High Residue Farming in the Irrigated Far West

High Residue Farming in the Irrigated Far West

Summary

Farmers in the irrigated regions of the far west have not adopted high residue farming (HRF; no-till, strip-till, etc.) to any great extent. Compared to the Midwest, adoption in these areas has been slowed by the challenges of using these systems with surface irrigation, by intensive crop rotations that include vegetables and other non-agronomic crops, and by the relatively less urgent soil conservation issues in arid climates. Recently, however, needs for water conservation, a new interest on building soil quality, increased overhead irrigation, and increased focus on controlling wind erosion has spurred adoption of high residue farming. To assist farmers with this major change, Extension and NRCS field personnel must adapt systems used in other regions to different climates, crops, and soils. We will bring together Extension and NRCS representatives from AZ, CA, ID, NM, OR, and WA for a two-day conference to discuss the challenges of doing this, how best we can help each other, and how best to reach farmers. Farmers from these states, who are already using HRF, will also attend to guide and ground our discussions. Finally, we will bring in an expert on adult education to give us the most current research on what motivates adults to make large, significant changes like the one to HRF and what methods could be used to increase adoption rates. After this meeting, we will initiate a HRF network using a central website, a listing of people and active projects, and news sharing resource.

Objectives/Performance Targets

1. Increase Extension and NRCS personnel’s awareness and knowledge of HRF practices, challenges, and solutions in other states with similar agricultural systems.
2. Collaboratively identify HRF problems common to these regions
3. Identify and implement appropriate adult educational strategies for moving ahead with HRF programs
4. Establish collaborations between Extension and Research personnel and with NRCS programs

Accomplishments/Milestones

Objectives 1-4 were either accomplished or begun during a meeting in Salt Lake City, February 6-7, 2014. Attending the meeting were Extension, NRCS, and grower representatives from Arizona, California, Idaho, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington. In addition, an adult education expert from Montana attended and gave a seminar. A total of 21 people participated over the two day meeting which included state reports (most of day 1) on the current status of high residue farming (HRF) in irrigated cropping systems, from Extension, NRCS and grower participants. These presentations spurred numerous discussions of the challenges, benefits, and details of how HRF is being implemented in these different states. These discussions were continued, with a facilitator, on the second day of the meeting. The results of the discussions were outlined and are posted on a new website (see below). We listed activities that were successful in gaining adoption of HRF systems, needs for continuing this work, and actions for collaboration among the states. We also made a list of the barriers to adoption of these systems. Finally, we held a mini-workshop on adult-learning with Dr. Marilyn Lockhart of Montana State University, who had observed our day 2 discussions. She presented the latest research on how adults learn, and gave us tools to use in our HRF-related programming. She also led discussions on how these tools can be used most effectively. Her presentation and tools are included in the proceedings, posted on our website.

A survey of meeting participants was conducted in May, 2014. Results are shown below under Impacts and Outcomes.

After this meeting, a website, http://westernhrf.wsu.edu/, was created to allow news, events, and activities related to high residue farming in the Far West to be posted. Website users can subscribe through RSS to the posts and so be kept up-to-date on activities in other states.

The meeting also resulted in a network being formed to promote further collaboration. We have held three conference calls, which included new representatives from Colorado and Wyoming, discussing several projects including simultaneous events with streamed keynote speakers on soil health, a regional tour of HRF projects for 2015, and a regional HRF under irrigation conference. Our plans to stream the keynote speakers from a Feb. 12^th soil health conference were ultimately thwarted by the combination of the cost of technical equipment needs and the scheduling of another meeting on the same day at the host University (Washington State). However, the tour and a regional meeting are still being pursued and will be discussed during a conference call in January.

Finally, through a no-cost extension, we will be using remaining funds to search, summarize and post relevant material from research papers, Extension publications, and other sources on our website. This work, which started in December 2014, includes a literature search, summarization and editing of materials, categorization and posting to the website.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

• A survey of meeting participants revealed the following:
  • 75% reported a significant increase in awareness of HRF Extension activities, research activities, and grower motivations and challenges.
  • 65% reported a significant increase in awareness of adult education methods and strategies.
  • Regarding HRF Extension activities. 41% reported plans to start new efforts with another 42% planning to increase current efforts.
  • 36% reported planning to start new HRF research activities, 54% planned to start new collaborations with other states, 42% planned to stare new collaborations within their states.
  • 50% are planning to increase current collaborations with NRCS
  • 52% planned to start new, or increase their current adult education strategies.
  • Reported activities initiated as a result of this meeting: regional meeting (OR and ID), coordinated use of equipment used in HRF research, collaboration on regional HRF conference, renewed commitment for NRCS and Extension in AZ to work together on HRF outreach.
• Creation of a website with posting of HRF Network information including meeting proceedings, a list of Extension and NRCS personnel working in HRF with their contact information, and a list of current programs and projects
• Creation of a network of Extension and NRCS personnel working in the irrigated Far West. This network has begun to meet regularly and has several projects in the planning phase.

Collaborators: