Pulse crops have taken our region by storm and rightfully so. Be it chickpeas, lentils, or dry peas, these plants don’t like hot, humid weather. That works for the Northern Plains.
Jim Vandecoevering is a Technical Services Representative with BASF and explained in a recent Northern Ag Network interview that we aren’t alone. Pulse crops are taking the world by storm on the demand side as a growing middle class demands more sources of protein.
Not only have the pulses benefited from soybean technology, Vandecoevering says that your fields can as well. Anytime that you can increase the diversity of the crops that you raise, Vandecoevering says, you see big benefits:
- Increased nitrogen in the soil from the nodulation that occurs in some of these crops
- Breaking up of the disease cycle
- Greater diversity of herbicide availability, i.e. less of a potential for resistance issues
Questions about pulse crops? More information is available from the Northern Pulse Growers Association.
© Northern Ag Network 2014
Haylie Shipp
