It’s no secret that Manitoba farmers have embraced soybeans — in just 10 years the crop has gone from an experiment to topping 800,000 acres in 2012. Once only suited to the rich soil and hot days of the Red River Valley, soybeans are now grown as far north as Arborg, east to Beausejour and west to nearly the Saskatchewan border. Saskatchewan farmers are picking up on the trend, too. Why? Soybeans are easy to grow, fix their own N, have ready markets and seem to do well in dry and wet years.
As new, shorter-season varieties are released the number of soybean acres are set to explode. Estimates of over a million acres have been tossed around, which brings up a few questions: is there enough seed for 1 million acres? Are we pushing the limits on the growing area? Are soybeans pushing other crop types out of rotation entirely? Mike Reimer, acting executive director of the Manitoba Pulse Growers Association, sat down with Lyndsey Smith in this episode of the RealAg Roundtable to address exactly those questions.
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