2007 Annual Report for SW05-117
Integrated Crop and Livestock Systems: Dryland Crop Rotations to Improve Economic and Ecological Sustainability in the Central High Plains
Summary
In the current dryland cropping systems project, fencing, water, GPS mapping, and soil sampling have all been completed as proposed. Annual precipitation patterns have been extremely low for 2006 and 2007, with the proposed site location receiving 7.02 and 8.3 inches, respectively, over the last 2 years, vs. the 30-year average precipitation of 13.84 in. (Table 1). We have been unable to establish both the winter pea, as well as the medic (legume) paddocks, despite using proper agronomic practices. We will continue to work at developing adequate stands to properly evaluate the proposed cropping systems.
Objectives/Performance Targets
The objectives of this project are to establish integrated dryland cash-crop/forage/livestock systems and evaluate the impacts on soil quality and profitability. This project represents the initial three years of a multi-year study evaluating dryland cropping system opportunities in Southeastern Wyoming.
Sub-objectives are: 1. Establish and evaluate the use of both annual and regenerative legumes (peas & medic) in an integrated crop, forage and livestock system. 2. Measure and compare soil quality for the alternative crop, forage and livestock systems vs. traditional wheat-fallow and perennial pasture. 3. Evaluate profitability of each of the proposed alternative crop, forage and livestock systems. 4. Compare long-term sustainability of permanent pastures vs. sustainable cropping and livestock systems on existing wheat-fallow dryland fields.
Accomplishments/Milestones
Research Objective 1. Establish and evaluate the use of both annual and regenerative legumes (peas & medic) in an integrated crop, forage and livestock system.
The project site, consisting of 370 acres of dryland wheat-fallow cropland at the University of Wyoming Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension Center near Lingle, WY was chemical fallowed over the spring and summer of 2006. The paddock design and layout proceeded as proposed (Figure 1 in submitted paperwork). A John Deere 1560 no-till drill with 7.5-inch row spacing was used to seed winter wheat, Austrian winter pea, and medic at a seeding rate 60, 60, and 13.5 lbs/acre, respectively.
1) All pastures were soil sampled during the fall of 2006, resulting in 8 samples per pasture. Laboratory analysis has started under the direction of Kelli Belden, UW Soils Lab, on all samples, but is not complete at the time of this report.
2) Despite the extremely dry conditions, 2006 autumn emergence of the winter wheat and peas was acceptable. This was because of the special effort to sow these crops into soil moisture at 1.5 to 2 inches of soil depth. However, overall precipitation for this area has been well below average. Total annual precipitation for the test site was 7.02 and 8.3 inches, respectively, for 2006 and 2007. The 30-year average precipitation for the site is 13.84 inches. This has affected our ability to establish our medic and winter pea paddocks.
3) Beginning in the spring of 2007, all water lines for the proposed livestock grazing paddocks were trenched.
4) All fencing for the perimeter of project site was completed in May of 2007.
5) Despite what appeared to be proper fall establishment of medic and winter pea crops, continued extremely dry weather resulted in very poor stands and very little forage production. Despite very low forage production, winter pea plots were sampled every 2 weeks to monitor forage quality and overall DM production was measured on June 1, 2007, to document the low forage production. Forage production averaged 192 lb/acre and 274 lb/acre, respectively, for the North and South plot replications of winter peas.
6) Medic, because of its small seed size (the seed is roughly only twice the size of alfalfa), required shallow (¼ to ½ inch) sowing. As a consequence of the extreme dry conditions that persisted into December, the medic emergence in the autumn was poor. Medic paddocks were seeded in the fall of 2006 and evaluated during the spring of 2007. Stands this year (Spring 2007) were very poor, and the paddocks were eventually sprayed to control weeds.
7) Perennial pastures were seeded in the spring of 2007, and we will evaluate stands this spring (2008) to determine establishment, etc.
Research Objective 2: Measure and compare soil quality for the alternative crop, forage and livestock systems vs. traditional wheat-fallow and perennial pasture.
Once the proper crop rotations are established, Dr. Gary Hergert will establish baseline conditions on both quantitative and qualitative factors including soil organic matter, total organic carbon, organic nitrogen, and C:N ratio. Sampling will be done when the treatment plots are established to reflect spatial variability (soils, slope, landscape position) plus average conditions within the larger experimental units. These points will be logged with GPS/GIS technology and the plots re-sampled at the same points after three years.
Research Objective 3: Evaluate profitability of each of the proposed alternative crop, forage and livestock systems
When the complete cycle of cropping systems are completed, the economic analysis comparing the traditional dryland wheat/fallow system vs. alternative legume crop and cattle grazing rotations will be conducted by James Sedman and James Jacobs. This will be accomplished by developing enterprise budgets, showing per unit costs and returns for alternative crop and livestock enterprises. Specifically, input and machinery costs for respective field operations will be computed throughout the production cycle. At the next stage, individual enterprise budgets will be combined to evaluate each system with respect to single-point estimates of profitability for year-to-year product price and yield variation. These results will be examined in the context of appropriate probability distributions with a monte carlo @RISK simulation approach. The economic analysis comparing the alternative crop and cattle grazing rotations to the traditional winter wheat-fallow system will cover the three-year grant period. An economic analysis will also provide the framework for future evaluation of the established pasture that will be compared to the traditional and alternative crop rotation systems.
Research Objective 4: Compare long-term sustainability of permanent pastures vs. sustainable cropping and livestock systems on existing wheat-fallow dryland fields.
Pending establishment of adequate forage for grazing and crop evaluation, we will continue to work. Dr. Krall will coordinate sowing of all annual crops and use standard research methodologies in the collection of data and analysis to measure annual crop performance and livestock utilization. It is expected that winter wheat protein content and yield, grain pea yield, and medic and forage pea DM production (prior to and after grazing, using grazing exclosures) will be measured. Grain production, forage production, and livestock weight gain data will be collected each year, and production data, as well as all inputs, will be included in the final economic analysis. Perennial pasture will also be established as one of the treatments, representing a common practice in the area. The perennial pasture treatment will just be established within the three-year timeframe, potentially requiring re-submission. Once perennial pastures are established, UW range science personnel will evaluate all perennial pastures, providing estimates of forage production and conservative stocking rates. Species composition by weight will also be determined. Within the perennial pasture, an appropriate number of plots will be randomly established. Within each plot, all current year’s aboveground vegetation will be clipped to ground level, separated by species or functional group, oven dried at 50-60 degrees C to a constant weight and then weighed. Clipped material will also be used to determine total standing crop (current year’s above ground production). Ground cover will be determined by randomly establishing an appropriate number of transects in the perennial pasture. Along each transect, ground cover will be determined using the point intercept method.
Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes
Impact on producers, communities, and farming practices:
Once plots are established, regional producers will have access to results via visual assessment during field tours, grower meetings and publications. Knowledge gained will guide Central High Plains producers in the adoption of new legume crop/pasture plants and conversion to more intense and integrated crop/livestock production systems.
The measurable number of acres or animals that will be impacted may both be measured in the hundreds of thousands. Today, alternative crops such as sunflowers and proso millet replace 20-25% of fallow in Wyoming. Annual legumes might exceed this level of production.
The integrated crop/livestock systems will increase crop diversity over traditional wheat-fallow dryland cropping systems, introducing the use of medic (annual Medicago spp.) pastures, as well as winter and spring pea varieties to a traditional single-crop system will also improve soil quality through the incorporation of legumes and livestock grazing in crop rotations. These systems will also help to reduce soil erosion and farming inputs compared with the traditional wheat-fallow system by providing livestock grazing opportunities.
This research is designed to generate data to more precisely measure economic impact. So far, an economic analysis of grazed Austrian Winter Pea (AWP) in place of fallow indicates a return of an extra $12/acre. Based on a 50% fallow replacement this means an additional $1.1 million/yr for the agricultural economy of southeastern Wyoming alone. Adoption of these practices in adjacent states would result in substantially larger returns, as estimated below in the economic impact.
Positive economic impact (in dollars).
Over the last 10 years, approximately 189,000 acres of dryland wheat were planted in Wyoming, with an average yield of 25.4 bushels per acre. Current planted dryland wheat acreages in eastern Colorado and the Nebraska Panhandle are 1,670,000 and 689,000, respectively. The total planted wheat acreage in the high plains region is approximately 2.5 million acres.
Yields for dryland wheat production have remained fairly consistent for the past 20 years, indicating that alternative cropping systems may be needed to increase revenue per acre. With recent increases in fuel, seed, fertilizer, and chemical prices, a lower cost, higher revenue alternative cropping system becomes desirable. Use of an alternative cropping system that includes legume grazing could significantly reduce variable costs in terms of fuel, machinery and labor when compared to wheat-fallow systems. For example, previous research suggests that adding an alternative forage crop such as AWP to a wheat/fallow rotation could increase average revenue per acre by as much as $12. This could mean a $2.2 million dollar increase in revenue for Wyoming dryland wheat producers (projected over the entire state wheat acreage). Results from the proposed research will provide data needed to more accurately evaluate the economic impacts of producers adopting integrated dryland crop/forage/livestock system in the high plains region.