b'REGEN AG VOICES| SUPPORTED BY: Working Together on Regen Ag845 Spud Farms has no land of its own, so working with the grain farm it grows spuds on is important when it comes to planning for potato production. BY: ASHLEY ROBINSONBEZCO FARMING INC. in Coaldale, Alta. had been a zero till farm for decades. The grain farm worked to build its soil organic matter through zero till and leaving the crop stubble in the fields to stop the soil from blowing away.Weve been three years now potatoes, going into our fourth year(soil erosion) was probably one of the biggest challenges because we are zero till otherwise, Greg Walter, agronomist for Bezco Farming, says in a phone interview.Bezco Farming Inc. is a 5,000-acre grain farm owned by the Bezooyen family. They farm canola, wheat, barley, winter wheat and alfalfa. In 2019 they entered a 50/50 partnership with Michiel Buijsse and founded 845 Spud Farms together. 845 Spud Farms plants potatoes on Bezco Farming Inc. fields.In the decades leading up to this partnership, Bezco Farming had worked hard to become a zero till irrigation farm.A barley cover crop that was establishedFall bedding work is done at the beginning Adding a potato farm, which requiresafter fall bedding work was done on 845of September each year on 845 Spud Farms. Spud Farms.PHOTO: MICHIEL BUIJSSE Due to the fields previously being no till,deep tillage, meant both Bezco Farmingtheres a lot of crop residue that has to be and 845 Spud Farms had to make someworked through.PHOTO: MICHIEL BUIJSSEchanges to save their soil and still be able to plant the crops they wanted. For them,behind the harvesters and just seed it as acreate challenges for potato farming as regenerative agriculture meant workingcover crop, Buijsse explains. the fields stay wet longer than other spud together. Bezco Farming recently purchased afarms in the area.Whenever (Bezco Farming team is)New Holland P2082 disc drill which allowsWith the organic matter it stays wet a done combining the field, we clean offthem to seed cover and winter crops rightlittle bit longer. Its more like a sponge, and the bales, we usually start working it rightbehind the potato harvesters. This helpsit stays a little bit longer. So, were never away, Buijsse says in a phone interview. the cover crops get established faster andthe first one in the field, Buijsse explains. In the fall before a potato crop isprotect the soil over the winter beforeWhile they may not be the first out planted, the 845 Spud Farms teamthe land enters back into cereal cropplanting, Buijsse has found that the fall beds the fields. Theyll follow theproduction and zero till for a few years. organic matter in the soil provides for a combines, disk the fields, spread a coverThis drill allows us to basically go seednice structure in the potato hills. Cover crop, and then irrigate it so the crop getsright into the potatoes are off so thatscropping has helped them be able to plant established in time for winter.really helped a lot. Before we were doingearlier in the spring though and save their If its early in the season, we do workthat, we did have some trouble and soilsoil from blowing away which makes the land and we just try to seed it the wayerosion, Walter says.both 845 Spud Farms and Bezco Farming it is. And otherwise, we literally go rightIn the spring the zero till land doeshappy. 64SPUDSMART.COM Winter 2023'