Alternative Crops for Dryland Agriculture in the Intermountain Pacifc Northwest

Alternative Crops for Dryland Agriculture in the Intermountain Pacifc Northwest

Summary

Objectives

The goal of this project is to promote crop, livestock and enterprise diversification by increasing the ability of public and private agricultural professionals to aid farmers in successfully adopting alternative crops. The objectives follow.

1. Agricultural professionals in Cooperative Extension, the Natural Resources Conservation Service(NRCS), Conservation Districts, and agricultural support industries, along with farmers, will increase their knowledge of alternative crop production systems suitable for dryland agriculture in the intermountain region of the Pacific Northwest.
2. Agricultural professionals in Cooperative Extension, NRCS, Conservation Districts, and agricultural support industries, along with farmers, will have a resource base on alternative crop production for dryland agriculture in the intermountain region of the Pacific Northwest.

Abstract

The 1996 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act has many farmers considering changing their current farming system. The Freedom to Farm provisions within the act allow farmers to look at alternative crops and cropping systems. Farmers look to new crops and systems to help diversify and stabilize income as well as solve crop production problems inherent in current crop rotations.

The objectives of this proposed project are to provide training and supporting materials to farmers and agricultural professionals in Cooperative Extension, NRCS, Conservation Districts and agricultural support industries that will increase their knowledge of alternative crops suitable for dryland agriculture in the intermountain region of the Pacific Northwest. Training will be conducted at a series of seminars. Supporting materials developed from the seminars will include news releases, extension bulletins, and an Internet site with the written materials as well as links to more information on alternative crops.

In the past, farm programs forced many farmers to focus their rotations on soft-white, winter wheat. Wheat was the stable cash crop. Therefore, rotations were referred to as Wheat-Fallow, Wheat-Barley-Fallow, and Wheat-Barley-Peas. Alternative crops were those that added a crop between wheat crops or replaced peas, lentils or barley which were grown primarily for the boost they provided the wheat crop yields by breaking weed and disease cycles.

There are a number of new possibilities and a few older choices enjoying a new look as alternative crops in dryland Eastern Washington. These include somewhat familiar crops like canola and sunflowers. Others that have been tried on a limited basis include red lentils and lupines. Innovators are trying dryland corn, safflower, Sudan grass, millet, and mustard. New crops provide new opportunities for livestock production using crop aftermath, silage, or forage.

Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the Ag Horizons Team held three workshops Safflower, Setting Up Drills for Alternative Crops and Millet. The Wilke Farm Day was expanded to include small plot demonstrations of millet, peas, safflower, and other alternative crops. Farmers also viewed farm scale demonstrations of millet and canola.

Five additional seminars are currently in the planning stages — mustard, sunflower, two on alternative small grains such as triticale, and Durham wheat red lentils and one on setting up combines for alternative crops.

Farmer and agricultural industry experience as well as university knowledge was included in each workshop. We included presentations on crop agronomic characteristics, markets and marketability, economic feasibility, fertility management, pest management, and benefits to the environment and community. Farmers were paid an honorarium for sharing their experiences, and experts from outside the region were brought in to augment the Safflower and Millet programs.

A technical writer was hired to attend the workshops and develop a written record of the information presented. An article on Safflower was issued to agricultural magazines. We will use the services of the WSU Information Department to publish a bulletin that will be distributed for use by a wider audience than may be able to attend the workshops. Finally, the bulletins will be published on the World Wide Web. These bulletins are currently being edited and reviewed.

Dissemination of Findings

Norm Herdrich, an agricultural writer captured the information from each of the three seminars. He has provided a rough draft of these events. Members of the Ag Horizons Team are editing these notes. The Safflower notes have been provided to the WSU Crop and Soil Science Department for review. The notes for the “Drill” article have been provided to Dennis Roe of the NRCS for review. Each set of notes will be published as a bulletin and placed on the Web.

Potential Benefits

These seminars and the documentation that is under development are providing the region with alternative crop information that was not readily available. It is reducing the risk to farmers for trying small acreage of these crops in their attempts to diversify.

Impacts on Agricultural Professionals

Evaluations from participants indicate that they planned to put the following information to use now:
· Explore the export potential for Japanese Millet Hay; grazing potential in the fall for Pearl Millet; and summer-fall grazing for Pearl or Foxtail.
· Market information
· To do more looking for new crops and to look for markets first.
· Better understanding of the economics, inputs of millet.
· Planting date and depth.
· Information about use and types grown, i.e. for my no-till rotation and use as hay.
· How the roots (mass) grow and how that can effect growth yield.
· Seeding date because of frost tolerance; millet definitions.
· Safflower–planting rate, fertilizer rate, varieties for bird versus oil seed
· Herbicide registration requirements
· Soil fertility and planting density of Safflower
· Great and overall view of Safflower; lots of agronomic and rotation information
· Seeding rate, costs, and fertilizer separation
· Do lots of planning before launching into alternative crops
· Cost analysis for buy, lease, and rent using WSU software.
· Growing peas and barley together successfully.
· The rate and type of starter fertilizer; also the depth and placement of main quantity of fertilizer.

This summary was prepared by the project coordinator for the 2000 reporting cycle.

Collaborators: