1997 Annual Report for FS97-063
Sustainable Wheat Management Systems
Summary
Usually, either wheat-fallow-wheat or wheat-fallow-sorghum-fallow-wheat (two crops in three years) systems are used in dry land production in the Oklahoma panhandle while continuous cropping systems are used in central Oklahoma. Gage, where the project is situated, is located in Ellis county and is central to these two areas. Consequently, the producer wants to evaluate the economic impact of annual cropping compared with fallow systems.
The producer intends to determine if wheat grain yield is lower in continuous wheat monoculture than in rotation and to determine whether the tillage system (no-tillage vs minimum or clean tillage) influences grain yields in continuous monoculture and rotation. He will also evaluate the amount of nitrogen (if any) a cover crop of Austrian winter peas contributes to subsequent wheat production.
The project consists of two experimental areas—one will be no-till and the other conventional till—within which eight wheat crop rotation systems (treatments) will be replicated four times in each area. Each treatment will be planted in plots that will be 30 feet wide by 60 feet long.