Third Crops: Can They Pay?

Field Work

Society & Culture, Documentary

5.0 • 652 Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2019

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

We know that corn and soybeans are the most economically viable crops we have on farms, at least in the Midwest, and that’s why they dominate the ag systems here. But there are efforts underway to add in a third crop. Third crops can be helpful for breaking up weed cycles, fixing more carbon and nitrogen in the soil, and possibly even increasing yields. Zach and Mitchell talk with farmer Darin Voigt along with Nick Jordan, a professor of agricultural ecology at the University of Minnesota, about how to integrate third crops and what the roadblocks may be to doing so.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey guys, Zach here, and I wanted to let you guys know that field work is brought to you in part by General Mills.
0:08.0	General Mills is partnering with farmers and suppliers to advance regenerative ag practices on a million acres of farmland by 2030. Hey everyone.
0:28.6	Welcome back to the Fieldwork Podcast.
0:30.6	My name is Mitchell Hora.
0:31.6	And I am Zach Johnson.
0:32.6	This is the Field Work Podcast where we talk about sustainable
0:35.6	egg practices, what's working, what's not
0:38.2	working. I think that's what we're doing here. We also kind of go off the cuff. We do pen drops
0:42.9	when we say something really cool. That's a new thing that we're going to introduce into this
0:47.3	episode here and talk about a lot of new stuff. So today's episode we're going to talk about third
0:52.8	crops. And Zach, you and I are in
0:55.5	hardcore corn and soybean territory. When people talk about other crops, we talk about different
1:01.6	maturity corn. And that is about it. Maybe my little sweet corn patch, that is like a couple
1:09.1	hundred feet. If your sweet corn patch is like mine, it's the one that you really grow for the raccoons
1:13.9	to come out and eat, so you don't really get any yourself.
1:17.1	But yeah, we're sitting here in the upper Midwest, corn and soybean country.
1:21.6	There isn't a lot of other markets, a lot of other places to go with other crops.
1:26.1	Of course, we see a little bit of
1:28.0	it trying to kind of come across now, and we're going to talk about some of that, but we do
1:31.5	see some of the other options coming along, especially when it comes to cover crops and guys
1:35.7	trying to make that work. Hemp has been a big topic now that it is federally and state legal
1:40.9	here in Minnesota. Not Iowa quite yet. Not Iowa quite yet.
	...

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