No-till Livestock-Grain Rotation for Diversified Farms

No-till Livestock-Grain Rotation for Diversified Farms

Summary

This project was created to develop the potential for integrated livestock-grain low-disturbance farming systems for the Palouse region. Through producer-researcher-extension working groups the advantages, issues, and barriers to such systems have been identified, discussed, and iteratively refined. Although many producers see good economic potential for such integration, agronomic and management questions must be addressed before a complete economic picture can emerge. The most common producer question, how to transition from pasture to row-crop production, is being addressed directly through trials on a cooperator farm. Long-term Agroecosystem Research Trials are being used to compare several rotation options including crop-livestock integration.

Objectives/Performance Targets

1. Form a producer-researcher-extension work group to assess and develop wheat- pasture systems for the wheat-farming region in Washington and Idaho.

   Utilize this working group to identify locally relevant goals, needs, impediments and potential solutions concerning cereal-pasture systems

   Build upon previous and ongoing SARE-funded research to further adapt/develop cereal-livestock management practices for the Palouse region of Washington and Idaho. Describe at least two integrated cereal-livestock systems appropriate for trials PCFS and local farm sites

Accomplishments/Milestones

1. One producer-researcher-extension work group meeting has been held. The meeting helped to direct the field work as well as identify issues, barriers, and possibilities for crop-livestock integration in our region.

   A review article assessing the potentials and barriers to crop-livestock integration for the Palouse has been initiated.

   Field plots have been established at a cooperator’s farm to assess the agronomic, economic, and environmental effects of several methods of transition from established alfalfa into pasture or cereal grains.

   Field plots of the ART (Agroecosystem Research Trial) have been altered to reflect our new understandings of the nutrient and management needs for both organic and integrated crop-livestock models of low-disturbance systems. Organic plots have been seeded to a pasture mix of orchardgrass, perennial ryegrass, meadow brome, alfalfa, red clover and a white clover.

   One field day was held at the ART plots to present and discuss the project with producers.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

The benefits to producers from this project so far stem from the discussion of alternative farm systems in the work group and field day. Our region’s agricultural economy is highly dependent on a small handful of crops, along with the Conservation Reserve Program. Many producers are struggling financially and philosophically with this dependence and rigidity. There are real agronomic, management, and economic concerns that are being identified, clarified, and addressed through this project.

Collaborators: