Pasture-wheat intercropping for post-contract Conservation Reserve Program Lands

2009 Annual Report for LNC06-273

Project Type: Research and Education
Funds awarded in 2006: $70,188.00
Projected End Date: 12/31/2009
Region: North Central
State: Kansas
Project Coordinator:
Dr. Jerry Glover
The Land Institute

Pasture-wheat intercropping for post-contract Conservation Reserve Program Lands

Summary

For this project we are attempting to develop a viable pasture-wheat intercropping (PWI) system with potential for managing post-contract Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands and enhancing grazing systems. In addition to the PWI system included in the proposal we also established a pasture-triticale intercropping (PTI) treatment to determine whether triticale might be more productive intercropped with perennial grasses. A no-till annual rotation (NT) and hay production (HP) systems are used for comparison of impacts on yield and ecosystem services. In 2009, PWI and PTI plots produced 69% and 111%, respectively, of the yields (36 bushels acre-1) harvested from NT plots. As in the previous year, triticale (Thundercale) growth in PTI plots kept pace with the NT wheat (Jagger) monoculture throughout the growing system whereas growth rates of wheat in PWI plots began to lag in early spring. Hay yields in PWI and PTI plots were 157% and 194%, respectively, of those harvested in CRP plots (1.5 tons acre-1), indicating that at least some of the fertilizer not utilized by the grain crop was intercepted by the deep roots of the perennial grasses.

Analyses of soil bulk density, pH, and readily oxidizable carbon (ROC) did not reveal any significant differences between NT, PWI, and PTI plots. Levels of ROC in the surface 10 cm of all three treatments were higher than those in CRP plots. Higher active carbon levels likely resulted from the overall greater primary productivity of the plots receiving fertilizer inputs. Unfortunately, the presence of some less desirable species such as cool-season annual grasses and low quality perennial forbs increased, likely as a result of increased nitrogen availability.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Socioeconomic:
Short term: Three farmers familiar with PWI option for post CRP lands (focal farmers), now considering implementation and at least 20 other farmers newly aware of PWI options. Media attention for field days and subsequent inquiries
Intermediate: PWI implemented on at least 80 acres by three or more farmers
Scientific:
Short Term: Preliminary data to assess system suitability (cultural practices, barriers, yield, income, costs, ecosystem services provided) for post-CRP and pasture lands. Greater awareness and knowledge of PWI by State Extension and NRCS technical committee and scientific community
Intermediate Term: continued refinement of techniques by other researchers
Adoption of PWI approved techniques in NRCS State Technical Manual and in CRP rules

Accomplishments/Milestones

We documented that soil health has improved in the managed plots as compared to unmanaged CRP plots and that overall productivity of the intercrop plots is higher than in wheat monoculture (NT) plots. Due to the relative success in this third project year (2009) of increasing the grain yields and soil health in the intercrop plots two additional growers have agreed to adopt PWI systems on their former CRP lands. Based on data collected this year we have begun preparing two manuscripts.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

An undergraduate student from Washington State University-Pullman agreed to work on the project during Summer 2009, helping with economic analyses, literature reviews, and data collection and analyses. Two manuscripts resulting from her work with us are being prepared with publication expected in 2011. Two plant ecologists from Sweden visited the research plots in Spring 2009 and one Australian agronomist with experience in pasture cropping research visited in Summer 2009. Over two dozen graduate students, who visited the research site just prior to harvest, provided comments and recommendations based on their work in ecology, soil science, plant pathology, and agronomy. As a result of field tours, two more local farmers who owned land coming out of Conservation Reserve Program contracts agreed to initiate wheat-pasture cropping systems on 40 acres in Fall 2009, bringing to 60 acres the extent of the project’s PWI area to be harvested in 2010.

Given the high performance of the triticale in the PTI plots two years in a row, we felt that a wheat variety with growth characteristics more like those of triticale—fast, reliable emergence and establishment and taller stature—would prove to be more competitive in the intercropping systems. We also believed that additional nitrogen fertilizer applications would benefit grain and hay yield levels and reliability. For the Fall 2009 planting, we initiated fertilizer rate and wheat variety trials to determine if wheat yields could be increased beyond those we obtained with typical fertilizer application rates and wheat varieties adapted to the environmental conditions of the region.

Collaborators:

Laura Jackson

laura.l.jackson@uni.edu
Professor
Department of Biology
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IA 50614
Office Phone: 3192732893
Jim Duggan

DECEASED: former farmer/rancher
DECEASED: former adress: 2522 Arrowhead Rd
DECEASED: Solomon, KS 67480