He Says Multiple Crops Multiply Profits

He Says Multiple Crops Multiply Profits CROPS New Techniques Brian Brhel grows multiple crops in the same field and he says it pays off In past years he has fall-planted vetch and triticale in the same field harvesting the seed the following year This past spring he overseeded with peas and some oats “The winter had been hard on the vetch and triticale and I wanted to thicken up the stand ” explains Brhel who harvests seed for his own use in cover crops and to sell to others Initially Brhel used a seed cleaner on his homegrown seed He switched to a spiral separator that used the falling grain’s centrifugal force to separate the seeds This summer he invested in an ISM Impeller Separator Machine ordered through Friendly Meadows Millersburg Ohio www graincleanersoh com; ph 330 473-7647 The Ukrainian-built ISM allows him to clean and separate grains based on weight and shape It also gives him the potential to do custom seed cleaning for neighbors “I had fractions that were almost entirely triticale others that were almost entirely vetch and others that were a combination ” says Brhel “The other crops go into still another fraction to be run through again or used in a mixed cover crop “Some of my customers want the vetch/triticale combination ” he says “With the ISM I can visually tailor the mix to the customer’s needs and then send it off to be tested “You have to give up a little such as when the hairy vetch was ready but the oats were not quite dry ” he says “There was some shattering of the vetch As I planned to reseed with vetch anyway I won’t need as heavy a rate ” While the yields of the individual species weren’t as high as if they were planted alone Brhel is confident the end results are superior As with mixed species cover crops the impact on soil health is multiplied with poly-cropping “My goal is to reduce the use of commercial fertilizer while adding value through the sale of harvested seed in the crop rotation ” says Brhel “Meanwhile the poly-crop and rotations are building soil health ” This year’s poly-crop field was seeded to vetch this summer and will be harvested in 2021 for seed He will replant it to a cover crop with as many as a dozen species “I may graze it in late summer and fall ” he says “Then I will plant it to corn in 2022 It is really exciting to see what can be done with the combination of crops and livestock If I don’t need to buy commercial fertilizer I don’t have to make a 200-bushel corn crop to be profitable ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Brian Brhel 1432 W Old Cheney Rd Denton Neb 68339 ph 402 641-8915; brianbrhel@gmail com

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