Extending Sustainability and Regenerative Ag into traditional Grain and Cash Crop production.

Commodities

Practices

Cover cropping systems have been shown to help soil nutrient enrichment by absorbing nutrients from decomposing organic matter and fertilizer that wasn't utilized from the previous crop. I would like to study nutrient efficiency on my farm by using cover crops as a way to retain my soil nutrients by absorbing them in the fall and winter months. Then by terminating my cover crop in the spring, it releases those nutrients in a more plant usable form. Combining the plant usable P and K in the soil, as well as the nutrients released from the terminated cover crop, I want to see if I can maintain yield in my corn, soybeans, and cotton crop comparable to if I was fertilizing using my traditional variable rate program with commercial fertilizer. If yield can be maintained, and my phosphorus and potassium application can be eliminated, my overall profit will increase due to the cost of planting, growing, and terminating the cover crop being much less than the average cost of applying commercial phosphorus and potassium.

1. Cover crop will be established on all acres. This cover crop will be a multi-species blend that will consist of multiple cereal grains, at least two legumes and one brassica. A multi-species blend is being used to provide the varied benefits of each species to our soil verses using a signle species monoculture.
2. To eliminate soil type differences affecting yield, we will choose 2 specific zones in 3 different soil types using existing zones we have on the farm based on soil texture data.
   1. In each soil type, we will use historical yield data we have in each zone going back as far as 2019, we will choose a high performing zone, and low performing zone to test. This will give us the total of 6 testing sites where no commercial P or K is applied. We will also choose 6 adjacent zones in the same soil types and performance levels to compare against. In these adjacent zones we will follow our normal fertilization program as comparison. This brings the total testing sites number to 12 (6 of no commercial P and K application, and 6 of typical fertilizer application)
   2. In each of the 12 testing sites, we will pull soil samples before cover crop termination and send to Waters Ag Labs in Warsaw, NC. These soil tests will be stored and recorded so that they can be compared to soil samples in the same spots the following year.
   3. In each of the 12 testing sites, we will also conduct biomass samples of the cover crop before termination. These biomass samples will tell us how much plant available Phosphorus and Potassium is in the cover crop at that time.
3. 2 weeks after cover crop termination, we will pull soil samples again that are sent to Waters Ag Labs in Warsaw, NC. This will give an accurate read of how much of the plant available nutrients were released back into the soil profile for our cash crop. At this same time, we will pull biomass samples again. We will follow this same process again 6 weeks after termination, and again another 4 weeks after that, and again one more time after harvest (5 Total Soil Samples and 5 total biomass samples at each site). This will give an accurate representation of where the nutrients are moving (from cover crop, to soil, to plant).
4. In our Corn crop, we will pull tissue and SAP samples for analysis in early June, Mid June, Late June, Early July, Mid July, and Late July to get a good representation at key points in the growing season for that crop.
5. In our Soybean/Cotton Crops, we will pull tissue and SAP samples for analysis in Late June, Early July, Mid July, Late July, and Early August to get a good representation at key points in the growing season for that crop.
6. At harvest, each of the 12 sites will be recorded using our yield monitor in the combine. GROWERS has the capability to average this data within each specific zone to give us an overall yield average of each no commercial fertilizer zone, and typical fertility program comparison zone.
7. Overall input cost will also be recorded and calculated for each zone for an accurate bottom line comparison in each soil type and in each performance zone. A partial budget will be tracked and analyzed for profitability gain/loss.
8. Utilizing these methods, we will get an accurate and representative answer on if yields were maintained, and overall bottom line was reduced.
9. This test will be repeated throughout 2 years in our rotating cash crops.