Organic Crop Production Fields Days: University of Manitoba

The Natural Systems Agriculture research group has planned three field tours this summer. Join us July 16th and 17th to see our organic crop and soil management research. All are welcome!

July 16th, Carman Research Station 6:30-8:30pm

Directions: 1.8 km west of the junction of Hwy 3 and 13 at Carman. Big U of M sign – can’t miss it.

• Mechanical weed control in cereals, dry edible beans and green manures
• Intercropping. Cereals and oilseeds intercropped with pulses
• Warm- season cover crops and cover crop mixtures for grazing
• Farmer-bred wheat and oat, and check variety performance
• Organic soybean variety evaluation (with Univ of Guelph)
• New – Visit our “New generation no-till study” (with Ag Canada, Swift Current)

July 17th, Glenlea Manitoba 1:00-3:30pm

Directions: Turn west off Hwy 75 at “Research Station Road” 20 km south of Winnipeg. Then follow signs.

• Visit and learn from the oldest organic crop production plots in Canada (28 years).
  • Rehabilitating “run down” organic systems with a short-term forage phase
  • Manure management in organic production
  • Overcoming soil N deficiencies in organic production through use of better performing green manure cover crops
  • The Soil Health Institute “Glenlea soil health” study – check the SHI newsletter 
• Organic soybean variety evaluation (with Univ of Guelph)
• Organic oat variety evaluation (with Ag Canada, Brandon)

July 17th, Libau, Manitoba 6:30-8:30pm

Directions: 1 km east of highway 59 on Road 84N (40km north of Winnipeg). Site is on the north side of the road.

• Recycling nutrients from cities back to the land for sustainable organic production
  • Nutrients include anaerobically digested municipal food waste; insect processed food waste; and struvite (nutrients extracted from municipal waste water).
  • Test crops include wheat, alfalfa, flax, barley, potato, onion and sweet corn.
• Transitioning low productivity forage land to high productivity organic grain production
• Organic wheat and oat variety tests (with Ag Canada Brandon)