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Intercropping flax

14K views 25 replies 15 participants last post by  schraefel 
#1 ·
Thinking about intercropping flax with maybe lupins or peas etc. Have had trouble in the past with straight harvest. Does it thrash differently when intercropped? My theory is it may not be as wrappy? Thanks
 
#2 ·
Combine settings wont jive!

In my area flax needs the living daylights beat out of it to get the seed out of the bolls. Whereas pulse crops like peas are very sensitive to aggressive combine settings.

We had a farm of Navy beans get infested with volunteer flax this past season. We swathed it and combined it on the edge of what was excepted for Navy Beans.... A-lot of Navy beans were split but were still tossing 20% of the flax out the back of combine. Just couldnt get things to go right.

I would think flax and canola would be safer.
 
#5 ·
No you would grind the **** out of the peas to try to thrash the flax unless you could just run the swath through to get the peas thrashed first then screw the concaves up tight to get the flax but any time i put thrashed flax straw through it sounds like putting rocks through .
 
#7 ·
If I was going to intercrop flax I would go with either oats or wheat, in my area I would have to go for a long maturity cereal crop and shortest possible flax. I have got an oat that would probably make it with the a variety of flax.

Even if chic peas worked with flax I would be super nervous, to get a good sample I run my rotor at only around 450 rpm in chic peas and run large wire concaves. Flax is on the opposite end of the spectrum for me with mashed closed small wire concaves and the rotor tacked out. Not saying it won't work but not my cup of tea.

Keep thinking at it! Something will just hit ya that you will be comfortable trying and then go for it, ignore what everyone tells ya!

If you want to try a legume with flax more power to ya and I hope you succeed to tell me I was all wrong!
 
#8 ·
Flax sucks enough on it's own. I couldn't imagine trying to mix it with something else and hoping for great results. Then try cleaning it out after all is said and done......... Thanks a lot, you gave me a headache just thinking about all this!
 
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#10 ·
If seeding in one pass, not sure how you would deal with seed depth. They would be on opposite ends of each other. Chickpeas are a tough seed at harvest, we have run our rotors at almost full speed in the past thrashing them and no damage. Like I said we had an experience years back by accident and it worked fine. Cleaned the volunteer flax out which was easy.
We have had 25% of our farm to chickpeas for 20 years.
 
#16 ·
Flax cant be inter-cropped because it cant compete with anything. Cereals will take over the field unless you seed them at an extremely low rate. Makes no sense to inter-crop something essentially worthless like wheat with a high value crop like flax. Might as well just go for the extra few bushels of flax yield.
 
#22 ·
I would agree in conventional crops. In organic production the flax is going to suffer either way. Either competition from weeds or from the wheat. At least $18 wheat is better than $0 weeds. The wheat is seeded at a lower rate than the flax giving the flax the bulk of the ground. The wheat is intended to fill in the gaps to hold the weeds back. If you have variable soils you will end up with most of the field a fairly even mix then some areas may be straight flax or straight wheat depending on ground, moisture, etc.
 
#17 ·
There is one guy I follow on Twitter in southern Sask. that intercrops desi chickpeas and flax. He does them on alternating rows. The flax isolates the chickpeas, keeping them from touching and spreading disease. He usually only does 1 fungicide application vs 3 or more in a mono crop. Chickpeas also provide N for the flax.
 
#18 ·
I think the intercrop would definatly help the wrapping that can occur with flax. Like everyone has said threshing the flax out of the balls without destroying the other crop will be the tricky part. If a guy had some cleaning equipment the balls could be run through a combine again to try rethresh them possibly. If you have a Lexion rotor combine we have figured out how to modify it so wrapping is not a big issue. There is a thread in the Lexion section on this.
 
#24 · (Edited)
The only intercropping I have heard that is successful was clearfield canola in peas or even sometimes lentils. Then the timing and weed control line up perfectly and very easy to combine and clean out later.

Just about everything else the harvests will be a month apart or require covering the same ground twice.

In 2010 we had an accidental intercrop of lentils and canola. Canola ran about 10 bu, lentils around 22-25. Very nice profit off that little parcel.
 
#25 ·
Wow! Forgot to check back on this. Thanks for all the posts some great info here. Lupins take a bit of thrashing in our area but maybe it wouldn't be enough for the flax. Will have to give it more thought. We run a cts and a sts jd and I'm loathed to put straight flax through either again. Thanks again
 
#26 ·
Flax and wheat is a great intercrop. We have done it lots. Broadleaf and a cereal compliment each other very well. Very few weeds. Low rate wheat and full rate flax will give you about 50/50 yield and together will value higher than only one of either. The problem we have had with it is food grade flax is sometimes fussy about gluten and small wheat chips can get through the same screen as flax contaminating the final flax sample if you want that specific market. You have to warn your target buyer.

Peas intercrop with oats very well as the oats can cushion the peas at harvest and handling. Again separation can become an issue with pea chips in the oats if targeting food grade. Agronomically intercropping makes a lot of sense. Separation is a big pain in the ass. We have sold them combined to processors and let them fight with it. Especially in years when markets are short, buyers will take whatever they can find. In both situations swathing brings the crops in together better for a smoother harvest.

Nature will never grow a monocrop if left alone. She knows it works better when there is diversification. Good luck!
 
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