 Hello, I'm Justin Jacobs with the Williston Research Extension Center. I'm the irrigation research specialist station down at Nessan Valley, about 27 miles to the east of the city center of Williston. So since about 2018, I started getting into a project with intercropping where we're looking at combining two crops together with the sole purpose of harvesting them at the same time and then separating them post-harvest to give the farmer an additional source of yield and income off of one field. In 2018, we started looking at two different crop combinations, field pea and canola and chickpea and flax. In 2018, we were looking at mixed versus alternating rows when you combine the crops together. We found that alternating rows tended to out yield and outperform the mixed rows. So in 2019, we went to a trial where it was solely focused on alternating row combinations. We had six ratios of field pea and canola and nine ratios of chickpea and flax together and in 2019, based off of our 2018 data, we decided to incorporate some additional practices to make the system a little more feasible. When it comes to intercropping, a farmer should have a strategy and a goal in mind. Commonly in field pea and canola, field peas have a tendency to lodge, so canola is added to the system to create a natural trellis. So we've been messing around with some different planting ratios to see which one works best for reducing lodging and in 2019 and 2018, we found that when canola was added to a field pea system, lodging was reduced in all ratios. For chickpea and flax, the common strategy there is to reduce ascokita blight. It's been seen by some farmers in the area, both in northwest North Dakota and in Canada, that when chickpeas are thrown in with flax, the amount of ascokita blight seen within a field is significantly reduced. Carrington was able to see a 50% reduction in ascokita incidents when flax was thrown into the mix. Additionally, when fungicide was included with a chickpea and flax system, there was a 30 to 50% reduction, further reduction. So throwing flax into the system appears to have some sort of benefit for disease reduction. Additionally, the flax benefited significantly when combined with chickpeas. Another strategy or another goal to have in mind when intercropping is figure out your primary crop. Find which crop you want to have the most of at the end of the season and which one you think you can profit the best off of and cater your practices towards that particular crop. Now when it comes to field pea canola system, canola is the more profitable crop. So it seems to favor to grow more for the canola. So one of the things that we've been looking at is the addition of fertilizer to a field pea canola system. We've done a full rate which would be the recommended 120 pounds of N for canola. We've also done a half rate. So 60 pounds of N and a zero rate where we've left all nitrogen out of the system besides the residual soil nitrogen. As was expected, when nitrogen was added to the system, the field peas were negatively affected yield wise. However, the canola was positively affected. However, when you look at the economic analysis at the end of the year, all of the intercropped ratios had a positive return of some sort while the monocropped plots had a negative return. So there is some benefit to going towards a intercrop system economically. It appears that was last year. We'll have to see how this year plays out economically as that changes. But it's important to have in mind where you want to go, what you want to see as your primary crop, and how you're going to manage for that crop specifically. In our system, we've gone with a clear field canola so that we can spray the combination with a masamax. We've done a reduced rate of a masamax and have seen very little damage on the field peas. Traditionally, when peas are sprayed with a masamax, basagran is added to the system to safeen the chemical so that it doesn't hurt the peas. However, when you're combining peas and canola, the basagran would kill the canola so you have to leave that out and just go with a reduced rate of a masamax. Section three, clethodym controls the grass weeds very well. So weed control should be a thought in the mind of a producer, but there are ways of going around it. Another interest of mine in the last few years has been how can we take plot research and show that it can be done on a full-size scale. So this this year we actually took a 1590 John Deere drill and planted a couple of demonstration strips where we did mixed rows of peas and canola together because sometimes with the equipment you have it might be easier to do a mixed row versus an alternating row. We did a mixed row side by side with an alternating row about 100 feet long by a full drill's width so we'll be able to take some interesting observations off of that. We also used some additional crops and kind of created a couple other mixes to see what we might notice. We did a pinto beans and flax together, peas and flax together as just kind of a see what happens demonstration and then we also did fava beans and canola and round-up ready soybeans and round-up ready canola together. So I'll be excited to share what the results are from from there and what some of the observations. Similarly at home I farm about 30 miles northeast of Williston near Ray, North Dakota and at home I've gone to intercropping peas and canola using a a 15-foot air drill made by John Deere 775 where we combine and was able to successfully combine peas and canola and do grow and alternating rows. So this can be done on a larger scale it's just a matter of demonstrating it and showing how it can be done from the practice of planting it to harvest and then to separation at the end. I look forward to being able to show you some videos of how all of that is accomplished in the future.