 Welcome to the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center's organic tour. We are standing on the organic ground. This is one of two fields we have. And this field has been certified organic since 2007, excuse me, 2016. Anyway, we're standing in front of the Wheat Flaks Intercrop Trial, and that's what I want to talk to you about today. Now intercropping has become very popular in most recent years, in particular the last few. It's not a new concept, although intercropping has been done for years, it's being done all around the world, particularly in many nations where farmers are not using a lot of inputs. And so, in particular, also Wheat Flaks intercropping, there's information that goes back to the 20s that show farmers in the Dakotas were doing this. So it's not new. We're not reinventing the wheel, but we're learning how to use new technology and new tricks to make it better. Intercropping Wheat Flaks, ironically, is reported in our annual report in 1991, was looked at on this research center under conventional plot ground from 1989 to 1991 by Dr. Pat Carr. This data showed in the early years, in the first couple years we looked at varying the rates of, excuse me, varying the roll arrangements and how it was seeded, broadcasts and stuff. Basically the data showed that through economic analysis and other factors that it didn't pay and there was no yield advantage. Then a couple years later, from 1990 to 1991, it was remodified and it was looked at it from the standpoint of varying the seeding rates, still not concise of research, although it did show that in 1990 the flax yielded two bushels to the acre and in 1991 we were getting seven bushels to the acre. Now that's significant with showing a very little drop in yield on the wheat. Let's go to 2020. We're revisiting it again, but we're going into using it under organic production. Now organic flax is one of the crops that we have found in our research out here that competes very poorly when we compare it to conventional plot yields. Many of the other crops such as wheat and oats and barley, the yields are fairly comparable, particularly under years that are not racehorse years, when conditions are not as good. That is one thing that's been proven when conditions are not as good, when we don't have perfect growing conditions, organic will be much more comparable to conventional plot yields. Our data shows us that here from this research center. So why are we looking at that? We're revisiting on the organic loan because organic flax fetches a very high premium for the organic farmer, sometimes up to $30 per bushel. But again, as I mentioned, we don't get good yields under our flax. And so with that, I thought, let's look at it with wheat and have another crop there. Maybe the weeds will be better. So this is where we're at now. We had a very simple design this year. We have two varieties in here, FBC Dillon, a variety that was developed by the Farm Breeder Club from Northern Plain Sustainable Ag Society, developed and released. That was developed under organic management conditions. And Glen Wheat, an NDSU variety, that has been our high quality wheat for a number of years. Now it's been replaced by NPA VitPro as terms of the quality check. But still, many organic farmers are planting this variety. Then we went to Omega Flax, which is our yellow flax, which again, organic farmers and conventional, of course, too, are growing and getting a premium from it, particularly in the organic market. That is a variety that organic farmers like to grow. And then our newest release, ND Hammond, named after Dr. Jim Hammond, our previous flax breeder. Thank you, Jim, for all your hard work. So we have the soul of each one of these. The wheat is seeded at, as the seeding rate I use on these plots, at 1.6 million pure live seed per acre, which it comes to about 110 to 120 pounds, or two bushels. Our flax here is seeded at 60 pounds to the acre, which is the rate we use in organic production. Organic production tends to use higher seeding rates than conventional. It doesn't mean that conventional farming doesn't, but we tend to use higher seeding rates because we need more plants for the competition, since we're not using synthetic herbicides to control our weeds. We're using crop rotation, management, and factors like that to control our weeds. Now the other treatments we have here, we took, and again, this is FBC Dillon wheat on these two, and we used FBC Dillon wheat at two-thirds of the rate, and that flax at two-thirds of the rate. So that means we're at a million plants per acre on the Dillon, and the flax is at 43 pounds per acre. Ironically, that's about the same rates when I look in the annual report. They used the first year, they used 65 pounds to the acre, and 32 pounds per acre, very, very close. And now, again, we have the same treatment with Glen, again, with the lower rates, two-thirds rates of each one of the crops. Specifically, after this year, we'll fine-tune it and then start varying rates and stuff like that, but this is just our first proof of concept year. Now ironically, this year, as we look in this plot here with the Dillon wheat and the flax, you can hardly see the wheat. The flax is going to far outfavor, so the results are not going to be the same. This can be, this is due partially to the drought, the very dry conditions we're in, but it can also be to confound the issue, it can be our previous cover crop here. Now we couldn't terminate the cover crop because it was a rye mixture with rye turnips, and clover, and radishes. That was the cover crop, because we were so wet last fall with the big rainfall and we could not terminate the crop, so it had to be terminated this spring. That can be confounding the issue with the wheat, the cereal crop, and that could be why the flax looks so great. If you take a shot and look at this flax, this is a plot that has not been herald, we can't herald flax anyway, and it has not been hand-weeded or anything. I think any organic farmer would love to have a field like this. This goes against everything I told you, where I can't, weeds all compete me. But it's going to be a very exciting year to see what happens here, and, you know, again, not a new concept that's been done forever, we're just revisiting it and trying to find new tools and new varieties how to do this. And ironically, I want to read just a quick verb from the report that Dr. Pat Carr had in 1991 annual report. His closing statement, he says, since it remains unclear how wheat flax intercrops respond to plant population changes, additional research is planned to determine how intercrop performance is influenced by lower seeding rates. Well, Dr. Pat Carr, you're a visionary just like Dr. John Gardner was, and so we're going to revisit this and see what happens. We're going to find out ways that we can make it better for your farm so that you can get good returns on your flax and have cleaner flax and get better profit. That's what we're about here at the Research Earth. Thank you very much.