Dr. Cody Creech and Dr. Carrie Eberle join the show to talk about new frontiers for pulse crops in Nebraska and Wyoming. We’ll explore where and how these crops are fitting into rotations, the challenges of growing pulses in new areas, double cropping, and water use efficiency. 

Cody is a dryland cropping systems specialist with the University of Nebraska Lincoln located at the panhandle center in Western Nebraska. He focuses on crops that can be grown without needing much water including soil water conservation, fertility, weed management and ways to improve overall use efficiency in Western Nebraska. 

“This area of Nebraska and Wyoming has not been a target for breeding programs for these pulse crops. And so in the past 10 years, there's been a lot of improvement in these varieties, much better varieties that are much better adapted, but there's still a long ways to go in that realm. If we can keep working on that breeding side of things, I think we're gonna see continued success in pulse crops in both Nebraska and Wyoming.” - Cody Creech, Ph.D.

Carrie, at the time of this interview was a cropping systems agronomist with the University of Wyoming located studying alternative crops for the region and looking at sustainable farming practices. Since the time this interview took place back in January, she has since gone on to work for the USDA ARS as an agroecologist based in Morris, Minnesota. 

“I think for the Wyoming system, our farmers are mostly looking to understand if the crop is going to work for them. So there's questions just about growing in the region and when they should plant, how they harvest, what their populations look like. There's a lot of questions around weed control in those crops. And then the other big challenge for our farmers is always access to markets.” - Carrie Eberle, Ph.D.

This week on Growing Pulse Crops: 

• Meet Dr. Cody Creech and Dr. Carrie Eberle
• What is prompting growers in Wyoming and Nebraska to consider pulse crops for the first times
• The need for genetics, research, and markets in order to expand the production of pulses in this area
• How pulse crops figure into the need for water use efficiency in these dry areas

Growing Pulse Crops Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.