In my time at the University of Manitoba, I recall hearing on a number of occasions how much more efficient agriculture & food production have become in recent decades. Many times, it was a comparison to production numbers from the 1950’s or 1970’s. The increased production has been impressive. More grain per acre, more pounds of beef with less feed or water. Increasing production was necessary to feed a growing population over these decades, something that is cited today as reason to continue increasing production, or production efficiency. As I round out my fifth year being on the farm full time, my observations of our farm and the landscape around us has caused me to question just how efficient we have become, or if there may be significant room for improvement even now, after rapid and significant production increases in recent decades. While I am sure all farmers could come up with areas to improve production efficiency, there are a couple aspects of our agriculture system that I feel are low hanging fruit, and have worked on our farm and for some farmers in our area to increase productivity. This will be the focus of the current blog.
While yields of grain crops have increased substantially in the last 60 or so years, a surprising number of acres have seen a drop in production to zero or near zero. In Manitoba, this is often due to salinity issues that create inhospitable soil conditions for many plants. It is estimated by Manitoba Agriculture that over 600,000 acres are affected by salinity. Although there is a more science-y explanation, my observation is that the salinity begins to show up and become an issue in areas of a field, often in annual crop production systems or poorly managed grazing systems, that are lower lying or prone to being wet. As we have pursued greater efficiency and higher production, these more marginal areas have been moved from occasional-wetlands, that were likely cut for hay or grazed, into monoculture grain production, and finally to saline-affected wastelands. So now, instead of harvesting forage or pounds of beef or lamb, there is no agricultural production occurring on these acres because the salinity makes growth of annual crops near impossible. Let’s hear that again – these acres have next to no agricultural production occurring on them. But haven’t we made huge strides in production & efficiency? My opinion is production, yes, efficiency no. While our yields of grain per acre and pounds of beef per animal have increased, we have begun to lose productive acres. To the tune of 600,000 or so odd acres in this province. Given this information and from my own observations, I would contend that we aren’t very efficient at all. Large pieces of fields around Manitoba lay bare due to salinity. We have experienced this on our own land. In 2020, using a mapping program I estimated that on one 150 acre field, we had nearly 30 acres that were producing very little to no grain. That is 20%! Although this may be an extreme example, I would not be surprised if there are many fields that have 10% of the acres producing very little to no grain or forage. Fortunately, there is a solution to this particular issue that I think drastically changes the production efficiency. By re-establishing perennial vegetation in these marginal, saline-affected areas, we can go from very poor or no production from annual crops, to incredibly abundant and productive forage production. While the profit potential of forages is often much less than annual grains such as canola, if the canola yield is somewhere between zero and say 25% of potential, suddenly forage crops are a much more viable option. Of the roughly 30 acres on our farm that were producing nearly zero annual crop four years ago, we have reclaimed all but a few acres that are now growing substantial perennial forage. In some cases we added seed, in others we simply left these acres alone and they reclaimed from the seedbank in the soil. From our own experience investing very little time and resources into re-establishing production onto these saline-affected areas, I believe this is very low hanging fruit in a pursuit to increasing agricultural production and, in particular, improving production efficiency.
My measure of productivity or efficiency in the previous section revolves around taking a look at acres that are not productive (due to salinity in this case), and trying to find a way to make them productive again. Or put another way, is a given acre capturing as much sunlight as possible – is there a living, growing plant in the ground from spring thaw to first snow in fall? If we continue with this line of thinking, take a step back, and apply it to our current production model, again we will find that we really are not that efficient. Let me explain. In our largely annual-based agricultural system, fields often lay bare for 30-60 days on either end of the growing season. Depending on the year, there is often a window of good growing weather pre-seeding or post harvest, or both. If, for example, we found a way to establish some type of crop to grow post-harvest, at the very least we are capturing sunlight, and the growing plant is protecting the soil & feeding soil biology. If we have a fall like this most recent one, there is a very good chance we grow enough biomass to provide substantial fall grazing for cattle or sheep. In this case, we have now moved from producing a single grain crop, per acre, per year, to now producing the same grain crop, as well as producing some number of pounds of beef or lamb per acre. While perhaps not doubling production, we have certainly increased production per acre, or efficiency. Even if we do not get substantial growth post-harvest, adding grazing animals to the field once the combine’s are done to have them graze straw & chaff is a great way to increase production per acre – now producing pounds of beef or lamb in addition to the harvested grain, all on the same acre. This is not a new practice by any means, but it seems to have become much less common as we move to specialize in agriculture, and see less & less mixed livestock-grain farming operations. Has specialization resulted in a step backwards in efficiency?
Improving efficiency of production is something I am sure is on the minds of many farmers. Many have chosen to pursue a model in which one person is able to run more acres, by utilizing larger equipment for example. This is one approach, although my observation is it comes at a cost of wildlife habitats including trees & wetland areas, a substantial economic cost to farm businesses, and a draining of small towns & the rural economy as farmyard after farmyard disappears and people leave rural areas. At Green Beach Farm & Food, we have chosen to pick the low hanging fruit – rather than clear trees & drain wetlands, we are restoring production to saline-affected areas & harvesting 2 or 3 crops per acre per year through intercropping, cover cropping & livestock grazing. Rather than viewing wildlife habitat as an obstacle or inconvenience, we graze wetland & treed areas occasionally in order to stimulate new growth and improved biodiversity, thus giving us an economic return from these acres without removing them from the landscape. What may surprise some people is that this deviation from the status quo really has been the low hanging fruit, and it is so enjoyable to let mother nature work for you, rather than being in constant battle with nature.
The above pictures are an example of some of the poorly producing acres on our land that we have been able to return to a high level of productivity. On the left is what the area looked like one year after we elected to 'leave the acres alone'. The center picture is after 2 growing seasons of complete rest, along with some bale grazing with the cows in the winter time - look at all that forage! On the right is immediately after grazing with our cow herd.
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