Callum Morrison wants to hear from farmers whether they grow cover crops or not
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
A PhD student from the University of Manitoba (U of M) is looking for different kinds of Canadian farmers to participate in a cover crop study.
Callum Morrison wants to collect as much detailed information as he can about cover crops in Canada.
“The idea is to see how many farmers grow cover crops and what kind of cover crops they grow,” he told Farms.com. “I’d like to know how the farmers are planting them and terminating them, what benefits they’ve seen from the cover crop and how long it took them to see these benefits.”
Morrison also wants to hear from producers who don’t grow cover crops and the reasons behind those decisions.
And the surveys are open to any kind of farmer with any size of operation.
Once Morrison has collected and analyze the data, he plans on publishing a general report available to farmers.
He will also use the information as part of his studies.
“For my thesis I’ll be going into much greater detail comparing the groups of farmers who grow cover crops and those who do not,” he said.
Farmers from Ontario and the Prairies are asked to take separate surveys.
As of Monday, 409 Ontario producers, representing almost every county, has participated in the study.
“The only ones we haven’t heard from are Haliburton and Muskoka,” Morrison said.
Of the 409 respondents, 310 reported growing a cover crop. The data showed oats are the most popular cover crop among these farmers.
“We’re thinking of doing follow-up interviews to ask farmers why they chose the cover crops they did,” Morrison said.
A total of 356 Prairie farmers have taken part in Morrison’s survey as of Monday. Of those, 206 reported growing a cover crop, he said.
Ontario growers who want to participate in Morrison’s work can do so here.
Prairie farmers can follow this link to take Morrison’s survey.