Winter wheat giving farms a needed boost

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This article was published 05/11/2021 (1145 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The event held at FortWhyte Alive earlier this week to promote an eco-friendly label for products containing winter wheat had no direct tie-in to the global climate change talks taking place in Scotland.

Well, at least not on the surface.

The new Habitat-Friendly Winter Wheat Ecolabel partnership between Cereals Canada, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Prairie Winter Wheat Growers, and end-users including millers and food processors, reflects a “shared value strategy” across the entire supply chain, a release promoting the event says.

The initiative is designed to help food makers differentiate themselves in a competitive market space by highlighting how birds and other wildlife benefit from a farmer’s decision to grow winter wheat.

Winter wheat is sown in the fall, early enough that it germinates and develops a root base before being pushed into dormancy during the winter. It bursts out of the ground as soon as things start to warm up in the spring, often getting a jump on weeds and taking full advantage of any residual moisture left by the melting snow.

It matures well before spring-sown crops, often thwarting the disease and insect pests that are adapted to the spring crop growing cycles. In addition to the potential for the reduced need for pest control, the crop spreads out the harvest workload and adds diversity to the farm’s crop cycles. It also supports healthier populations of critters both above and below the soil’s surface.

That’s why Ducks Unlimited is a big supporter of winter wheat. It eliminates the need for spring seeding or cultivation, which destroy waterfowl nests. The rapidly growing crop also provides shelter from predators.

Research has shown that ducks nesting in winter wheat are 24 times more successful than those nesting in spring-sown cereals.

Plus, there’s a growing body of research that shows soils that contain living roots for much of the year contain healthier populations of micro-organisms which build soil fertility and help reduce farmers’ reliance on manufactured fertilizers.

Whereas applied fertilizers feed the plants, living roots feed the soil, which in turn, feeds plants.

Measuring that fertility gain has been difficult using conventional soil-testing methods because the nutrients are in a form that releases slowly, but that also means they are less likely to escape into the atmosphere. The biological boost is acknowledged as a contributor to increasing soil organic carbon, which means less carbon in the atmosphere, in addition to healthier plants.

That’s where this story spills over into the COP26 discussions on climate change due to rising levels of greenhouse gases, of which manufactured fertilizers are a major contributor. In fact, a group of environmental organizations put out a release earlier this week citing evidence that manufactured fertilizers are responsible for even more emissions than previously thought.

This report from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Greenpeace and GRAIN says that emissions related to applying and manufacturing fertilizer are responsible for 20 per cent of the emissions tied to agriculture and 2.4 per cent of emissions globally. That makes it a larger emitter than the aviation industry.

The fertilizer industry and farmers have balked at suggestions that they need to reduce how much applied fertilizer they use, arguing it would automatically lead to reduced yields and food shortages. That’s debatable, but it might be moot anyway.

The head of global fertilizer manufacturer Yara was quoted in a Fortune magazine report from the sidelines of the COP26 summit this week as saying the rising cost of natural gas has pushed the cost of producing a ton of ammonia fertilizer to US$1,000, nearly 10 times what it was last summer.

So whether it’s due to rising costs or the climate change imperative, the search is on for ways to use less and still maintain yields.

Growing winter cereals won’t single-handedly solve that conundrum. These crops benefit from applied fertilizers too. But they are among a growing list of options farmers have for improving their soil biology, including reduced tillage or growing nitrogen-fixing crops such as legumes.

Buying products sporting the ecolabel supports the ducks, but it also supports farmers and processors investing in the future.

Laura Rance is vice-president of content for Glacier FarmMedia. She can be reached at lrance@farmmedia.com