New Season Brings New Opportunities
As we come into a new planting season, it’s easy to get excited about new opportunities. I’ll admit that for many years the idea of polycropping, intercropping—or whatever fancy term came along next—felt pretty intimidating to me. You’ve likely heard of The Three Sisters Method, but how do we apply something like that at field scale and still make it profitable?
For me, the simple answer was: just start trying it!
Finding Profit Through Diversity
As new opportunities arise, adding more diversity to my cropping systems brings more life, energy, creation, and gusto—and makes the work that much more enjoyable. Instead of constantly checking the Chicago Board of Trade prices and biting my nails, I find fulfilment in searching for new business opportunities to add diversity and profitability to my operation.
When I talk to crowds about this as a way to bring profit back to the farm, I sometimes feel like I haven’t fully delivered the message. The most common question that comes up is: How do you implement it, and how do you market it?
Breaking Away from the Monoculture Mindset
Folks, it’s time we find the inner fortitude to believe in ourselves as the ones capable of truly producing food and nourishing our communities. The easy path is sticking to corn and soybeans. Unfortunately, that path is often the least profitable and, more times than not, becomes an input-heavy system operating at the mercy of a retailer’s recommendation.
What the Research Says About Intercropping
An article published through Springer Nature explores how inter-cropping systems can enhance ecosystem function. In this article, I hope you will find some things that trigger your interest to at least try implementing diversity to a cropping system instead of relying on the monoculture ways of the past.
As producers, we need to harness the power of all four ecosystem processes as outlined by the 6-3-4 TM as much as possible. By using inter-seeded cover crops alongside our cash crops, we can allow that to happen. There is real power in the connection between plant communities. That’s right – plants can be friends with our cash crops, not foes.
Yield Stability Matters More Than Maximum Yield
The research highlights how plants share moisture, nutrients, and help fend off pests and diseases. These benefits become even more important as growing conditions become more challenging. One particularly powerful takeaway from the article is the concept of yield stability. For me, yield stability is the key to long-term success. Chasing the highest possible yield every year is more like throwing a yearly Hail Mary and hoping the chips fall in the right spot.
Experimenting on Your Farm
If you have any further questions or would like to chat about how we at Understanding Ag can help you, don’t hesitate to reach out. Stay tuned as I will be exposing more of what we are implementing on our operation. We might have some certifiably crazy things happening this year—it could be a big success, or it could simply become another valuable learning opportunity.
The post Diversity. Life. Profit. Rediscovering Opportunity Through Crop Diversity appeared first on Understanding Ag.
