Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 11616 www.seed.ab.ca | Advancing Seed in Alberta food barley right now,” says Sopiwnyk. “Our hope is that barley in food applica- tions will become more conventional. But we’re years away from that still, I think.” The third recently concluded project funded in part by Alberta Barley was a seven-year study undertaken by the Smoky Applied Research and Demonstration Association (SARDA) to optimize crop pro- duction through superior crop rotations. “Our goal was to identify which crop rotations would provide farmers with the greatest yields and returns with the least amount of risk,” says Kabal Gill, SARDA’s research coordinator. For the study, Gill compared 10 differ- ent crop rotations with various combina- tions of wheat, canola, barley, peas and flax, plus two monoculture (exclusively wheat and exclusively canola) baselines. Averaged across the multiple years of the study, canola planted as part of crop rotations boasted an average yield increase of 11.6 bu/ac (19.9 per cent) over canola monoculture. Likewise, wheat grown in rotation with other crops showed an increase of 6.6 bu/ac (10.3 per cent) over wheat monoculture. Not surprisingly, the research showed major fertilizer savings of nitrogen when the rotation included peas and sulphur when canola was not part of the rotation. Barley used more water than other crops; peas and flax used the least. In order to rate the varying crop rota- tions, Gill calculated their contribution margins (CM), which is a crop’s gross return minus associated input costs. He then factored in risk: because growing different crops spreads risk, he ranked more diverse crop rotations higher than less diverse systems with equal CM. Based on this formula, Gill determined the best rotations were canola-pea-wheat (which ranked number one in CM), wheat- barley-canola (ranked number two in CM), barley-wheat-canola (ranked number five in CM) and peas-canola-wheat (ranked number six in CM). Rankings three (canola monoculture) and four (canola-canola- wheat) included multiple years of a single crop, so did not offer the risk management benefits of a more diverse rotation. That said, the rating is dependent on the prices of inputs and crops, and as such, will change as prices change. “As an agronomist, I’m more interested in production than economics. I have con- fidence in the yield benefits we proved through this study. But farmers need to stay informed about prices so they know that if they are getting an extra 10 bushels an acre because of a particular rotation, they can pencil in the returns based on current prices,” he says. Alberta Barley is always interested in funding or helping to fund research projects that will support barley’s growth into the future. “Because barley is a relatively small crop in acreage, there is a limited amount of research we’d be able to do if we tried to fund all of the projects ourselves,” says Law. “So, we try to collaborate with part- ners to leverage our research dollars. “These projects are particularly interest- ing because each one offers a positive immediate or peripheral impact to barley producers. Our priority is to translate our research dollars into more barley being grown.” Madeleine Baerg Barley flour blends: Flour produced from the co-milling of wheat and barley (70:30) in Cigi’s pilot mill.