Growing Pulse Crops

Dr. Kevin McPhee is a pulse crop breeder at Montana State University. He's been there for just over eight years after building a similar program in pulse crop breeding at North Dakota State University. Prior to that, he was working on pulse crops with the USDA ARS based in Pullman, Washington. Together we discuss the pulse crop breeding program in Montana, including their goals for the program in pea, chickpea and lentils. He describes varieties they've released and what's in the pipeline that growers might want to know about for the future. “  What really separates the winter peas from the spring peas and gives them the advantage is when we have a dry year and there isn't the in-season moisture rains for the spring crop. With the winter peas already in the ground…they don't have to worry about planting them in the spring. That's one big advantage. And then they can take advantage of all of the winter moisture that's in the soil and any of the spring rains that occur. They flower a month ahead of the spring types. So they're well on their way before we get into the heat of the summer and the potential dry conditions, and that's where they shine.” - Dr. Kevin McPheeThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Kevin McPhee, a pulse crop breeder at Montana State UniversityDiscover new pulse crop varieties that are being introduced and the benefits they offer producersExplore major advantages offered by winter peas that may benefit producers looking to be more water efficientGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Chris Holzapfel is the research manager at the Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation (IHARF). IHARF is a producer-led not-for-profit organization based in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. Their mandate is to provide extension type work for agricultural research and demonstration, including a lot of work with pulse crops.  Holzapfel started in his role at IHARF in 2005 and over the years they've grown to now conducting 40 to 50 small plot trials as well as some field scale research on crops relevant to the area.He shares some of the research they've done with seeding rates, fertility and with supplementing phosphorus in particular. “ Phosphorus is, without a doubt, by a large margin, the most important nutrient to manage. That's the one that we've gotten the most consistent responses to in our work…You know with phosphorus you're almost fertilizing the soil as much as you are the plants.” - Chris HolzapfelThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Chris Holzapfel, the research manager at the Indian Head Agricultural Research Foundation (IHARF)Discover the soil and weather particulars of the Saskatchewan regionExplore the research being done to evaluate different seeding rates and their impact on competing with different weed populationsLearn about the potential benefits of a phosphorus supplement and how to evaluate its benefit on your operationRead more about IHARF at their websiteGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Brian Jenks is a weed scientist at North Dakota State University based in Minot. Jenks has been in this role since 1997 and over that time he has seen an alarming rise in resistance to many of our herbicides from certain weeds, especially in kochia. In this episode, Jenks shares about the latest in kochia management including what's working and not working, which products have built up resistance and which products are still effective. We also talk about a few other key weeds like palmer amaranth, wild oat and green foxtail. “ And if there's anybody listening who's thinking about using Tough on lentil, please call me before you use it because there's some things that you need to know. I mean just reading the label, you're not going to have sufficient information because all they say on there is spray 6 to 20 ounces and oh, by the way, you can tank mix with Metribuzin. Well, that is a recipe for potential disaster if you do that. Because we need to talk rates, we need to talk timing, we need to talk adjuvants, and I'm encouraging growers to do this only as a last resort because you will see severe injury.” - Dr. Brian JenksThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Brian Jenks, a weed scientist at North Dakota State University based in Minot, NDDiscover the rising risk of herbicide resistance in weed management especially with the weed kochiaLearn the process to evaluate the type of kochia resistance producers may be facing and how to get that service for freeUnderstand the significance of a weed being on the noxious weed list and the impact that has on producersContact Dr. Brian Jenks with any of your weed biology or herbicide questions at (701) 857-7677Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

After a tough year in 2023, agronomist Jeannie Rude and Northeast Montana farmer Blake Rasmussen were part of a project to create a video about their experiences with Real Ag Radio's Shaun Haney. That video documented the far reaching impacts root rot can have on farmers and the local community. Blake is a fifth generation farmer on an operation that has included lentils and chickpeas in their rotations for the past 25 years. He has also been an active member of the Northern Pulse Growers Association for the past five years. Jeannie Rude is an agronomist with Pro Coop also located in northeast Montana. She returns to the podcast time with Blake to share their experiences with root rots. “ The root diseases impact the lentil crop and that has an impact on the grower, the health of their soils, and the health of their farm economics. We just got this awesome Columbia grain pulse facility completed in the last few years. So it affects everything from the soil health right down to Main Street in this community.” - Jeannie RudeThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Northeast Montana farmer Blake Rasmussen and hear again from Northeast Montana agronomist Jeannie RudeDiscover the impact Blake had while participating in the Gulf Food Show in DubaiExplore the longterm challenges root rots presents for producers and the lack of information regarding it for how to manage itLearn about the efforts being made to better identify the cause of these issues and what can be done to improve their managementWatch the video featuring Jeannie and Blake on the Real Agriculture YouTube channel coordinated by the Pulse Crops Working Group with funding from the North Central IPM Center. Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Ian Burke is a weed scientist at Washington State University. His work focuses on weed biology and ecology, and he does a lot of work with herbicides. Dr. Burke discusses his research evaluating herbicides for use in peas, lentils and chickpeas and how to manage herbicide carry over issues that can impact these crops. This is the deep dive into herbicide carry over that you might not have even realized you needed.“ We have not enough moisture during the summer to break down the herbicides and not enough heat units during the winter to break down the herbicides. So we really have sort of a perfect storm, a very unique situation, in the United States where herbicides applied in our important rotational crop like wheat persists for far longer than than anywhere else.” - Ian Burke, Ph.D.This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Ian Burke, Ph.D. and learn about cropping systems in his area of the Pacific NorthwestUnderstand herbicide carryover and the factors that causes herbicide persistence like the characteristics of the products themselves, environmental conditions, and soil propertiesDiscover how farmers can manage herbicide carryover while still maintaining the efficacy of their herbicide program. Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Paul Kanning is a farmer in Montana who grows mostly red lentils and yellow peas as well as wheat and canola. He also serves as the chairman of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council. Lewi Crow is a Risk Management Specialist with the USDA Risk Management Agency that services Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas. Lewi and Paul talk about the importance of RMA and crop insurance, but also the process behind developing crop insurance programs for pulse crops. “ As an individual farmer, I have to provide them data and the way I do that is by making transactions, right? And so selling pulses in the fall helps establish the harvest price for the fall. That's the only way that they can come up with the data is by farmers putting product out in the stream… That makes the whole wheel turn.” - Paul Kanning ”...some of the things that I do with that is reviewing plant dates, basically just kind of pulling apart crop programs and reviewing all aspects of it that goes on with rates and t-yields for individual counties, rotation requirements, various things that farmers tend to encounter when choosing crop insurance.” - Lewi CrowThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Paul Kanning, a pulse crop farmer in Montana and the chairman of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council, and Lewi Crow, a Risk Management Specialist with the USDA Risk Management Agency Understand what the RMA provides for producers and the insight they can offer when making production decisionsMake a note of these important dates:January 15th is when the harvest price is released Beginning of March is when projected prices for this 2025 crop year are releasedMarch 15th is the sales closing date for most of the spring seeded crops so Lewi recommends reviewing your crop insurance prior to that date Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Chuck Penner founded Leftfield Commodity Research in 2010. The company provides market analysis and economic research focused on the crops that are important to farmers in Western Canada and the northern parts of the US. Penner shares about the global marketplace for peas, chickpeas and lentils. This episode was recorded on January 10th, 2025.“ One of the things that I've been telling Canadian farmers… is to forget about being the only show in town anymore. Now you have Australia producing more red lentils than Canada does. You have Russia, you have Kazakhstan, and you have the US production going up there as well too…So you need to think globally about not just demand, but the supplies as well.” - Chuck PennerPenner shares about drivers both on the supply side and the demand side that are impacting the trajectory of these global and domestic markets. Through his many newsletters and research projects he aims to keep producers informed about the current state of industries they need to know about. He shares the potential impact on the pulse crop market of different tariffs and what that could mean for producers“ In some ways geopolitics is a factor that's always there, but this year it's kind of amped up a lot and not just in Canadian-US trade, but Canada and India and Canada and China and those types of things where you have potential for those sudden moves.” - Chuck PennerThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Chuck Penner founder of Leftfield Commodity Research where they provide market analysis and economic research focused on the crops in Western Canada and the northern parts of the USExplore the potential impact of tariffs on the pulse crop markets and what producers need to knowDiscover the growing global pulse crop markets and the impact that can have on North American pricesGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Clain Jones is Montana State University Extension's soil fertility specialist. In this role he covers anything that has to do with fertilizer or nutrient cycling in both agriculture as well as home/garden systems. He started at MSU as a tenure track faculty member in 2006, and has ended up doing quite a bit of work with pulse crops over the years. He joins me today to talk about fertility in pulses, the importance of inoculation, nitrogen credits, soil pH, and the overall importance of pulse crops to soil health.“Adding five pounds of sulfur per acre to lentils, what we found at least here in Bozeman, was that nitrogen fixation increased at a much faster rate than yield did. What that told us was that by applying sulfur, maybe we're not going to see a huge yield response, but we're going to contribute a lot more nitrogen both to that crop and to the next crop.” - Dr. Clain JonesDr. Jones stresses the importance of plant nutrition and pH when it comes to optimizing a pulse crop's ability to fix nitrogen. Limestone deposits in the soil can make pH values highly variable even within a field. This can make accurate soil testing a challenge. An acidic pH has a significant impact on rhizobia viability as they don't tolerate low pH values very well. Along with pH, many micronutrients such as sulfur, potassium and phosphorus also need to be considered when assessing overall soil health and nitrogen fixation efficiency.“We have low phosphorus because our high levels of calcium tie up that phosphorus making it less available to crops. Knowing that phosphorus is essential for nitrogen fixation, my gut feel is that phosphorus is probably the nutrient most limiting nitrogen fixation and probably pulse crop growth in our two state region.” - Dr. Clain JonesThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Clain Jones, the Montana State University Extension's soil fertility specialistDiscover the impact of pH and micronutrients on a pulse crop's ability to fix nitrogenExplore the recommended testing and values of soil nutrition to allow for optimal nitrogen fixationGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Kim Sauressig is a fourth generation farmer in Central North Dakota where he grows a wide range of crops including corn, wheat, durum, barley, soybeans, lentils, chickpeas and pinto beans. He also raised cattle until a few years ago when they decided to focus exclusively on crops. When not farming, Kim chairs the North Dakota Dry Pea & Lentil Council and has a seat on the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council where he serves as the chair of the research committee. Kim shares his journey into pulse crops, what roles they play in his overall rotations, the value of associations like the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council, and why he believes more farmers should consider including pulse crops in their crop rotations. “So we started seeding pintos and we were putting a little bit of “N” down. My agronomist called me and he got our soil test back from the laboratory and he is like, just drop your fertilizer. He said, “You don't have to put anything down.” And I truthfully, honestly think that that's because the lentils from the two years previous had fixated it in there. We didn't need it anymore.” - Kim SauressigKim highlights the many benefits of pulse crops that he has experienced including their nitrogen fixation capabilities and their efficiency with water use. Through his work on the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Council and the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council he has expanded his personal network to include many agronomists and research scientists that have really helped him not only fine tune his operation but also support future pulse crop growers. He goes on to share the many advantages the councils offers producers by way of research and financial support.“Your revenue protections and your crop insurances and stuff, that's kind of directly put together by the US Dry Pea and Lentil Council….They were a dog in the fight that helped get dollars to come back into the specialty crop side of things. I mean we're talking millions and millions of dollars that went back to producers that were growing pulse crops that were very, very beneficial.” - Kim SauressigThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Kim Sauressig, a fourth generation farmer in Central North Dakota, chair of the North Dakota Dry Pea & Lentil Council and chair of the research committee on the USA Dry Pea & Lentil CouncilDiscover Kim's experiences with pulse crops and the insights he has gained from participating in both the North Dakota Dry Pea and Lentil Council and the USA Dry Pea and Lentil CouncilGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

At the time of this interview, Steve Sebesta was the director of the Foundation Seed Program at North Dakota State University and the Deputy Commissioner of the North Dakota State Seed Department. Steve has since retired from these positions, so we were very lucky to capture his years of experience and expertise in this area before his retirement. In this episode, Steve discusses the critical role of the foundation seedstocks program, how the plant variety protection act works and why seed needs to be certified.“North Dakota is a little unique compared to most other states in that we have a county seed increase program. So when a new variety is released and we have foundation seed available, the counties decide whether or not they want to produce seed in their county of that new variety. And if they do, then their county grower, who is typically an experienced grower, will produce seed essentially for the county. It's not his seed. He doesn't have ownership of it. It's for the county seed grower. So it's a really good way to increase the amount of seed available of a brand new variety very quickly.” - Steve SebestaGermination success, variety identification and weed presence contribute to the certification of seed that allows for the label required for selling seed in North Dakota. North Dakota has the largest seed certification agency in the country, with between 250,000 and 300,000 acres of seed production every year. Of that, field peas is their third largest crop, with over 21,000 acres in 2023. “A lot of the public varieties were funded by government programs, federal government programs. And so they needed a way to try to incentivize investment in research and development and production of new varieties. So they implemented the Plant Variety Protection Act which gives the variety owner the exclusive authority to determine who can and cannot produce seed of their product and market that seed. So there are a lot of infringements that are possible on a PVP variety that people need to be aware of.” - Steve SebestaThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Steve Sebesta who recently retired as the director of the Foundation Seed Program at North Dakota State University and the Deputy Commissioner of the North Dakota State Seed DepartmentDiscover the function, purpose and process of the Foundation Seed Program as well as the requirements that must be met for seed to be labeled as certifiedGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Nicole Atchison is the CEO of PURIS Holdings, a vertically-integrated plant-based food company that operates from field to fork in primarily yellow peas. Nicole leads the agriculture side of the business, including contracting with growers, seed development and breeding, and innovation in product development. Her brother Tyler leads the ingredient side of the business. PURIS operates throughout the entire supply chain from developing genetics to developing new markets. “So if you're making a high protein cereal, you need a different pea protein than if you're making a plant-based beverage, which is still using a pea protein. But those two pea proteins are slightly different. And that's really the innovation that we do on our processing side, is we create these different proteins with different functionalities so that they can work in these different applications.” - Nicole AtchisonAtchison describes the wet protein processing they are using that provides a unique protein stream with a lot of potential for furthering plant-based protein production. She sees potential for pulse proteins in providing protein sources for both consumer beverages and medical nutrition. As they ramp up production, PURIS Holdings is also active in ongoing efforts to regulate the impact of foreign pulse crop processing and imports affecting both global and domestic markets.“I'm a huge advocate for pulse based ingredients because I do think that as much as we want and encourage people to have and eat whole pulses, that's not where the American consumer is today. We like convenient foods, packaged and processed. That's where our market is. And so we need to be able to drive these crops into those channels as well and that's why processing is so critical to the market.” - Nicole AtchisonThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Nicole Atchison is the CEO of PURIS HoldingsDiscover the journey PURIS Holdings has taken to develop plant-based proteins and their initial introduction to pulse cropsExplore the global ingredient market for pulses and the operations of processing pulse cropsGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Eric von Wettberg is a professor at the University of Vermont and the director of the Vermont Agriculture Experiment Station. His research program focuses on understanding crop domestication as a means to harness the diversity of crop wild relatives to breed crops with improved climate resilience and stress tolerance. In this episode we discuss Von Wettberg's work in pulses, his adventures in germplasm collection, the challenges and opportunities of maintaining genetic diversity, and the importance of protecting crop wild relatives. “We're never fully done with collecting germplasm because there might be more out there and those plants are in a natural habitat. That habitat is not static, so they may be changing over time. There's diseases in some natural populations and disease resistance can actually evolve. So we need to be collecting germplasm continually, and we should even have preserves or parks that hold crop wild relatives. To let them evolve so that we can let evolution generate more resistant varieties for us.” - Dr. Eric von WettbergVon Wettberg shares his concern with the loss of genetic variation in crops, particularly pulses, as a result of human cultivation and selection. A lack of genetic variation reduces resilience of these crops to expected effects of climate change such as drought and disease. In his research group, they are using a new collection of the wild relatives of chickpea to restore genetic variation to cultivated chickpea, and to better understand the genetic basis of flowering time and drought tolerance. “Any mutation, whether it's a new mutation or an old mutation, is helpful. But by collecting, we're more likely to find the old mutations… By looking in wild populations, there's just been more time for those mutations to occur, which makes them a helpful place to look.” - Dr. Eric von WettbergThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Eric von Wettberg is a professor at the University of Vermont and the director of the Vermont Agriculture Experiment StationExplore the impact the loss of genetic variation can have on crop varieties and what is being done to mitigate that riskGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Charlie Cahill developed his knowledge of dryland farming during the 1990s, ultimately becoming what one nominator called “the go-to guy” for information on agronomic practices and seed genetics in the region. A graduate of Montana State University, Cahill has served on the board of the Montana Seed Growers Association and helped create the pulse checkoff program in Montana, which allows growers a voice in how their contributions are invested around the state.“Farmers traditionally have been used to being able to keep and trade their own seed amongst other growers, and this has been going on (for) an exceptional amount of time. Well, if you don't have money to actually go into the breeding programs, you don't get new stuff. And if you look at all of the crops that have money in them: corn, canola, soybeans. We spend a lot of money for the seed, but at the same time, you'll notice we also get really neat stuff.” - Charlie CahillCahill joins the show to talk about the current state of the seed industry in Montana, some inside information on the seed business and what's driving seed choices, and trying to bring together market demand and producer needs into a valuable and profitable seed technology. “The demand right now is far outstripping the supply on (lentil) seed. We are probably one of the largest sellers of lentil seed in the United States and we're sold out at the moment, and our production was okay. So that gives you an idea.” - Charlie CahillThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Charlie Cahill of Cahill Seeds, and learn about the history of pulse seed production in MontanaLearn about some of the drivers of pulse crop seed developmentHear more about what buyers of pulses are looking for in genetics in the futureDiscover what it's like be an independent seed producerGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Michelle Hubbard leads a field, greenhouse, growth chamber and lab based research program at Agriculture and AgriFood Canada, a part of the Canadian federal government. Based in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, her work focuses on pulse pathology, including important diseases like ascochyta blight of chickpea, root rot of pea and lentil and anthracnose of lentil. Hubbard discusses a mystery illness that has been popping up in parts of Saskatchewan and other areas in recent years. She shares the symptoms of this disease and the extensive research that has been done to try to understand what exactly is going on so that we can start to manage for it in the future. She provides insights not only into pulse pathology, but also into the approach scientists like herself take to try to find answers for farmers.“It is frustrating, but it's also interesting and I keep going by thinking we're learning other things. Even if we're not finding an answer to this problem, we're learning other useful things like about drought and Verticillium and nematodes.” - Dr. Michelle HubbardThe exact pathogenesis of the mystery illness in chickpeas continues to elude researchers despite major efforts. The disease first emerged in 2019 and made its mark by creating severe crop loss similar to ascochyta blight. However, these chickpeas did not demonstrate obvious girdling and patterns of being transmitted airborne like typical ascochyta blight. Drought stress followed by rainfall was another factor explored for explaining the unique symptoms observed in the field but this too was disproved in trials. Herbicide application without moisture was another factor explored and it too could not be replicated successfully. The investigation continues with Dr. Hubbard offering this advice to producers. “Keep an eye out for it, but (don't) panic about it. If they want to find out more information or pictures, there's a lot of pictures on the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers website, as well as some old reports dating back to the beginning of the issue that explains it really well and shows pictures and examples. Or if somebody wants to contact me, I'm happy to send pictures or to help you find a link where you can find more pictures.” - Dr. Michelle HubbardThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Michelle Hubbard a plant pathologist who leads a field, greenhouse, growth chamber and lab based research program at Agriculture and AgriFood CanadaUnderstand the emergence and research related to identifying this mystery chickpea illnessLearn more about Dr. Hubbard's work at AgriFood Canada by visiting her webpage Check out the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers webpage as well to learn more about this emerging concernGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Tom Warkentin is a professor at the University of Saskatchewan where he is part of a team at the Crop Development Center. He has been a pulse crop breeder for about 30 years, mostly focused on field peas. Warkentin discusses the progress of his pulse crop breeding program over the decades, including varieties that have had a big impact on the industry. He also shares how he balances the need to improve genetics on multiple fronts all at once, like yield, quality, lodging, disease resistance, protein and a number of other factors. He'll also cover what's in the pipeline currently for new varieties and what questions and areas of research are still left unanswered. “Definitely yield is first and we keep pushing to improve yield. I think if we go through the records we've probably boosted yield 1 to 2% per year if you take the long-term average over a couple of decades. Second trait that farmers definitely like is lodging resistance, so the ability to stay upright. That has remained as probably the second most important trait in pea varieties over the last 30 years.” - Dr. Tom WarkentinOther priorities they focus on include protein quality and quantity, root rot resistance and ascochyta resistance. Dr. Warkentin discusses where these priorities come from including producer requests, processor preferences and consumer demands. Employing different techniques to highlight different characteristics is a lengthy difficult process in plant genetics that Dr. Warkentin's team have been fine-tuning for years.“So a combination of conventional breeding and marker assisted breeding and screening material with the actual pathogens, either indoors or outdoors. All of those approaches we're using.” - Dr. Tom WarkentinThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Tom Warkentin, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan where he is part of a team at the Crop Development Center.Discover the priorities of genetic traits that his breeding program is addressing in peas and the impact this development is having on the pulse crop industryExplore the process the plant breeding team is employing to improve pulse crop geneticsLearn more about Dr. Warkentin's work at the University of Saskatchewan by visiting his research webpage Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Zack Bateson is the Research Manager at the National Ag Genotyping Center based in Fargo, North Dakota. You heard a little bit about the work the National Genotyping Center is doing in episode five with Dr. Brian Jenks. In this episode we dive deeper into the services they offer to provide DNA testing for farmers and agronomists. Bateson got his start in DNA-based testing working in wildlife biology with prairie chickens and lizards, but says all of the skills can be applied to any organisms including variety detection, herbicide resistance, and soil pathogens, which is where he focuses today. “Growers can send us kochia and we can genotype them for the resistance to group 14. Then they're able to have a discussion with either their agronomists or other consultants to see whether it can be another actionable spraying opportunity or if there's something else that they can do about these resistant weeds.” - Zach BatesonThe National Ag Genotyping Center is a private nonprofit diagnostic lab that provides genetic testing to identify pathogens, pests and genetic traits such as resistance to herbicides. This valuable information can help growers determine next steps in treatment of fields without having to rely solely on potentially costly trial and error practices. Alongside these established practices they are also developing identification testing for different causes of root rot.“The work involved is simpler for a person to do, especially with robotics, we can not only do tens of samples per day, but we can extract from hundreds of samples per day. We can test for multiple genetic markers throughout the day, so we're talking hundreds and almost thousands of data points that can be processed and reported out.” - Zach BatesonThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Zack Bateson, the Research Manager at the National Ag Genotyping Center based in Fargo, North DakotaExplore the work done at the National Ag Genotyping Center and the value they provide growers in North Dakota. Discover the support and research being developed at the National Ag Genotyping Center and the future projects they expect to participate inGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Brian Jenks is a weed scientist at North Dakota State University based in Minot. He has been in this role since 1997 and over that time he has seen an alarming rise in resistance to many of our herbicides from certain weeds, especially in kochia. In this episode Jenks discusses the resistance problem and some of the work underway to help farmers manage these weeds that are getting tougher every year to control. He also shares an exciting new offering from the Ag Genotyping Center to identify resistance.“I've been polling farmers this winter and the most common answer I get is about 80%. Farmers think about 80% of their kochia is roundup resistant. So it's a majority of the kochia and we know that there's group 14 resistance out there to Aim and Sharpen. So if we want to control kochia in a burn down, we need to know if Aim and Sharpen are going to work for us.” - Dr. Brian JenksSpray droplet size, travel speed when spraying and the height of the kochia when treated are all factors that greatly affect the success of herbicide use. True resistance however will be able to survive each of these adjustments. Developing new mechanisms of action and products to circumvent the resistance is a lengthy difficult process with no clear immediate solution in site. With resistance observed in many commonly used herbicides, gramoxone seems to be the only one that remains consistently effective. Unfortunately resistance is likely to emerge here too without other measures being taken.“The worst thing we can do is probably a two year rotation where we're using the same herbicides and the same crops over and over. I'm optimistic if we can diversify our crops to get a minimum of 3, 4, 5 crops in the rotation, and then use 5, 6, 7 different modes of action with our herbicides.” - Dr. Brian JenksThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Brian Jenks, a weed scientist at North Dakota State UniversityExplore the growing problem of herbicide resistant kochia and the impact this problem will have on pulse crop productionUnderstand the significance of different spray techniques and following up on spray treatments with early season monitoringGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Chris Graham is an associate professor at South Dakota State University. He's also the manager of the West River Research Farm near Sturgis, South Dakota. At that facility they focus a lot on regenerative agriculture, including doing a lot of work with peas and other pulses to extend crop rotations in that semi-arid region in the western part of the state. Graham shares about pulse production in South Dakota, focusing mostly on field peas. He also shares some of the complexities of nitrogen fixation, including what it might look like to have farm-specific microbial inoculant mixes in the future. “When you look at the growth of wheat, generally the yield is set first and then the protein is made later in its life cycle. And so we often see peas, obviously they're harvested and they start to decay, and that slow decay releases nitrogen later in the wheat growing season. And so we often see a protein bump with wheat following peas.” - Dr. Chris GrahamWhile there isn't a lot of acreage in pulses in South Dakota yet, Graham calls field peas the “nickel slots” of the pulses. In other words, a great place to start incorporating them into a rotation with a low barrier to entry. He highlights that your soil nitrogen content will likely not increase but your input needs may decrease when pulses are used.“It's still nitrogen that you didn't have to apply and it's also nitrogen that the plant did not necessarily take up from the soil. And so it's conserving some of that nitrogen that's being made available just on that baseline level. ” - Dr. Chris GrahamThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Chris Graham, an associate professor at South Dakota State University and the manager of the West River Research Farm near Sturgis, South DakotaExplore the potential use of pulse crops in rotations in South DakotaDiscover the niche pulses can fill in rotation as a broadleaf crop capable of nitrogen fixationVisit Dr. Graham's webpage here.Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Breanne Tidemann is a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada based in Lacombe, Alberta. As a weed scientist, her job is to explore new and novel ways to manage weeds. Her focus is to research applied management strategies, weed biology and ecology, and screening for herbicide resistance. In this episode, Tidemann discusses the work she has been leading in Canada on the effectiveness of weed seed destruction technology including the use of mills and shares that this approach can be a very helpful tool in the toolbox especially in pulses.“By and large, on the vast majority of weed species that have been tested in Canada and the United States, we're seeing greater than 95% control of what goes into those mills…There's the odd one here or there that's a little bit lower, but when I say it's a little bit lower, we're typically still talking greater than 80% control.” - Dr. Breanne TidemannTideman shares the concern that at the end of the season the remaining weeds have managed to survive everything the farmer has put them through. They are therefore the fittest weeds that are the most difficult to get rid of. She proposes that rather than spreading those weed seeds all over the field with a combine we need to focus on destroying them. This process may not solve any weed problems for the crop you're harvesting, but it does start the weed management for the next year early and can have real impacts on future production. “So there's six main methods of harvest weed seed control. Some of them are things we would consider using in North America, like the weed seed destruction technology.…it's basically trying to turn the combine from a weed seed spreader into a weed seed predator” - Dr. Breanne TidemannThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Breanne Tidemann a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada based in Lacombe, AlbertaExplore the value and purpose of research regarding harvest weed seed control especially as it relates to crops with limited herbicide options such as pulse cropsDiscover current methods and equipment that are effective for harvest weed seed control and are available in North AmericaConnect with Dr. Tidemann on Twitter @breannetidemann or visit her website here.Growing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Farmer and Northern Pulse Growers Association president Sam Arnson and executive director Shannon Berndt join us to talk about their work at NPGA, the importance of bringing the industry together to fund research, marketing and education efforts, and how other pulse growers can get involved. They share what NPGA has accomplished and what the future holds for northern pulse growers in the region.“This is an exciting time to be part of this industry because we are still a fairly small industry, but we're growing. We're seeing a lot of additional states coming on board with acreage and production that face some of the same challenges that North Dakota and Montana producers face. And so as a collective group of growers, I think it's important that y'all have a voice.” - Shannon BerndtThe Northern Pulse Growers Association is a nonprofit association representing dry pea, lentil, chickpea, lupin and fava bean growers from Montana and North Dakota. Shannon Berndt has been serving as the assocation's executive director since 2007. When not acting as president for NPGA Sam is found farming northwest of Williston, North Dakota. “People are overall excited next year for pulses to be put into their rotation if their rotation allows it. And I mean by that is their crop rotation and or chemical herbicide usage if it's opened for pulses. I think a lot of acres are gonna go in next year.” - Sam ArnsonThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet farmer and Northern Pulse Growers Association president Sam Arnson and executive director Shannon BerndtExplore the progress in development and collaboration between producers the organization has accomplished for pulse growers in the northern regionDiscover what future opportunities the NPGA feels pulse growers have available to them as the industry grows and expandsGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

In this episode we're looking at a new pulse crop: sweet white lupins. Dr. Mike Ostlie is the director of the Carrington Research Extension Center at North Dakota State University. In the early 2000s a private company that was developing lupin varieties had gone out of business and the germplasm was given to NDSU to work on varieties. Now they're close to releasing new varieties and Ostlie joins us to share why this is exciting for growers and for the pulse crops industry in general. “It's actually really an exciting time to be in the lupin world right now because there's a lot of interest in it I think all around in people looking for some new food ingredients, for instance, on the buyer side. As well as some farmers that are interested in getting something a little bit different in their crop rotation.” - Dr. Mike OstlieWhile these varieties of sweet white lupins will be new to many US growers, there is also an initiative in Canada to develop and release blue lupins which have a lot of the same qualities. These qualities include being a strong nitrogen fixer, a phosphorous scavenger, and a high protein legume. Ostlie noted that there is some existing production of sweet lupin in Australia that mainly goes to the pet food and livestock feed industries there. “The lupins have pretty wide adaptability in the northern plains in the fact that they produce reasonable yield under those very large drought conditions. When they're provided water, the yield potential is quite high….We've seen yields get up to 60 to 70 bushels an acre with lupins, which again, is very competitive with a lot of crops in the area.” - Dr. Mike OstlieThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Dr. Mike Ostlie shares the development and potential of white lupins where varieties are being developed at the Carrington Research Extension Center at NDSUDiscover the yield potential and resilience of the Lupin plant that is also known for its ability to scavenge phosphorus and fix nitrogenLearn the unique characteristics and input needs for this up and coming pulse cropGrowing Pulse Crops is produced by Dr. Audrey Kalil and hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Take our audience survey and let us know your feedback about the Growing Pulse Crop Podcast!Whether you're from Nebraska or elsewhere, this is a great episode about what's possible for the future of pulse crops. We talk about peas and chickpeas, but we also get into other niche opportunities like mung beans, cowpeas and more. You'll get a sense of the emerging pulse industry in Nebraska, but also what it takes for the development of pulse crops everywhere. We discuss genetics, agronomy, disease management and marketing strategy. We start with Steve Tucker. Steve farms near Venango, Nebraska in the southwest part of the state. He has built his operation on the principle of diversity and grows up to 14 different crops.“We can grow mung beans, I mean, there's different...aspects of these different things that we can do. What does the market need? And so I just had a conversation with a company that's looking for lupins. I don't know if you've ever heard of lupins before and so there are more various different kinds of pulse crops that who knows what else is out there and what people are looking for to utilize in food products.” - Steve TuckerWhen plant pathologist Dr. Bob Harveson came to the University of Nebraska in 1999, chickpeas were really on the rise in the state. Sometime in the early 2000's ascochyta really started to affect a lot of fields and there were no fungicides labeled for the disease for treatment. Since then he said fungicide options have improved over time as have genetics. Unfortunately, many of those same growers who experienced the devastating losses from ascochyta are very hesitant to plant chickpeas or even other pulse crops again. Despite these frustrations, Bob remains optimistic for the future of chickpeas and other pulses in the state. “I have a strong diagnostic background. So whenever something like this pops up, I try to determine what the problem is, how well it's distributed, you know, those sorts of things. Before you can start developing control measures, you gotta know what you've got in order to really make the right choice for that.” - Dr. Bob HarvesonThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Steve Tucker who farms near Venango, Nebraska and explore the diverse crop varieties he plants on his operation and his motivation behind their selectionAlso meet plant pathologist Dr. Bob Harveson from the University of Nebraska and explore his involvement in pulse crop production and what he sees as the future of the industryFor more information on ascochyta specifically, you can refer back to some of the previous episodes we've done on the topic.Coordinated Research Efforts to Fight Pulse Pathogens with Dr. Jenny Davidson in season twoCanadian Pulses and Foliar Disease Management in season twoDisease Management in Pulses with Dr. Michael Wunsch in season oneGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the

Take our audience survey and let us know your feedback about the Growing Pulse Crop Podcast!Terry Angvick farms in Sheridan County, Montana which is in the extreme Northeastern corner of the state. He was born, raised there and came back after earning a plant and soil science degree from Montana State University. In his first career, he spent 31 years as the Sheridan County Extension Agent, a position he retired from in 2010. Today he farms mostly durum and dry peas alongside his two older brothers and his son. Terry shares about the important role pulse crops play in rotations in his arid part of the country, some of his management practices that he's adopted over the past 20 years of growing pulses, and some harvest and post-harvest considerations. “I think the more residue out there, it prevents erosion, but it also creates a little microclimate, a little environment, for them to grow up into. I prefer a furrow drill…because I think it also allows that little microclimate when you grow up on the stubble. These varieties have tendrils that tie them together, and so that helps to hold them upright as well. In my mind, the more stubble the better.” - Terry AngvickAs an extension agent Terry found himself “searching for something that would justify the economics of farming.” This led him to encourage the planting of previously fallow fields and pursuing different types of crop rotations such as pulse crops.“When you produce a durum crop following a pulse crop, you almost always have increased yield and quality as opposed to continuous wheat. For example, better protein, better color. Durum has HVAC, which is a hard vitreous amber color, which is a nice yellow color. It's almost always better. So from those standpoints, I guess the pulse crops have really fitted very well and the markets have followed it as well.” - Terry AngvickThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Terry Angvick from Sheridan County, Montana who farms durum and dry peas alongside his two older brothers and son.Explore the new practices Terry has started to compliment the pulse crops he has added to his rotation Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Take our audience survey and let us know your feedback about the Growing Pulse Crop Podcast!Dr. Steve Van Vleet spent about 18 years as a regional extension specialist for Washington State University, and today is a research agronomist with The McGregor Company. For most of his career, pulses have been an important part of his work, and he joins us to talk about his excitement for the potential of winter peas. We're not talking about Austrian Winter Peas, which are feed grade peas that are smaller in size and darker in color. We're talking about food grade winter peas, which have been available for several years in certain growing areas. Steve says the differences are larger size of at least 17 grams, a clear seed coat, and a green or yellow cotyledon. “Multiple years, my average yield of my winter peas was 6,000 pounds. That's between all the varieties. Spring pea will range from 2,500 pounds up to 4,500 pounds. But I can get 7,000 or 7,500 pounds off some of the different winter pea varieties. That's the part that makes me super excited..” - Dr. Steve Van VleetSteve talks about why he believes this crop is a great option for a lot more growers than are using them currently and some considerations for growing winter peas including seeding depths and timing and pest and disease management. The limiting factor he sees playing a big role in this variety's success is the access producers have to markets.“Not are you only helping the soil, helping another crop that you're producing, which makes it better, makes it healthier. But what are you doing when it comes to human health?... If we could market this and people would become educated and say, this is one of the most healthy crops that we can produce and improves human health, soil health, crop health, other crop health. Not just as a rotational crop, but this could be a major crop. That's where I see opportunity.” - Dr. Steve Van VleetThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Steve Van Vleet a former regional extension specialist for Washington State University and current research agronomist with The McGregor Company. Explore the benefits of the winter pea variety and the potential it offers producersRead more about “Pea Weevil Management in Winter Peas” in this Washington State University publicationGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Eric Bartsch is the division head for global food ingredients at AGT Foods based in Bismarck, North Dakota. He's been with the company for 16 years and through that time they have grown from just a couple factories to now over 45 facilities and $2B in sales. Processing peas, lentils, chickpeas, fava beans and dry edible beans has been their primary focus since they were founded in 2002. While they have ventured into some grain-based products since that time, they still remain focused and bullish on the future of pulse crops.“There's a lot of things that we've had to establish. Protein checking in peas was non-existent 20 years ago. And now it's where we're checking protein on every load to be able to supply some of the high end markets that we are today. You know a lot of major investments in protein manufacturing plants, in processing, in food manufacturing plants that are incorporating pulses is really at an all time high and continues to grow.” - Eric BartschEric discusses how much has changed in pulses to make them more attractive to a wider variety of consumers who want tasty and nutritious foods. This has had big impacts on what buyers are looking for from these pulse crops in terms of flavor and functionality. He talks about how that information gets passed from the consumer to the producer and back, and the role AGT Foods plays in facilitating that connection. He also talks about some of the opportunities ahead for the industry, and why he is more optimistic than ever about the market potential for these crops. “That's really one of the initiatives we took when we built our Minot plant, is how do we transform pulses into ingredients that can be incorporated into everyday food. So now you look at the market and there's all kinds of gluten-free pasta made from lentils, chickpeas, and peas. They've become mainstream where it's become a very large market…So there's many ways to where we've taken pulses, transformed them into an ingredient and incorporated them into everyday foods that consumers are familiar with” - Eric BartschThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Eric Bartsch, the division head for global food ingredients at AGT Foods based in Bismarck, North DakotaExplore the future of the pulse crop industry from the perspective of a pulse crop processorGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

At the time of this interview Dr. Abbey Wick was the associate professor and extension soil health specialist at North Dakota State University. She has since gone on to a new role after nearly 12 years at NDSU. She is now the Global Soil Health Education Program Lead at Syngenta. We talk about what is motivating more farmers to want to try new practices on their farms to improve their soil health, some of the barriers to adopting these practices, and the support and resources available for anyone looking to learn more. We also discuss a new approach that food companies are getting involved with to spread the word about soil health through certified crop advisors, which is called the Trusted Advisor Partnership.“I do think that people need to be aware of how they're going to keep that residue on the surface and probably it's with the crops they are growing in between those pulse crops and rotation. They could build up some of the residue. But yeah, it's exciting. I think there's a ton of potential with pulse crops, and fortunately we can grow them here in the northern plains. So I think we're in a great position here to do some really cool things with soil health and pulse.” - Dr. Abbey WickWick has seen both soil erosion and salinity issues be big motivators for producers to turn to new soil health practices. Using a perennial and keeping residue on the surface has become much more common place for producers in the North Dakota area to combat these issues. She goes on to share that a strong community of support and collaboration has developed around these soil health practices including the Trusted Advisor Partnership. “There's a community around this that I think growers want to be part of. And to have that support not only from the university or from crop advisors who are interested in this or from conservation districts or NRCS groups. But they want to be part of that community because they want to be creative and they want to be thinking through the problems and solving problems on their farm and now they have people to do that with. And so I think that's been a huge motivator for soil health.” - Dr Abbey WickThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Join Dr. Abbey Wick, former associate professor and extension soil health specialist at North Dakota State University and current Global Soil Health Education Program Lead at SyngentaExplore the evolution of soil health practices in North Dakota and the role pulse crops can playResources for Soil Health Learning and Practices:NDSU Soil Health WebsiteNRCS WebsiteSoil Conservation DistrictsMidwest Cover Crops Council WebsiteNorth Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and EducationSoil Sense PodcastGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Drew Lyon is a Professor and the Endowed Chair of Small Grains Extension and Research for Weed Science at Washington State University in Pullman. Prior to moving to Washington in 2012, he spent 22 years as a Dryland Cropping Systems Specialist at the University of Nebraska at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff. His endowment is from the WA Grain Commission, so he spends a lot of his time with wheat growers, but most of them also include pulses in their rotations. Our discussion mostly focuses on integrated weed management of chickpeas, from cultural practices to herbicides to biologicals. “We do have some effective herbicides out there. In this part of the world nature doesn't always provide us with the moisture at the right time to get those products activated and going, that increases our need to use things other than herbicides for weed control. Because we've had 30 years of really effective herbicides that's the first place a lot of growers think. But I think we're gonna have to start thinking more about other approaches, things we used to do 40 and 50 years ago before herbicides were so effective.” - Dr. Drew LyonLyon has seen herbicide tools come and go, both in their effectiveness and their availability. Because of this, he is a big advocate for an integrated weed management program, which he says all starts with trying to grow a competitive crop. He shares that there are also things that can be done to try to manage the overall seed bank of the weeds on fields. Cover crops, he says, can also be helpful with weed suppression if you have the moisture. When all is said and done, Lyon's advice on weed management comes down to three basic principles: don't get weeds started, do everything you can to grow a competitive crop, and always be changing things up.“Prevent weed problems from starting. If you don't have certain weeds on your farm, make sure you don't get them… Do everything you can to grow a competitive crop…And then the other thing is to change things up. Anytime you do the same thing over and over again, you tend to select for those weeds that do well in that system…Human nature is that we like to stick with things until we break them, but that's the recipe for getting weed problems” - Dr Drew LyonThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Join Dr. Drew Lyon is a Professor and the Endowed Chair of Small Grains Extension and Research for Weed Science at Washington State University in PullmanDiscussion of past, current and future integrated weed management for pulse crop producersRe-visit Dr. Drew Lyon's discussion on harvest aids from season one in episode 12Growing Pulse Crops is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Jeannie Rude is an agronomist at PRO Co-op in Northeast Montana. She manages part of the co-op's business to help growers make decisions, solve agronomic problems, and provide inputs. Overall, Rude works with 13 different crops on an annual basis. She is acutely aware of how much her job and the success of her cooperative hinges on the viability of the farmer customers that they serve. “I love what I do because of the complexity. It definitely makes it more challenging. It makes it hard to bring new people into the business because they have to learn so much and it's not something that's in a textbook… I would not do this if it was routine and if it was something that was easy to copy.” - Jeannie RudeIn 2021 Rude discovered that there was limited research on grasshoppers due to the cyclical nature of their impact. She had to make some educated guesses for her clients in order to manage the grasshopper population explosion. Rude discusses grasshopper population thresholds, life cycles, management options and what environmental factors will affect their survival most. “There's a hundred species of grasshoppers between you in South Idaho and me and Northeast Montana. There are five that are pests and two that are giving us trouble right now in this area, so there's 98 that don't matter. So there's a ton of grasshoppers in the environment that are harmless….There's a threshold for action and all of those other grasshoppers, they're not part of your action threshold you're looking for.” - Jeannie RudeThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Jeannie Rude, an agronomist at PRO Co-op in Northeast MontanaDiscover the path Rude has taken to becoming the resident expert on grasshoppers for her areaExplore what options are available to producers to manage grasshoppers and what weather conditions affect their populations mostGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Barney Geddes is an assistant professor at North Dakota State University in the Department of Microbiological Sciences. His work focuses on microbes with the goal of boosting crop yields for farmers. More specifically he studies rhizobia which form symbiotic relationships with legume crops like pulses. In this episode, Geddes explains how nodulation works and what that means for farm decisions like inoculants. He grew up on a farm in Manitoba, and after studying microbiology as an undergrad, he decided to apply this knowledge to his lifelong passion for sustainable agriculture. His perspective is deep into the science but also rooted in the reality of growing up on a commercial farm. “Nodulation or the ultimate formation of a root nodule on the root of these pulses is really the result of quite an elegant communication and signal exchange between the plant and the microbe…It's really a communication between the two that ultimately leads the plant to understand it has the right microbe there to allow it to kind of gain entry and then it builds this house for it called the root nodule.” - Dr. Barney GeddesAccording to Geddes, inoculation is “kind of a bet hedging process” in that producers are just making sure all the building blocks are made available for nodulation to occur. The plant will continue to send out signals to create nodules and will turn off those signals once they have met their needs. In this way, if there is excessive nitrogen in the soil, the plant will not be prompted to form the symbiotic relationship and nodulate. Plant stress and soil pH will also impact the symbiotic relationship and the success of nodulation.“We're trying to build a translatable knowledge base that can lead to improvements in the industry. So that's been a big focus for us, is competition. These are living organisms that have to come into our environment and thrive there somehow…But thinking about that competition and, and what allows a microbe to thrive in a new environment is something we're starting to do a lot.” - Dr. Barney GeddesThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Barney Geddes an assistant professor at North Dakota State University in the Department of Microbiological SciencesExplore the intricacies of nodulation and the components that make it successful in the fieldDiscover the best use scenarios for inoculants to encourage nodulationGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Perry Miller is a cropping systems scientist in the Land Resources and Environmental Sciences Dept at Montana State University. A large portion of the work Dr. Miller does includes working with pulse crops and how they can make other crops, namely wheat, grow better. Part one of this episode was published as episode two in this season and focused on crop diversification and fertility. In this episode, we focus on lentil agronomics. As more and more farmers started to grow lentils in their rotation instead of summer fallow, Perry says the early lessons about growing the crops included being mindful of herbicide carryover and applying an inoculant.So you need to know what your soil residual herbicide history is because there are some persistent herbicides, and lentil tends to be a little bit the canary in the coal mine when it comes to herbicide residues. If you've got something in the soil, lentils will usually respond to it…The other easiest mistake to make is to not apply a rhizobial inoculant in a way that actually gets that bacteria in a living fashion onto the seed or into the soil in a way that can interact with lentils to help with fixed nitrogen.” - Dr. Perry MillerPerry says that most producers are familiar enough with pulse crops to avoid those common pitfalls and that most are now focusing on optimizing their operation. One interesting area that he has been exploring is rolling timing and its impact on yield. Perry mentioned that even in their trials where there was flat ground and very little rocks, rolling still seemed to be beneficial to yield. Perry has also looked at five different seeding rates and found out the recommended seeding rate, in a lot of cases, was probably not enough. “Long story short, 1.5 x seeding rate was the economic optimum by the time you considered additional seed cost and what the yield response was. So it suggests that we're probably leaving some yield potential on the table by going at our old, traditional recommended seeding rates.” - Dr. Perry MillerThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Follow up with Dr. Perry Miller, a cropping systems scientist in the Land Resources and Environmental Sciences Dept at Montana State University. Explore the many farming practices Perry has studied and explored to optimize the productivity of pulse cropsGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Michael Wunsch is a Plant Pathologist at the Carrington Research Extension Center at North Dakota State University. He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2010, and has worked for NDSU ever since and focused on disease management problems on a wide breadth of crops grown in North Dakota. Michael's focus is on applied research that can directly address farmer needs. In this episode we focus specifically on root rots in peas and lentils and how the soil temperature can affect successful yields.“Basically what happens is, is if your soil temperatures are below 50 degrees Fahrenheit in that seven day period after planting the root rot severity is way lower, way lower. You're cutting your fusarium and aphanomyces root rot in half at those early mid vegetative growth. So they can get a lot bigger before the root rot gets bad.” - Dr. Michael WunschMichael emphasizes that there are no silver bullets with these root rots and that both warm and cool season root rots cause problems for producers and need to be accounted for. Seed treatments with proper efficacy for pythium and rhizoctonia will start crops off on the right foot. Fusarium and aphanomyces become a bigger issue in warmer saturated soils later in the summer. These two pathogens tend to impregnate fields one year and won't cause a problem until the next year's plantings. Unfortunately seed treatments will no longer be present when temperatures warm up. Planting early in cooler soils will allow for the plants to be larger and more hardy prior to when their warm fungal adversaries will start causing a problem. The third management strategy that is an important piece for managing these root rots is crop rotation. “It's just a no-brainer. You use a seed treatment with peas when you're planting in soils below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and if you want to minimize your root rot, you need to plant in soils that are cool…The seed treatment basically gives you another four to five bushels. And so you're looking at a four to eight bushel gain by optimizing your planting day relative to soil temperature….Suddenly you're at eight to 13 bushels with those two tools.” - Dr. Michael WunschThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Michael Wunsch is a Plant Pathologist at the Carrington Research Extension Center at North Dakota State University.Explore different strategies that when integrated together can help producers manage common causes for devastating root rotDiscover the ongoing research into root rot and the further techniques being assessedGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Aphids are known for the destruction they can cause due to feeding damage. But they can also be responsible for transmitting harmful viruses into the crops. In this episode we hear from Dr. Lyndon Porter is a plant pathologist at USDA-ARS based in Prosser, Washington, Dr. Sean Prager is an associate professor of entomology at the University of Saskatchewan and Dr. Sanford Eigenbrode is a professor of entomology at the University of Idaho. There is a tremendous amount of collective knowledge in this group covering aphid-related topics including the development of genetic tolerance to the insect and resistance to the viruses. We also discuss aphid sampling and hosts, chemical options for management and other integrated pest management strategies.“We estimated a direct injury threshold, a level of aphid infestation that would justify a spray. And we had a second calculator that attempted to help growers who are concerned about the aphid as a vector of the virus, which is a different thing. In that case, we would say the nominal threshold is one aphid because it only takes an aphid that's prolific to feed for an hour and you have a sick plant.” - Dr. Sanford EigenbrodeLyndon says that giving growers real time data on aphid presence and aphid levels has been a critical step to helping with management of this pest and associated diseases. All three of our guests agree the long term goal is a combination of integrated pest management built upon a foundation of genetic tolerance to the pest and resistance to the diseases. This represents a really interesting area of research that combines entomology, pathology, plant breeding and several other areas of study. “If we can just get the associations between genetic elements and resistance, we can skip knowing exactly what those genes are coding for as long as we can track them into the breeding lines.” - Dr. Sanford Eigenbrode This Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Lyndon Porter, a plant pathologist at USDA-ARS based in Washington, Dr. Sean Prager, an associate professor of entomology at the University of Saskatchewan, and Dr. Sanford Eigenbrode, a professor of entomology at the University of IdahoExplore the impact of aphids and the measures being taken to not only reduce the damage aphids cause by feeding but also reduce the impact of the viruses the aphids vectorDiscover the factors contributing to aphid spread and the monitoring proving to be significant in managing their impactLearn about the process towards developing genetic resistance to this pest and the tools being used to produce results quickerGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the

Dr. Nonoy Bandillo is an assistant professor and pulse crops breeder who directs the pulse crops breeding program at North Dakota State University. He says their ultimate goal at the program is to develop and release varieties that maximize economic return to producers and to provide high quality crops to the pulse crops industry. In this episode we discuss key challenges in pulse crops that are being addressed through genetics, some of the varieties that his program has released in the past, and some exciting new lines that are in the pipeline. “So the zero tannin lentil that we have in the pipeline, it doesn't have tannin or there's minimal tannin and it does not have any brownish color, which I would say, in my opinion, is not really a good characteristic of the seed of lentil.” - Dr. Nonoy BandilloOver the years of the NDSU breeding program, there have been several milestones, but perhaps most importantly, the release of four new cultivars. As these cultivars get released, it does take a while for them to be available commercially. ND Crown for example, was released in 2020, but there should finally be enough seed this year to be available for farmers.The program also has an additional eight lines in the pre-release phase of the pipeline. Disease resistance, yield, protein content and flavor remain high priorities for pulse crop breeding programs going forward. Nonoy and other plant breeders work extremely closely with plant pathologists to understand the mechanisms for disease resistance and to try to understand how to develop varieties accordingly.“Our goal is to always collaborate with multiple breeders, not just within the US, but all around the world to get new sources of germ plasm or materials that we can use for the program… I feel like collaboration always starts with figuring out the important biological question that should be highly relevant to producers.” -Dr. Nonoy BandilloThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Nonoy Bandillo an assistant professor and pulse crops breeder who directs the pulse crops breeding program at North Dakota State UniversityExplore the strategy, purpose and effect of the ongoing research towards new pulse crop cultivarsDiscover the vast collaborative efforts throughout the industry to produce better cultivars for both the market and producersGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Dr. Perry Miller is a cropping systems scientist in the Land Resources and Environmental Sciences Dept at Montana State University. He specializes in crop diversification strategies and says a big chunk of that work includes working with pulse crops and how they can make other crops, namely wheat, grow better. In this episode, Miller discusses some of these crop diversification strategies, the benefits to including pulse crop rotations, some of the work they're doing on crop fertility and how much nitrogen benefit he's seeing from peas and lentils. “So I can best speak from the Montana perspective, and I would say the evidence is very strong that our agriculture systems have become more diversified. Farmers have become more adventurous, more risk takers than they were in the past…So yeah, our systems have diversified pretty dramatically.” - Dr. Perry MillerIn Montana, Miller has seen sharp reductions in summer fallow in no small part because peas and lentils are a viable option. One of the benefits to diversifying a rotation by adding these crops is the potential nitrogen benefits. Miller emphasizes that the benefits are real, but they aren't very predictable or as cut and dry as we might want them to be. “So what is that nitrogen benefit behind pulse crops? It's not super easy to predict, but it's real, it's common and it happens often…If you grow it once, it's hit and miss whether you're gonna get a nitrogen response behind it. The second time, especially the third time, there's been a pulse crop on that field, it seems like it's much more reliable in terms of that nitrogen response.” -Dr. Perry MillerThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet Dr. Perry Miller, cropping systems scientist in the Land Resources and Environmental Sciences Dept at Montana State UniversityExplore the strategy behind crop diversity and the advantages producers can experience by planning their crop rotations with future inputs and soil health in mind while moving away from summer fallow practicesUnderstand the impact of no-till and water infiltration in combination with strategic crop diversity as a combined effort to improve yield, sustainability and productivity of the landGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

Over the past 15 years Paul Overby has converted his North Dakota farm to no-till, added zone management for nutrient management, diversified his rotations and added cover crops. He shares his journey toward building healthier soils, the importance of pulse crops in his rotation, and his recent experiences with growing pea/canola intercrop. Overby had already started growing peas before he decided to make the switch to no-till, but his interest in pulses grew as he started to understand the benefits they can have on not only economics but on his soil health program as well.“We did bring the peas in as a way of labor management, planting and harvesting early. And there was a market. Dakota Dry Bean at the time did have a pea market, so that was relatively close by and easy to ship into…. And then as we got into the whole soil health side of things, then having peas in a rotation started switching for other reasons. Some of the value in having them in the rotation started showing up as we started learning about arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.” -Paul OverbyWhether it's as a primary crop, in an intercrop or as a cover crop, Overby sees pulses as an important part of his rotation and something to consider for anyone who wants to build healthier soils. Always on the hunt for new ideas to improve his farm, he observed what others were doing in intercropping. This led to a pea/canola intercrop experiment of his own last year.“Canola and brassicas are not mycorrhizal associated plants, peas are. Is there a synergy there? Can you put peas under the soil and, and help out the canola that way? So this past year, we did a trial. We had two strips in a canola field where we had peas interceded with the canola.” - Paul OverbyThis Week on Growing Pulse Crops:Meet farmer Paul Overby and hear about his journey into no till, pulse crops and intercropping techniquesUnderstand Overby's experience with cover crops and water infiltration and how that encouraged him to explore no till and pulse cropsExplore the soil health benefits Overby found beyond water infiltration from the pulse crops he has usedGrowing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.

PLEASE COMPLETE THE LISTENER SURVEY:https://bit.ly/Pulses2022 ( https://bit.ly/Pulses2022) The Land Institute's https://landinstitute.org/about-us/staff/brandon-schlautman/ (Brandon Schlautman) joins the show about the work he is doing to breed perennial pulses. Brandon is the lead scientist of the perennial legumes program at the Land Institute which is based in Salina, KS. The 40 year old non-profit ag research institute tries to find solutions that balance short term economic realities with long term conservation goals. They're known for their work in kernza, and hope to make similar progress in pulses. In this episode we talk about why developing a perennial pulse crop is worthwhile, where they started down this road, how they settled on sainfoin for the perennial pulse development, and the road ahead towards commercialization. “My program at The Land Institute focuses on perennial pulses and we're exploring various candidates and are starting to work towards something that can kind of mimic a pea or a chickpea or a lentil, but be something that has living roots in the ground year round, and gonna make it through our winters and recover and always be there. It's kind of a plant once and harvest many times type of deal.” -Brandon Schlautman So when Brandon arrived at The Land Institute, one of his early challenges was to find the most promising perennial legumes to consider for commercial development. This open ended task was the first step to narrowing it down to a plant he could work with. He eventually settled on sainfoin. One big plus about sainfoin, is that it actually is already grown in some areas as a commercial crop. But settling on sainfoin is just one of the many challenges of bringing this new crop to production. The hope is this will find a premium market, reduce soil disturbance, and thrive on minimal inputs.  “There are a couple thousand acres of production in the western part of the US. And I really like that there's a sainfoin seed industry already. We've talked with multiple growers in Montana that they grow and clean seed and sell it to other producers mostly for forage production. So we have some of this knowledge about how sainfoin can be grown and how to do the seed production. The eating it is the next step and so we're excited.” - Brandon Schautman This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Meet https://landinstitute.org/about-us/staff/brandon-schlautman/ (Brandon Schautman) the lead scientist of the perennial legumes program at the Land Institute  Explore the journey towards developing and producing a perineal pulse crop Discover the benefits of having a perennial crop and the possible opportunities sainfoin can offer producers Learn more at http://www.landinstitute.org (www.landinstitute.org) Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

Dr. Cody Creech and Dr. Carrie Eberle join the show to talk about new frontiers for pulse crops in Nebraska and Wyoming. We'll explore where and how these crops are fitting into rotations, the challenges of growing pulses in new areas, double cropping, and water use efficiency.  Cody is a dryland cropping systems specialist with the University of Nebraska Lincoln located at the panhandle center in Western Nebraska. He focuses on crops that can be grown without needing much water including soil water conservation, fertility, weed management and ways to improve overall use efficiency in Western Nebraska.  “This area of Nebraska and Wyoming has not been a target for breeding programs for these pulse crops. And so in the past 10 years, there's been a lot of improvement in these varieties, much better varieties that are much better adapted, but there's still a long ways to go in that realm. If we can keep working on that breeding side of things, I think we're gonna see continued success in pulse crops in both Nebraska and Wyoming.” - Cody Creech, Ph.D. Carrie, at the time of this interview was a cropping systems agronomist with the University of Wyoming located studying alternative crops for the region and looking at sustainable farming practices. Since the time this interview took place back in January, she has since gone on to work for the USDA ARS as an agroecologist based in Morris, Minnesota.  “I think for the Wyoming system, our farmers are mostly looking to understand if the crop is going to work for them. So there's questions just about growing in the region and when they should plant, how they harvest, what their populations look like. There's a lot of questions around weed control in those crops. And then the other big challenge for our farmers is always access to markets.” - Carrie Eberle, Ph.D. This week on Growing Pulse Crops:  Meet Dr. Cody Creech and Dr. Carrie Eberle What is prompting growers in Wyoming and Nebraska to consider pulse crops for the first times The need for genetics, research, and markets in order to expand the production of pulses in this area How pulse crops figure into the need for water use efficiency in these dry areas Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com/ (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

In this episode https://profils-profiles.science.gc.ca/en/profile/dr-tyler-wist (Dr. Tyler Wist) discusses the impact caused by grasshoppers and aphids in pulse crops. Tyler is a field crop entomologist with Agriculture and Agrifood Canada based at the Saskatoon Research and Development Center. He does research on field crop insects to find ways to better protect crops, establish economic thresholds, and identify and understand plant-insect interactions. He starts the conversation with personal insights in grasshoppers. “The real trouble is when grasshoppers get into a flowering crop. You can have a beautiful green lentil crop and they'll move in and they'll just clip the flower off….If it drops its flowers, you get no pods, then you get no yield. So the grasshoppers like to clip those flowers off, especially in lentils. So our threshold that we use up here in Canada is actually really low.” - Dr. Tyler Wist With this potential for yield loss, it is important to understand exactly where that threshold should be. Another pest that causes substantial damage in pulse crops is the aphid. Tyler says they started using the cumulative aphid density to identify thresholds and found out that the economic threshold actually comes before the economic injury level. While counting aphids might sound tedious to some, rigorous scouting is of the utmost importance during the susceptible period.  “If you're not careful with aphids at the flowering stage of your fava bean plants, you could lose your whole crop.” - Dr. Tyler Wist There are so many dynamics at play here including the biology of the insect, field conditions, overwintering, and timing. Tyler said all of this research he is involved in comes together to provide the most accurate economic thresholds possible. Along with continual monitoring, introducing beneficial insects can be an important part of an effective integrated pest management program. Tyler says https://fieldheroes.ca (Field Heroes) have a great website with resources for learning more about beneficial insects. “We're doing the science for you and those economic thresholds are there to help you save money, to know when you don't need to apply insecticides.” - Dr. Tyler Wist This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Meet https://profils-profiles.science.gc.ca/en/profile/dr-tyler-wist (Dr. Tyler Wist), a field crop entomologist with Agriculture and Agrifood Canada based at the Saskatoon Research and Development Center.  Explore the effects of grasshoppers and aphids in pulse crops Discover the economic thresholds, research and resources available to producers to better mitigate insect pests Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

In this episode we continue our conversation with Greg Busch, a farmer in the far northwest corner of North Dakota. In case you missed Greg's introduction, he farms with his wife Jessica and they've been growing pulses as part of their rotation for over thirty years. We talk about what led Greg to try intercropping, which combinations have worked for him, the benefits and challenges of this approach, and his advice for others who might want to experiment with intercropping.   “I was thinking I was going to still see the same root rot that we had seen five or 10 years before, but that didn't happen. It just seemed like the two grew together and they formed a really good synergy. In the areas that are a little more saline prone, where peas do very poorly, the canola was thicker. In the areas on hilltops, where the canola tends to run out of moisture, the peas did better. The combination far exceeded what we would've gotten with peas alone.” - Greg Busch Greg continues to adjust his protocols as needed. One priority has been to even out the maturity of the crops to maximize their harvest. He mentions there is an added cost in cleaning and separating the crops he harvests but is hopeful he may someday find a market that will accept the mix. Initially there were concerns that the moisture content in the peas would be too much for the canola while storing the two together but Greg was surprised to find that that wasn't the case.  “They store very nicely together…. We were quite concerned that we were gonna have moldy canola when we opened the bin door, but that just wasn't the case. In fact, we let that combination sit in the bin for a year and a half till we got around to cleaning it. And trust me, I was checking it because I was concerned. I didn't want to burn up a bin of combined grain, but when we cleaned it a year and a half later, it came out just as nice as when we put it in. So it's amazing that they do store that way.” - Greg Busch Greg initially incorporated intercropping to feed “the soil microbes and the different soil life that is out there.” He has also experienced an overall price reduction in production costs by reducing input needs.  “When it comes to chemical, you have these two crops competing with each other and shading out most of the other weeds that are out there. And we're seeing a reduction in weeds and a reduction in the need for additional chemical.” - Greg Busch Greg continues to make adjustments as needed based on market prices, water availability and input costs. This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Continue our conversation with Greg Busch, a farmer up in the far northwest corner of North Dakota Discover his journey into intercropping and the results he has enjoyed Explore the trials and lessons he has learned by adding intercropping to his rotation Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

Greg Busch is a farmer in the far northwest corner of North Dakota. He farms with his wife Jessica and they've been growing pulses as part of their rotation for over thirty years. Greg joins us over the next two episodes to talk about what led him to diversify his rotation to include up to ten different crops. He tells us what he has learned through these experiences and where pulses specifically fit into the mix.  “When we first started farming and specifically when we first started no-till we were a monoculture and we saw a lot of problems with that, a lot of disease. It took a lot of extra fertilizer to keep growing crops like that.….We couldn't continue to do that. We were seeing depletion in our soil, erosion and land costs were getting higher.” - Greg Busch A local extension agent introduced the Busch operation to field peas in an effort to more efficiently use his land. With that addition, they noticed not only could they grow the crop but they had reduced fertilizer inputs as early as the next year. Forgive the pun but with that the seed of crop diversity was planted. This crop diversity quickly enhanced their soil health by decreasing erosion and fertilizer needs confirmed with the Haney Soil Test. “We do have a nice residual of nitrogen when we've done our soil tests. It comes back telling us that. We do the Haney Soil Test on most of our ground every year and they give you a soil health score based on a number of different things, carbon release is one of them. And those fields always seem to show higher and we've been very pleased.” - Greg Busch Greg has noticed that there is much less tillage in his area in North Dakota. Less labor, less equipment costs, less passes in the fields and not to forget many soil health benefits have enticed many producers to pursue no-till practices. A major goal for Greg on his operation has been to increase the organic matter in his fields. His soil tests have proven that he has certainly accomplished that goal with a 3-4 times higher organic matter observed since adopting these rotations and practices.  “It just seems like the ground is a lot more forgiving. It seems to absorb heavy rainfall events better than fields with low organic matter. And it also seems to carry us through short droughts better than the ground with less organic matter. ” - Greg Busch Join us in the next episode where Greg share's specifically about his experiences with intercropping.  This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Meet Greg Busch is a farmer up in the far northwest corner of North Dakota Explore the journey he has taken from a monoculture operation to one with 8 to 10 rotations including pulse crops Discover the many soil health benefits he has observed and how he identifies them and uses them to his advantage Stay tuned for the next episode where Greg joins us again to share his experience with intercropping Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

https://www.northern-crops.com/staff (Mark Jirik) of the https://www.northern-crops.com (Northern Crops Institute) joins the show to talk about their value-added product development and their role in education of a variety of crops. Northern Crops Institute is an international meeting and learning center that unites customers, commodity traders, technical experts, and professors for discussion and education. Since 1983, over 133 nations have sent participants to NCI who are government representatives, private industry agriculture workers, or from other commodity utilization industries.  “95% of our course participants had a better understanding of the US supply chain. 99% had a better understanding of quality and 51% increased their purchase of US commodities as a result of what they learned in our courses.” - Mark Jirik To carry out their mission, NCI focuses on product development work and technical training and education. And like everyone else, they really had to adapt to the events of the past couple of years.  “The pandemic has really forced us to take a look at how we do things. So when we talk about education and technical education, historically, that has been in person training….We do some domestic facing courses as well. And obviously with a pandemic that couldn't happen. So we ended up moving a lot of that education online.” - Mark Jirik Along with extensive education services, NCI services producers by identifying best product development processes. What they do is not really research, but everything related to the development of a process to get the final product consumer-ready.This unique vantage point has given Mark a special perspective on the global agricultural industry.  “Pulses are a very versatile crop. And when you start looking at the last 10, 15, 20 years, we've been in this protein pool market and pulses have been a very important component….whether you start talking Africa or other parts of Asia, there's gonna be people that are hungry for protein and I think pulses fit a very nice niche for those people.” - Mark Jirik To continue to meet the developmental needs of the global food industry, NCI is going to be moving into a brand new facility on the North Dakota State University campus. This new facility will help NCI's work on behalf of farmers to best position themselves for the future ahead. “(We are making) sure that people know who NCI is, but more importantly, when they think of quality pulses, they think of our region…it's about increasing the bottom line for growers.” - Mark Jirik This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Meet https://www.northern-crops.com/staff (Mark Jirik), Director of the https://www.northern-crops.com (Northern Crops Institute) Explore the benefits NCI offers producers and the education services they provide to global markets to encourage US commodity consumption Learn about the new facility NCI will grow into to better facilitate their end-product development process and educational services Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

https://www.agron.iastate.edu/people/singh-arti-2/ (Dr. Arti Singh) joins us to talk about a lesser known pulse crop that is showing a lot of potential for increased commercial production in the U.S.. The mungbean, which has traditionally been grown for bean sprouts, is seeing increased demand due to its ideal properties for many plant-based proteins.  “The mungbean is a very versatile crop when it comes to uses and the quality of protein. The market is just amazing right now it's opening up in all different directions. I see there is a lot more benefit in growing this crop which is right now in a minor stage.” - Dr. Arti Singh Dr. Singh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University with more than 15 years of plant breeding experience. After obtaining her PhD degree from G.B. Pant University in India, she worked as a Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan and then at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada prior to joining Iowa State University. Her breeding program focused on developing new varieties for plant-based protein markets. Her research projects are geared towards harnessing genetic diversity for genetic gain, utilization of advanced data analytics particularly machine and deep learning for early disease and stress signatures, and genetic/genomic studies on abiotic and biotic stress resistance. “I know farmers are very innovative and those growers who are looking for a new crop or they are looking to incorporate more diversity in their crop portfolio, please try mungbeans..This industry is going to grow…However, to reach there we'll need a collective effort in industry, private and public, to bring this crop into the mainstream.” - Dr. Arti Singh This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Meet https://www.agron.iastate.edu/people/singh-arti-2/ (Dr. Arti Singh), an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agronomy at Iowa State University Explore the mungbean and the potential benefits it offers US growers Discover the research in plant breeding that Dr. Singh is involved in and the results they are producing Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

https://agbio.usask.ca/faculty-and-staff/people-pages/steve-shirtliffe.php (Dr. Steve Shirtliffe) joins us to talk about weed management in lentils. Steve is a professor in the department of plant sciences at the University of Saskatchewan. His research over the past couple of decades has focused on agronomy, with extensive work on weed management in pulses specifically. Steve and I talk about some of the challenges specific to lentils when it comes to weed management, and some of the latest research, innovation and best practices in this area. Steve and his colleagues and graduate students have had the chance to explore a lot of different possibilities for integrated weed management in pulses. One practice that has made a significant difference has been increasing seeding rates.  “We found that basically as soon as you started to increase your seeding rate, You got more crop biomass that meant there was less weed biomass that was there. So it was essentially just kind of almost a replacement thing that the more crop biomass you got there, you got that much less weed biomass.” - Dr. Steve Shirtliffe But of course increasing the seeding rate isn't the only answer for organic weed management. They've also looked at a variety of mechanical control methods, and tried to determine what would give producers the most optimal weed control. With resistance to group two herbicides, conventional farmers are benefitting from these practices as well. Although Steve admits that herbicides are still mostly preferred while available and still effective.  “If you can keep them weed-free from the five node stage to the ten node stage, if you can control weeds in that zone, you're home free, that's it. You don't have to worry about the weeds that start after that. And if you control them by the five node stage, they haven't done enough damage. So if you can keep them weed free in that period, you've done your job.” - Dr. Steve Shirtliffe This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Meet https://agbio.usask.ca/faculty-and-staff/people-pages/steve-shirtliffe.php (Dr. Steve Shirtliffe), a professor in the department of plant sciences at the University of Saskatchewan. Explore the effect of seeding rate in organic weed management especially with limited options for inputs when growing pulse crops Discover equipment and timing options that most efficiently and effectively manage weed populations Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-home/directory/steve-zwinger (Steve Zwinger) joins the show to talk about variety development, intercropping, and organic pulse production. Steve is a research specialist in agronomy at NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center. One of his primary responsibilities is research into organic production, and pulse crops are an important part of these rotations. Steve has been involved in this type of research since the 1990s, and works with a number of crops, including small grains, pulses, and some work in ancient grains as well. You're going to hear about what he's discovering in his intercropping research, the benefits he sees in organic variety development for both organic and conventional growers, and the importance of seeding rates. For those that might be new to intercropping, we've done some episodes on the topic in https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/episode/intercropping-and-organic-pulses-with-clair-keene-ph-d (episode three) of this season as well as last season https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/episode/including-pulses-in-a-rotation-to-build-soil-health-with-tony-wagner (episode six) and an https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/episode/bonus-intercropping-panel (intercropping panel bonus episode). Steve says research has shown other benefits as well, such as disease suppression in a chickpea/flax intercrop. Disease resilience could be a reason to do further research into intercropping, but it also guides Steve's work in breeding organic varieties in general. “So basically intercropping is really looked at as a practice of growing two or more crops together in the field at the same time. And basically what we're doing is we're looking for combinations of plants that will compliment each other better than when they're planted alone. This can lead to increased yield and increased quality…. I thought it seemed to make sense from a number of standpoints, maybe it might have a fit in organic. And that's why I started looking at some of that.” - Steve Zwinger He sees benefits of organic variety development not just for certified organic producers, but for conventional farmers as well. This concept of developing varieties in an organic system is an interesting one. As we think about trying to develop more resilient varieties that can prevail in less than ideal conditions, there's a real argument to be made that more varieties should be developed this way. Overall one theme that definitely runs through a lot of Steve's work is this idea of building resilience, building it into varieties, but also just building it into agricultural systems. “The variety choice is the easiest decision that can be made that's going to have the biggest impact for the farmer. So variety development is really important and I can't stress it enough. Where we really, really need to go for the future is developing varieties specifically for organic agriculture…Having those types of genetics is very important for all agriculture, of course, but particularly when your tools are limited by the amount of inputs that you can use.” - Steve Zwinger This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Meet https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-home/directory/steve-zwinger (Steve Zwinger), a research specialist in agronomy at NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center. Explore the value of intercropping and the research Steve is involved in to determine this methods potential in organic farming Discover the benefits of intercropping with peas and the research being done on adjusting seeding rates Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

If you've ever thought that direct-to-consumer farm businesses are only for those located close to urban centers, this episode will challenge that thinking. Scobey, Montana is considered the second most middle-of-nowhere town in America. That's where Terry grew up on the farm, and where he and Shauna have built their farm and business. Together they share about their journey on https://farverfarms.com/pages/the-farm (Farver Farms) from farming to building their own farmer-direct brand of lentil snacks and mixes.  “Our kids were getting ready to graduate from high school and talking about wanting to come back to the farm. As anyone in agriculture knows, there's only so many acres and only so many cows you can put on those acres or so much crop…So then the question became, how do we bring these two kids back and support two more families? And we knew that part of that was going to have to be off farm income.” - Shauna Farver The Farver's have developed and sell https://farverfarms.com/collections/lentil-crunchers-snacks (Lentil Crunchers) as well as lentil-based cooking and baking mixes. This is a great story of finding creative ways to add value to a pulse crop marketing plan. It's no easy undertaking, but it can be done. At the onset, Terry and Shauna pursued lentils as a part of the rotation to help with weed management. “They didn't really have a good chemical yet for getting wild oats, which is a grass out of wheat, which is a grass. And growing a legume which is a lentil, they had a chemical that was very inexpensive and worked really well. So you go in on your wheat ground that has bad wild oats, you grow legumes or lentils, and you spray this chemical and all your wild oats are gone. And it does a really nice job. It's a really good rotation.” - Terry Farver Like any new venture, they had to start with what they had and sort of figure it out on the fly to get established. From the initial task of production, they have expanded into direct-to-consumer lentil products. Once they started gaining some early traction it was time to increase their capacity so they could meet the demand they were creating. They also increased the number of products they offered. The Farvers estimate that in a normal year, they're still selling less than 10% of their lentil production through this food business, but it's working and it's growing. Shawna said there still is one main challenge though, that she sees for other aspiring value added farmers out there. “Infrastructure, I think is probably our biggest barrier. I know that there's a group working on some infrastructure particularly related to food production here in the Eastern side of the state. And I'm anxious to see what happens there. That might make things a little easier….it doesn't mean it can't be overcome. It just takes a little creativity sometimes.” - Shauna Farver This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Meet Terry and Shauna Farver, owners of https://farverfarms.com/ (Farver Farms) and developers of https://farverfarms.com/products/lentil-crunchers-signature-salty-flavor-8oz-package (Lentil Crunchers). Discover their journey into pulse crops and the evolution of an alternate source of income for their operation Explore the pitfalls and successes they have experienced with their lentil products Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

Chris Wiegert joins the show to talk about his unique role in the pulse crops industry. As both the chief business development officer and chief sustainability officer of https://www.hfifamily.com (Healthy Food Ingredients), Chris has a great sense of various pulse markets and the ins and outs of maximizing value from these crops. Based in Watertown, South Dakota, Chris and his team at Healthy Food Ingredients contract organic, identity preserved and other specialty pulse, small grain, and oil seed crops.  “All of our facilities are food grade, so we're primarily in that food space, but we're in the middle. We're taking that product from the farmer, we're putting it into whatever form that end-user wants it in and then we're sending it to the end user to make the final food typically.” - Chris Wiegert Chris discusses what customers are demanding when it comes to pulses including allergen free, identity preserved, and other specialty markets. We also talk about the importance of sustainability to consumers and food companies. This is an area of agriculture that is becoming more and more data-driven, and one that is important for everyone who works with pulse crops to understand.  It's really a specialty market because you're probably trying to hit a spec, whatever that is, or we're looking for zero toxins or zero heavy metals or something like that. It's a specialty market all the way through, even if you don't consider the crop a specialty crop.” - Chris Wiegert A big part of that specialty market that has really emerged in recent years is allergen free products. When you're talking about something as important and as specialized as allergen free, Chris says the entire process from farm to consumer needs to be aligned. Ensuring this type of allergen-free designation takes a lot of communication with growers. As does another type of speciality market: identity-preserved or IP. It seems incredibly tedious to know exactly where every shipment of pulses comes from. Chris says they're not necessarily tracing it back for potential problems, but for potential opportunities. Having this information provides them with the opportunity to market the farming practices to the consumers. “Our real niche is working with a customer based on what they feel is important and let's see if we can get all the way to the farm to help it.” - Chris Wiegert This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Meet Chris Wiegert, the chief business development officer and chief sustainability officer of https://www.hfifamily.com (Healthy Food Ingredients) Explore the systems and approaches HFI takes to provide the best products for their customers Discover the new marketing opportunities they are able to provide producers by identifying their farming practices, unique ingredient characteristics and sustainability efforts. Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

In this episode we have the opportunity to listen to an interview recorded for the https://waragainstweeds.libsyn.com (War Against Weeds podcast). Co-hosts https://www.agronomy.k-state.edu/people/faculty/lancaster-sarah/ (Dr. Sarah Lancaster) and https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-home/directory/joe-ikley (Dr. Joe Ikley) are both weed scientists: Sarah at Kansas State University and Joe at North Dakota State. Together they help listeners understand what it takes for farmers to fight the war against weeds. Joining Sarah and Joe on today's episode are https://www.agronomy.k-state.edu/people/faculty/haag-lucas/index.html (Dr. Lucas Haag), the Northwest Area Agronomist for Kansas State University, and https://www.agronomy.k-state.edu/people/faculty/falk-jones-jeanne/index.html (Jeanne Falk Jones), a trained weed scientist and multi-county agronomist for Kansas State University extension also based in Northwest Kansas.  In the interview, Sarah, Joe, Lucas, and Jeanne talk mostly about field peas and dry beans, including the growth of these crops in Kansas, and what's working when it comes to weed management. Stay tuned to the end of the episode for a really interesting conversation on herbicide carryover.  “Dry beans are a really good alternative especially and primarily when we're looking at them on irrigated ground…And so they're a really good rotation crop, especially when we have a lot of irrigated corn. We have water needs at a little bit of a different time and they've seemed to be a little more economically viable for those versus just solely irrigated corn.” - Jeanne Falk Jones She goes on to compare the use and benefits of dry beans rather than the more familiar soybeans. A strong thriving market, more Kansas soil tolerance and less susceptibility to fungus are some of the advantages dry beans have. Lucas adds that pulse crops have the added ability as cover crops to help solve one of the biggest obstacles for Kansas farmers, water efficiency. “Everything in this part of the world is about how do we get the biggest economic return out of water? And it doesn't matter whether it's precipitation or coming on through a pivot…We're only about 20% efficient at storing that rainfall we get during a fallow period. So what if we can take that 80% that we would lose to evaporation anyways and turn that into something marketable like field peas.” -Dr. Lucas Haag This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Meet  https://www.agronomy.k-state.edu/people/faculty/lancaster-sarah/ (Dr. Sarah Lancaster) and https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-home/directory/joe-ikley (Dr. Joe Ikley) weed scientists and co-hosts of the https://waragainstweeds.libsyn.com (War Against Weeds) podcast. Discover Kansas field peas and weed management in pulse crops with https://www.agronomy.k-state.edu/people/faculty/haag-lucas/index.html (Dr. Lucas Haag), the Northwest Area Agronomist for Kansas State University, and https://www.agronomy.k-state.edu/people/faculty/falk-jones-jeanne/index.html (Jeanne Falk Jones), a trained weed scientist and multi-county agronomist for Kansas State University extension Explore the benefits of pulse crops being added to a Kansas rotation and the specific weed management needs associated with their use Connect with all our guests on Twitter at @lancasarach, @NDSUWeeds, @LucasAHaag and @cropswithjeanne and also on their websites for the http://www.northwest.ksu.edu/agronomy (Northwest Research-Extension Center) and the http://sunflower.ksu.edu/agronomy (Sunflower District Agronomy) Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

https://profils-profiles.science.gc.ca/en/profile/hector-carcamo-ph-d (Dr. Héctor Cárcamo) is a senior research scientist at the Lethbridge Research and Development Center in Alberta which is part of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Hector's work focuses on developing integrated pest management strategies for insect pests in crops such as faba beans, field peas, canola, and some forage crops. He helps growers develop management strategies and looks for ways to reduce reliance on chemistry.  This episode focuses on two pulse crop pests in particular: lygus bugs and pea leaf weevils. We also talk more generally about biological control of insect pests including predators, parasites, and trap crops. Héctor shares that research suggests that some pests, if the populations are managed, can actually improve crop performance.  “If you have a few insect pests on the crop, you actually can stimulate the plant because we have seen a bit of a response where you have a few insects on the plant and you actually get more yield compared to a plant that has no insects at all.” - Dr. Héctor Cárcamo An overpopulation of pests will of course affect yield but also and sometimes more importantly it will affect quality and flavor. Héctor suggests that pests are meant to be managed not eliminated. A part from the benefit of the plants being stimulated, some of these insects provide a link in the food chain for other species useful in providing biodiversity.  “My advice for growers in general is you have to be informed about the entomology, you know, the insects that are there and find out as much information as you can in terms of how you maximize the design of your farm.” -Dr. Héctor Cárcamo This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Meet https://profils-profiles.science.gc.ca/en/profile/hector-carcamo-ph-d (Dr. Héctor Cárcamo), a senior research scientist at the Lethbridge Research and Development Center in Alberta which is part of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Discover the life cycle of  lygus bugs and pea leaf weevils that producers might face and different techniques used to manage their populations Learn more by contacting Dr. Carcamo on Twitter @hectorcarabido Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-home/directory/clair-keene (Dr. Clair Keene) joins us to talk about both intercropping and incorporating pulses into an organic rotation. At the time of our interview, Clair was the extension specialist in cropping systems at the Williston Research Extension Center where she supported farmers directly as well as conducted research and extension outreach with county agents and other stakeholders. Since that time her title has changed to assistant professor and agronomist at North Dakota State University, but her research interests remain in crop rotation, weed management, cover crops, soil health, organic agriculture, and perennial forages.  We're going to talk about the intercropping work Clair has participated in as well as some of her efforts to help farmers that want to transition to organic systems in the state. Clair does a great job of blending the agronomic and economic considerations in this episode.  “Farmers that have grown chickpea with flax, say that they don't see as much ascochyta in their fields. They don't need to spray as often. So they see it as a really important disease management tool. And so I wanted to do the small plot work. Let's see if we can ideally try to figure out why, why does it work?” - Dr. Clair Keene Intercropping is the act of growing two different crops that are generally planted and harvested at the same time. We've discussed it on a few different episodes in the past, including https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/episode/intercropping (episode 10) of season one with Lana Shaw, https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/episode/including-pulses-in-a-rotation-to-build-soil-health-with-tony-wagner (episode 6) of season two with Tony Wagner, and in a special https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/episode/bonus-intercropping-panel (intercropping bonus episode). Intercropping provides benefits such as disease suppression, dry down, and harvestability in some cases. As with everything, it's going to be very dependent on your situation, but Clair does see potential with the chickpea/flax and the canola/pea intercrop combinations specifically.  “If we can reduce the need for fungicide use, reduce the number of fungicide applications, that's probably the fastest way to reduce chickpea cost of production or at least that I'm aware of.” - Dr. Clair Keene This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Meet https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-home/directory/clair-keene (Dr. Clair Keene) assistant professor and agronomist at North Dakota State University Explore her research involving intercropping with pulse crops and best practices for disease management and ease of harvest Discover additional considerations with regard to organic production Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-home/directory/miranda-meehan (Dr. Miranda Meehan) is the Livestock Environmental Stewardship Specialist with North Dakota State University Extension. Her work primarily deals with grazing management and the balance between our environment and our livestock.  In this episode we talk about making rotations of livestock and pulse crops work. Specifically, we'll cover the role of pulses in full season cover crops, the considerations of incorporating cattle into crop rotations, and we'll also get into some of the biggest questions about cattle and crops like compaction, stocking rates and forage quality.  “I think the most common thing we see people do in starting with cover crops is those winter cereals because that's an easy way to get into it and it doesn't interrupt our cropping system much.… That's a really good source for grazing, getting animals out for a little earlier grazing than we would if we had to wait for pastures to be ready.” - Dr. Miranda Meehan Dr. Meehan suggests basing your cover crop selections on your overall goals for production. Different factors such as grazing, haying, and cost of seed can all affect that decision. In addition to watching costs and nutritional balance, timing is also very important. For example,  in a frost situation legumes will lose their quality, but brassicas will be able to maintain. But, she says pulses, peas in particular, can be a great fit in full season cover crop mixes.  “In terms of our pulses, I think the best fit in a grazing situation is our field or forage peas. They are very affordable. They're under 50 cents a pound. And so, if we don't have something established, you don't feel bad about it. You're not out a lot and that lowers that risk.…..It's a cool season. It starts growth nice and early. We actually have seen regrowth on it when we graze it.” -Dr. Miranda Meehan This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-home/directory/miranda-meehan (Dr. Miranda Meehan) is the Livestock Environmental Stewardship Specialist with North Dakota State University Extension. Discover the benefits pulses can offer to grazing operations Explore the different options and considerations for full season cover crops Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).

First generation farmer Nate Powell-Palm shares his inspiring story of starting his farming career at the age of 12 and adding pulses to his grain and livestock rotation.  Nate is located near Bozeman Montana and currently farms organic pulse crops, oilseeds, cereals, and livestock. Beginning on his parent's ten acres in 2004, Nate now farms around 1,000 acres spread across 12 different landlords. He also serves on the National Organic Standards Board and has been an organic inspector for about ten years where he has visited over 3,000 farms across 44 states.   In this episode, we talk about his story of getting started in farming, what his organic production system looks like, how his picture ended up on the box of Annie's Mac N Cheese, and what he has learned from others on his farming journey.  “General Mills, owner of Annie's Mac N Cheese, developed a product saying we're going to make it with one-third yellow pea flour. And they said, Nate, you want to grow some yellow peas? And I'd never grown yellow peas, but I'm like, I'll try anything. And it just ended up being this super good fit for my region.” - Nate Powell-Palm Nate has grown his operation and maintained it with an organic certification. He has found success in having a diverse production profile and that has included pulse crops. By incorporating pulses he has appreciated better soil health, improved soil fertility, better yields and an effective natural weed control.  “What I've learned through not only farming, but organic farming especially, is diversity pays. And so if you're going to be at all a producer you'll want to have more than just one stream of income.” -Nate Powell-Palm This Week on https://www.growingpulsecrops.com/ (Growing Pulse Crops): Meet Nate Powell-Palm, an organic farmer in Montana Discover the journey that led Nate to becoming a producer and organic inspector Explore what introduced pulse crops into his rotation and the value he has observed from using them https://www.organicagronomy.org/the-dirt-on-organic-farming (The Dirt on Organic Farming Podcast) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF3v-dL5-jg (Farmer Feature: Nate Powell-Palm) by the Montana Organic Association Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhammerich/ (Tim Hammerich) of the http://www.futureofag.com (Future of Agriculture Podcast).