With increased costs for fuel, labor, equipment and other management costs, farm managers need to take advantage of all options available to cut costs while maintaining yields. One option to consider is using no till or reduced tillage farming this fall. Some advantages of reduced tillage production systems for winter wheat include fuel conservation, wind and water erosion control, improved timeliness of operations, labor savings and soil moisture conservation.
No till farming of winter wheat and direct seeding into existing stubble are becoming increasingly popular practices around Montana, especially as producers consider the added workload required to convert CRP land to tillable ground for next spring. The time demands brought about by CRP contract expiration may be the added incentive for reduced tillage on existing wheat ground, especially if it will eliminate a couple of late summer or early fall tillage operations.
The key to success with this system is good management beginning with residue management. Along with residue management, some special attention needs to be placed on control of drill penetration and planting depth, seed soil contact, seeding rate, and weed and disease control.
Good residue management depends on having knowledge of the amount of residue left on the field from the last crop and some idea of what type of tillage is needed, if any at all, to get residue levels down to a manageable level. Coming up with a value or figure for the amount of residue used to be pretty uncertain. However, recent studies by Gregg Carlson and Tom Allen at Havre have helped answer this question. The following is a summary of information that appeared in Agronomy Notes previously. The values presented are averages for the period from 1989 through 1993:
|
|
Plant Height |
Test Yield |
Weight |
Protein |
Residue |
PAW |
|
|
|
(in) |
(bu/ac) |
(lb/bu) |
(%) |
(lb/ac) |
(lb/bu) |
(in) |
|
|
Spring Wheat |
||||||
|
Average |
33.7 |
46.8 |
59.9 |
15.4 |
4154 |
88.5 |
17.1 |
|
|
Barley |
||||||
|
Average |
28.0 |
60.6 |
48.7 |
13.5 |
3415 |
56.2 |
17.5 |
Some interesting observations:
Amount of residue per acre for spring wheat and barley was directly correlated with the amount of water available to the crop during the growing season, i.e., as the amount of plant available water increased, the production increased. (No surprise here!):
§ On the average, spring wheat produced 88.5 pounds of residue for each bushel of grain produced; during low production years, the amount was 70 to 80 pounds per bushel while in years of high yield the average was 90 to 100 pounds of residue per bushel.
§ On the average, barley produced 56.2 pounds of residue for each bushel of grain produced; during low production years, the amount was approximately 70 pounds of residue per bushel while in years of high yield the average was only about 50 pounds of residue per bushel of grain.
§ Generally, except under very extreme conditions of exceptionally low yield was less than 3000 pounds of residue produced per acre, by either wheat or barley.
With up to 1500 to 2000 pounds of residue per acre, seeding can be successfully accomplished with conventional disk or hoe type drills. A good rule of thumb to determine the amount of straw left on the field is that each harvested bushel per acre of wheat will leave 85 pounds of residue and each harvested bushel per acre of barley will leave 60 pounds of residue. It's possible to spread straw effectively with a straw spreader on the combine or by a single harrowing operation.
Categories: Residue, Tillage, Yield Estimates
Date: 1995-1996