At times it is natural for columnists on a particular topic to feed off one another.
In my case, I’ve been writing a weekly opinion on agriculture for more than a quarter of a century, much the same time period that Kevin Hursh has done much the same thing. So when the most recent edition of Farming For Tomorrow crossed my desk, I quickly gravitated to a piece by Hursh on “Minor acreage crops.”
Anytime something new comes along we journalists gravitate to it for a story because it is something we haven’t covered before, and it will be new to our readers as well.
Minor crops fit into that area perfectly. Some new crops have come along and managed to maintain a foothold in terms of farmer acres; hemp, coriander, camellia and quinoa come to mind. Other crops came and disappeared in a matter of a few seasons; pinto beans and lupins come to mind.
A few others never really got past the promotion stage, seabuckthorn and borage as examples.
The last number of years the eyes of farmers have not had to fall upon new and minor crops so much. Commodity prices have been generally positive for mainstay crops such as canola and wheat.
But we know that will not always be the case, so minor crops are an option, if Canada can maintain enough annual acres to stay in the game in terms of supplying specific crops. But there are, of course, finite acres to plant on the Canadian Prairies, and that means a somewhat competitive atmosphere in terms of what crops might sustain acres and what might fall by the wayside.
We know Canada will also plant wheat, or at least it probably should, because farmers here do an outstanding job of producing high quality wheat.
But we know too, as Hursh hit on, the Canola Council of Canada wants to see production increase.
New varieties have certainly broadened the area where canola can be grown through the last decade.
Of course, it has been varietal development which has put soybeans and corn into the discussion for Canadian Prairie acres too.
Such developments mean pressure for all the minor crops.
Of course the future might change things rather dramatically.
Last week I wrote about canary seed gaining access to the human consumption market. That changes the dynamic for that crop in a major way.
What that situation should remind the ag sector is that market needs can change rather quickly, and as Hursh noted, there are numerous things on the horizon which can change production potential, including climate change, new uses for existing crops (again think the canary seed situation), and of course plant breeding which may add new traits to old crops, as well as developing new varieties making crops viable in new areas.
The latter is perhaps the most intriguing. If a crop was suddenly to become more drought tolerant, or able to grow in higher saline soils, there would be much broader interest in terms of seeding the crop.
So while farmers will make decisions based on rotations, expectations of returns, and other factors, the influences on those decisions will change over time as well.
