Robert Ferebee, Halliday, ND

Peas, lentils, and garbonzo beans are necessary in a rotation to help FINISH the cycle. Pulse crops are so important on our farm that we consider it the PAID summer fallow year.

As we enter into the years where nitrogen price make most of the cereal crops nearly unprofitable, we need a way to increase the yields, with fewer direct costs, on the cereals on the necessary years to grow them. With Ammonia prices rumored to be near $400/ton and Urea near the $300/ton this coming year we all need to let our crops do the fertility work for us.

After pulse crops we have seen a consistent 20 – 40 percent increase in our cereal crop production. The most evident is in the dryer years, the crop after peas and lentils, which are low water users and come off early. The highest value crop, that year, are what we try to plant following the pulse crops. The one that we have been using the last couple of years was barley, simply because of the favorable contract price. Looking into this coming year corn may be the crop of choice simply because of the quicker soil warm-up and the CBOT December 2004 futures are telling us that corn may be the most valuable crop this season. Trying to find the reason why pulse crops are so beneficial to the following crop has puzzled me for a long time. Finally, a soil scientist told me that pulse crops and corn react with such a wide array of soil microbes. This is why we most likely see the huge benefit of pulses. According to Dr. Cynthia Grant, root systems usually takes up nutrients one-fourth of an inch away while after pulse crops the roots will utilize nutrients up to two inches away. This is probably part of the reason that pulses are so important.

Here in the states we finally have a solid floor under price with a fair loan rate. With the processing industry continuing to develop we are seeing that we don’t need to haul our product as far to receive a decent market price for them. The value of our pulse crop is continuing to rise as we see soybeans rise in price and we are enabling our exporters to develop markets in other countries. Now is probably the time when you can sell your neighbor with cattle or hogs some protein. They won’t have to pay the high freight rates to get their protein source. We are close to a having a critical mass that is necessary to enter into some of the markets that we need access to.

If you haven’t used pulse crops, now is the time to try them. If you have them in your rotation, you know how beneficial they are and you can help your neighbors get some nitrogen for FREE.