SARE 1999 Highlights

Diversified Rotation Brings Wheat Farmer Profitable New Options

Introducing barley into his traditional wheat/fallow system was just one new crop Karl Kupers tested to reduce erosion and herbicides in his no-till system. USDA Photo

To minimize the erosion that accompanies the wheat/fallow system in the Pacific Northwest, Karl Kupers set out to find a continuous crop rotation that would work in his no-till system. Using a SARE producer grant, Kupers introduced a variety of alternative crops on his 5,600 acre Washington farm. Kupers also hoped the alternative crops - corn, millet, canola, buckwheat and dark northern spring wheat, for starters - would bring greater profits. Tests on 40-acre plots showed Kupers could both lessen erosion and reduce herbicides in his no-till system. The alternative crops proved a money-maker, too. Direct-marketing those crops brought a 10- to 12- percent increase in profits to the farm in just two years. Kupers has become an avid spokesperson on the benefits of diversifying and direct-marketing. "Your mental management is on a straight line up," he says. "When you have one crop and markets are set, there's not a lot to do other than till your soil." [For more information about this Western Region project, go to www.sare.org/projects/ and search for FW96-041.]

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