Economic assessment of pulse crop rotations in western Canada

Abstract

Pulse crops have become essential to farming practices in the Northern Great Plains, but little has been studied how rotation systems with different crop mixes affect the economic returns. Initiated in 2010, a four-year crop rotation study was repeated at Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and Brooks, Alberta to identify effective crop rotation length and frequency of pulses in a rotation and to evaluate the economic returns for individual crop and for the entire crop rotations in western Canada. Rotation systems that included one or two lentil crops in the 4-year sequence lead to greater and consistent revenue gains at all sites. Wheat monoculture resulted in the lowest net return due to higher cost and lower product prices compared with other crops in the rotation.