Crop yield impacts from rotations in Manitoba

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Date
2021-05-27
Authors
Yang, Liu
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Abstract
Primary agriculture and agriculture manufacturing, as one of the dominant industries in Manitoba, generates jobs, agricultural products, and boosts economic output. Crop rotation, swapping out different crops over seasons, is an agricultural practice with both economic and ecological benefits for both crop production and the environment. Previous research by Manitoba Agriculture Service Corporation (MASC) studied the relative yield responses of crops grown in Manitoba on large fields using only the previous crop as the influential factor, which might be biased. Thus, there is a need to explore the 'rotation effect' after taking more factors into the crop yield models. The purpose of this research is to explore how crop rotations influence crop yields in Manitoba. A yield model given inputs of fertilizers, climatic and regional factors, seeding dates, regional effects, yearly dummies, soil qualities, and crop rotation effects were developed in the analysis. Yield responses through the coefficients of previous crops were examined through the yield model at both provincial and regional levels. The results were consistent with previous findings that monoculture leads to negative yield potential and rotating crops with soybeans is likely to help boost crop yields. The impacts from the previous crops on yields in this study are more precisely estimated than Kubinec's since it contains more influential factors, which in return helps farmers better estimate their profits. Also, the effects of seeding dates, regional levels, fertilizers, precipitation and temperature on crop yields were identified. These new results provide farmers with a more thorough understanding of crop rotations so they can make better choices about crop selections for production in Manitoba.
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Keywords
Crop rotations, Crop yields models, Agriculture
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