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Economics of Crop Diversification and Soil Tillage Opportunities in the Canadian Prairies
Author(s) -
Zentner Robert P.,
Wall David D.,
Nagy Cecil N.,
Smith Elwin G.,
Young Doug L.,
Miller Perry R.,
Campbell Con A.,
McConkey Brian G.,
Brandt Stewart A.,
Lafond Guy P.,
Johnston Adrian M.,
Derksen Doug A.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj2002.2160
Subject(s) - tillage , monoculture , crop rotation , cropping , no till farming , agronomy , environmental science , minimum tillage , agroforestry , strip till , conventional tillage , cropping system , soil retrogression and degradation , summer fallow , soil conservation , agriculture , geography , crop , soil water , soil fertility , biology , soil science , archaeology
Annual crop production in the Canadian prairies is undergoing significant change. Traditional monoculture cereal cropping systems, which rely on frequent summer‐fallowing and use of mechanical tillage, are being replaced by extended and diversified crop rotations together with the use of conservation tillage (minimum and zero‐tillage) practices. This paper reviews the findings of western Canadian empirical studies that have examined the economic forces behind these land use and soil tillage changes. The evidence suggests that including oilseed and pulse crops in the rotation with cereal grains contributes to higher and more stable net farm income in most soil–climatic regions, despite a requirement for increased expenditures on purchased inputs. In the very dry Brown soil zone and drier regions of the Dark Brown soil zone where the production risk with stubble cropping is high, the elimination of summer fallow from the cropping system may not be economically feasible under present and near‐future economic conditions. The use of conservation tillage practices in the management of mixed cropping systems is highly profitable in the more moist Black and Gray soil zones (compared with conventional mechanical tillage methods) because of significant yield advantages and substantial resource savings that can be obtained by substituting herbicides for the large amount of tillage that is normally used. However, in the Brown soil zone and parts of the Dark Brown soil zone, the short‐term economic benefits of using conservation tillage practices are more marginal and often less profitable than comparable conventional tillage practices.