Delta Grain Crops

Cereal grains like oats, winter wheat, spring wheat, and barley are grown on farms in Delta, British Columbia. Grains can play an important role in Fraser delta crop rotations. Many Delta farmers primarily grow vegetables like potato, beans, peas, corn, rutabagas, and cabbage. Vegetable production requires extensive tillage, speeding the breakdown of organic matter in the soil. Years of vegetable production can result in soils deficient in organic matter, causing reduced water holding capacity, inefficient retention of nutrients, and lower soil porosity. All forms of grass crops (including pastures, hay fields, cereal grains, cereal cover crops, and grassland set-asides) can replenish soil organic matter, to varying degrees. In general, roots aerate soils and break-up compaction caused by machinery. The foliage can be a good source of organic matter, especially when the grass crop is tilled in (pasture grasses have the added benefit of feeding livestock, which manure the ground as they feed, thereby speeding the integration of plant nutrients into the soil)

It appears that grains do a good job of improving soil fertility. The growing plant breaks up compaction and creates habitat for micro and macro soil organisms (I’ve found 2 cm long centipedes clinging to barley roots). The stalk and roots are left on the field after harvest; the stalks (if not bailed for straw) can provide good soil cover and the both root and stalk can be incorporated to increase soil organic matter. Additionally, a lot of spilt seed tends to germinate after harvest, forming a thick, low standing cover crop for winter. This has added benefits for soil fertility by providing a lot of biomass to be used as a green manure. Waterfowl like snow geese, American wigeon, northern pintail, and mallards can feed on the spilt grain, or the foliage that has germinated.