Getting annual medics to the market: The good news and the bad news.
D. Oien
Timeless Seeds, Conrad, MT
Scientific research and on-farm experiences indicate that the use of annual medics is adaptable to the Northern Great Plains of North America. From a marketing standpoint, however, attempts to introduce annual medics under a variation of the classic Australian ley farming system have been a near failure. Identifying the barriers to acceptability in the marketplace may help direct future research in ways that will increase the adoption of medic farming systems by farmers.
Ten years of marketing medics have allowed the identification of the following barriers:
I. Paradigm Barriers.
Commonly held assumptions by Northern Plains cereal grain farmers that hinder the consideration of medics as a viable component in their farming system include:
A. Any broad leaf specie that regenerates is considered a weed by definition.
B. Control of natural processes outweighs the potential benefits of the natural processes themselves.
C. Soil moisture conservation results only from eliminating all plant growth during fallow periods.
D. Companion cropping or inter cropping is not economically viable under any circumstances.
E. Spring seeding season ends on a specific date (which varies by region), and a late seeding of annual medics or other cover crop would be doomed to failure.
II. Institutional Barriers.
Farmers who do desire to include annual medics in their farming systems face barriers from the institutions on which they depend. These constraints include:
A. In the past, federal farm programs punished any deviation from prescribed cropping patterns.
B. Crop insurance carriers reduce coverage for continuous cropping systems, and generally consider cover crops as continuous crops.
C. Commercial lenders are reluctant to finance innovative farming systems.
D. As a convenient and legitimate information source, Agricultural Extension Service often lags behind both land grant, private, and on-farm research.
III. Agronomic Barriers.
Many production and management questions remain unanswered for farmers.
The following areas deserve attention by the research community:
A. Variety development to account for agroclimatic zones.
B. More reliable stand establishment techniques.
C. Mechanical seed harvest techniques.
D. Allelopathic and other weed suppressing characteristics both during the medic years and for the ensuing crop.
E. Cultural, mechanical, grazing, and chemical pest management strategies for medic systems.
F. Use of annual medics in organic farming systems and direct seed/no till systems.
Summary.
Medics clearly have a place in the farming systems of the Northern Great Plains of North America. The wide scale adoption of such systems face numerous barriers, which need to be addressed by both the research community and the seed industry.