Farmers facilitating the adoption of new meadowfoam establishment practices

View the project final report

• 2006 annual report

Commodities

• Additional Plants: meadowfoam

Practices

• Crop Production: conservation tillage
• Education and Training: demonstration, farmer to farmer, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research
• Farm Business Management: whole farm planning
• Pest Management: cultural control, economic threshold, field monitoring/scouting, integrated pest management
• Production Systems: general crop production
• Soil Management: soil analysis

Traditionally meadowfoam is planted in mid-October into a plowed or disked seedbed. We explored late planting, no-till and broadcast seeding, and straw residue management, as methods to reduce meadowfoam production costs and maximize the farm system benefits. The results built on the knowledge derived from the previous SARE grant. Late planting (mid-November) gave higher yields except when early flooding on poorly drained soils was a problem. Late planting also allows no-till operations using traditional seed drills. Drilling through straw residue that has been flailed and allowed to settle and weather is the safest straw management option.

1) Determine if seed and oil yields of late-planted no-till or broadcast meadowfoam, and full straw load plantings, compare to yields from traditionally planted meadowfoam. We tell our cooperators the agronomic factors of interest, but the growers decide which ones they would like to test on their farms. The exact establishment practices involved in each of the 4 entries on each farm are tailored to the specifics of the field, the farmer’s equipment, and cropping system.

2) Determine if weed and insect pest populations are lower when using new establishment methods In an earlier survey, seventy-three percent of meadowfoam growers that meadowfoam plays a significant role in their weed control program. The host specific pest, the Drosophilid fly Scaptomyza apicalis, has been a source of significant yield loss in the past.

3) Document production cost savings from the new establishment methods for each farm. This is done for the 4 entries at each farm trial using Enterprise Budget spreadsheets developed at Oregon State University.

4) Improve producer skills in: 1) producing meadowfoam using the new establishment practices, 2) managing their nitrogen fertilizer program and meadowfoam fly (MFF) control; and 3) economic analysis of production costs and returns.

5) Develop grower educational presentations and materials through collaborations with cooperating meadowfoam producers and the OMG (Meadowfoam Oil Seed Growers Association) production manager.