the early 2000’s ascochyta really started to affect a lot of fields and there were no fungicides labeled for the disease for treatment. Since then he said fungicide options have improved over time as have genetics. Unfortunately, many of those same growers who experienced the devastating losses from ascochyta are very hesitant to plant chickpeas or even other pulse crops again. Despite these frustrations, Bob remains optimistic for the future of chickpeas and other pulses in the state.
“I have a strong diagnostic background. So whenever something like this pops up, I try to determine what the problem is, how well it's distributed, you know, those sorts of things. Before you can start developing control measures, you gotta know what you've got in order to really make the right choice for that.” - Dr. Bob Harveson
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Steve Tucker who farms near Venango, Nebraska and explore the diverse crop varieties he plants on his operation and his motivation behind their selectionAlso meet plant pathologist Dr. Bob Harveson from the University of Nebraska and explore his involvement in pulse crop production and what he sees as the future of the industryFor more information on ascochyta specifically, you can refer back to some of the previous episodes we’ve done on the topic.Coordinated Research Efforts to Fight Pulse Pathogens with Dr. Jenny Davidson in season twoCanadian Pulses and Foliar Disease Management in season twoDisease Management in Pulses with Dr. Michael Wunsch in season oneGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the
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Terry Angvick farms in Sheridan County, Montana which is in the extreme Northeastern corner of the state. He was born, raised there and came back after earning a plant and soil science degree from Montana State University. In his first career, he spent 31 years as the Sheridan County Extension Agent, a position he retired from in 2010. Today he farms mostly durum and dry peas alongside his two older brothers and his son. Terry shares about the important role pulse crops play in rotations in his arid part of the country, some of his management practices that he’s adopted over the past 20 years of growing pulses, and some harvest and post-harvest considerations.
“I think the more residue out there, it prevents erosion, but it also creates a little microclimate, a little environment, for them to grow up into. I prefer a furrow drill…because I think it also allows that little microclimate when you grow up on the stubble. These varieties have tendrils that tie them together, and so that helps to hold them upright as well. In my mind, the more stubble the better.” - Terry Angvick
As an extension agent Terry found himself “searching for something that would justify the economics of farming.” This led him to encourage the planting of previously fallow fields and pursuing different types of crop rotations such as pulse crops.
“When you produce a durum crop following a pulse crop, you almost always have increased yield and quality as opposed to continuous wheat. For example, better protein, better color. Durum has HVAC, which is a hard vitreous amber color, which is a nice yellow color. It's almost always better. So from those standpoints, I guess the pulse crops have really fitted very well and the markets have followed it as well.” - Terry Angvick
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Terry Angvick from Sheridan County, Montana who farms durum and dry peas alongside his two older brothers and son.Explore the new practices Terry has started to compliment the pulse crops he has added to his rotationGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Dr. Steve Van Vleet spent about 18 years as a regional extension specialist for Washington State University, and today is a research agronomist with The McGregor Company. For most of his career, pulses have been an important part of his work, and he joins us to talk about his excitement for the potential of winter peas. We’re not talking about Austrian Winter Peas, which are feed grade peas that are smaller in size and darker in color. We’re talking about food grade winter peas, which have been available for several years in certain growing areas. Steve says the differences are larger size of at least 17 grams, a clear seed coat, and a green or yellow cotyledon.
“Multiple years, my average yield of my winter peas was 6,000 pounds. That's between all the varieties. Spring pea will range from 2,500 pounds up to 4,500 pounds. But I can get 7,000 or 7,500 pounds off some of the different winter pea varieties. That's the part that makes me super excited..” - Dr. Steve Van Vleet
Steve talks about why he believes this crop is a great option for a lot more growers than are using them currently and some considerations for growing winter peas including seeding depths and timing and pest and disease management. The limiting factor he sees playing a big role in this variety’s success is the access producers have to markets.
“Not are you only helping the soil, helping another crop that you're producing, which makes it better, makes it healthier. But what are you doing when it comes to human health?... If we could market this and people would become educated and say, this is one of the most healthy crops that we can produce and improves human health, soil health, crop health, other crop health. Not just as a rotational crop, but this could be a major crop. That's where I see opportunity.” - Dr. Steve Van Vleet
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Dr. Steve Van Vleet a former regional extension specialist for Washington State University and current research agronomist with The McGregor Company. Explore the benefits of the winter pea variety and the potential it offers producersRead more about “Pea Weevil Management in Winter Peas” in this Washington State University publicationGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Eric Bartsch is the division head for global food ingredients at AGT Foods based in Bismarck, North Dakota. He’s been with the company for 16 years and through that time they have grown from just a couple factories to now over 45 facilities and $2B in sales. Processing peas, lentils, chickpeas, fava beans and dry edible beans has been their primary focus since they were founded in 2002. While they have ventured into some grain-based products since that time, they still remain focused and bullish on the future of pulse crops.
“There's a lot of things that we've had to establish. Protein checking in peas was non-existent 20 years ago. And now it's where we're checking protein on every load to be able to supply some of the high end markets that we are today. You know a lot of major investments in protein manufacturing plants, in processing, in food manufacturing plants that are incorporating pulses is really at an all time high and continues to grow.” - Eric Bartsch
Eric discusses how much has changed in pulses to make them more attractive to a wider variety of consumers who want tasty and nutritious foods. This has had big impacts on what buyers are looking for from these pulse crops in terms of flavor and functionality. He talks about how that information gets passed from the consumer to the producer and back, and the role AGT Foods plays in facilitating that connection. He also talks about some of the opportunities ahead for the industry, and why he is more optimistic than ever about the market potential for these crops.
“That's really one of the initiatives we took when we built our Minot plant, is how do we transform pulses into ingredients that can be incorporated into everyday food. So now you look at the market and there's all kinds of gluten-free pasta made from lentils, chickpeas, and peas. They’ve become mainstream where it's become a very large market…So there's many ways to where we've taken pulses, transformed them into an ingredient and incorporated them into everyday foods that consumers are familiar with” - Eric Bartsch
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Meet Eric Bartsch, the division head for global food ingredients at AGT Foods based in Bismarck, North DakotaExplore the future of the pulse crop industry from the perspective of a pulse crop processorGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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At the time of this interview Dr. Abbey Wick was the associate professor and extension soil health specialist at North Dakota State University. She has since gone on to a new role after nearly 12 years at NDSU. She is now the Global Soil Health Education Program Lead at Syngenta. We talk about what is motivating more farmers to want to try new practices on their farms to improve their soil health, some of the barriers to adopting these practices, and the support and resources available for anyone looking to learn more. We also discuss a new approach that food companies are getting involved with to spread the word about soil health through certified crop advisors, which is called the Trusted Advisor Partnership.
“I do think that people need to be aware of how they're going to keep that residue on the surface and probably it's with the crops they are growing in between those pulse crops and rotation. They could build up some of the residue. But yeah, it's exciting. I think there's a ton of potential with pulse crops, and fortunately we can grow them here in the northern plains. So I think we're in a great position here to do some really cool things with soil health and pulse.” - Dr. Abbey Wick
Wick has seen both soil erosion and salinity issues be big motivators for producers to turn to new soil health practices. Using a perennial and keeping residue on the surface has become much more common place for producers in the North Dakota area to combat these issues. She goes on to share that a strong community of support and collaboration has developed around these soil health practices including the Trusted Advisor Partnership.
“There's a community around this that I think growers want to be part of. And to have that support not only from the university or from crop advisors who are interested in this or from conservation districts or NRCS groups. But they want to be part of that community because they want to be creative and they want to be thinking through the problems and solving problems on their farm and now they have people to do that with. And so I think that's been a huge motivator for soil health.” - Dr Abbey Wick
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Join Dr. Abbey Wick, former associate professor and extension soil health specialist at North Dakota State University and current Global Soil Health Education Program Lead at SyngentaExplore the evolution of soil health practices in North Dakota and the role pulse crops can playResources for Soil Health Learning and Practices:NDSU Soil Health WebsiteNRCS WebsiteSoil Conservation DistrictsMidwest Cover Crops Council WebsiteNorth Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and EducationSoil Sense PodcastGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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Dr. Drew Lyon is a Professor and the Endowed Chair of Small Grains Extension and Research for Weed Science at Washington State University in Pullman. Prior to moving to Washington in 2012, he spent 22 years as a Dryland Cropping Systems Specialist at the University of Nebraska at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff. His endowment is from the WA Grain Commission, so he spends a lot of his time with wheat growers, but most of them also include pulses in their rotations. Our discussion mostly focuses on integrated weed management of chickpeas, from cultural practices to herbicides to biologicals.
“We do have some effective herbicides out there. In this part of the world nature doesn't always provide us with the moisture at the right time to get those products activated and going, that increases our need to use things other than herbicides for weed control. Because we've had 30 years of really effective herbicides that's the first place a lot of growers think. But I think we're gonna have to start thinking more about other approaches, things we used to do 40 and 50 years ago before herbicides were so effective.” - Dr. Drew Lyon
Lyon has seen herbicide tools come and go, both in their effectiveness and their availability. Because of this, he is a big advocate for an integrated weed management program, which he says all starts with trying to grow a competitive crop. He shares that there are also things that can be done to try to manage the overall seed bank of the weeds on fields. Cover crops, he says, can also be helpful with weed suppression if you have the moisture. When all is said and done, Lyon’s advice on weed management comes down to three basic principles: don’t get weeds started, do everything you can to grow a competitive crop, and always be changing things up.
“Prevent weed problems from starting. If you don't have certain weeds on your farm, make sure you don't get them… Do everything you can to grow a competitive crop…And then the other thing is to change things up. Anytime you do the same thing over and over again, you tend to select for those weeds that do well in that system…Human nature is that we like to stick with things until we break them, but that's the recipe for getting weed problems” - Dr Drew Lyon
This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:
Join Dr. Drew Lyon is a Professor and the Endowed Chair of Small Grains Extension and Research for Weed Science at Washington State University in PullmanDiscussion of past, current and future integrated weed management for pulse crop producersRe-visit Dr. Drew Lyon’s discussion on harvest aids from season one in episode 12Growing Pulse Crops is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.
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