Crops
A wide variety
of crops are grown throughout Alberta, influenced largely by market conditions
and regional growing conditions, such as heat, moisture and number of frost-free
days. The four major crop categories are cereals, oilseeds, specialty crops and
forages. Cereal crops include spring- and fall-seeded wheat, malt and feed
barley, oats, rye, durum, and triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye). The
principal oilseed crops in Alberta are canola and flax. Specialty crops include
field peas, mustard, lentils, dry bean, fava bean, safflower, sunflower, canary
seed, herbs and spices, sugar beets, potatoes, corn and other vegetables
grown for commercial production. Forage crops include alfalfa, brome grass,
timothy, wheatgrasses, clover and wildryes. The most important crop types in
Alberta, based on production values and sales, are wheat, barley, canola and
tame hay.
Moisture is the
limiting factor to crop growth in the warmer, drier brown and dark brown soil
zones of southern Alberta. Irrigation is one of the primary methods of improving
agricultural productivity and diversifying the range of crops grown in this
region. Irrigated crops account for about 12 percent of Alberta's agricultural
production, even though irrigated land constitutes only 4.5 percent of the total
cultivated area. Irrigation greatly increases yields over what would be expected
without additional moisture. Irrigation also enables the growing of crops, such
as sugar beets and soft spring wheat, which could not survive on the amount of
moisture available on dry farmlands in Alberta.
Department of the Environment. State of the Environment Report, Terrestrial Ecosystems. Edmonton: n.p., 2001. With permission from Alberta Environment.
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