Area producers were invited to a field day on Oct. 18, where they had a first-hand look at early results.
Eberle said the SAREC researchers were pleased with the turnout of community producers and business people.
“It’s still real early in the research, but we wanted people to see the fields, going into the next year.”
She said they were pleasantly surprised at how well the crops are doing, considering the amount of biomass that was taken off. The tillage treatments were surprising, especially the no-till stand.
“Usually it’s hard to get good stands in corn residue,” she explained. “It’s hard for the seed to get contact with the soil, and get a crop up around corn residue.”
On the other hand, she was disappointed with the sorghum results. The poor stand could be due to late planting, she noted.
However, there is still a year to go with the research, and Eberle and her fellow researchers look forward to trying different treatments.
“We want to evaluate the results and find what works best for everyone,” Eberle said. “We still have a full year to go before we get final results.”
One of the aspects of the research is determining the value of the fall replacement crop. Wheat, rye, triticale and sorghum were planted on the hailed corn plots. They have determined biomass yield and cost to this point, which includes seed, fuel, equipment, herbicide and labor. They have also determined animal unit days per acre, and the cost per AUD.
Treatments varied per crop. For corn management, replacement crops were direct drilled into standing corn. Stalk shredded corn was left in the field. Standing corn was disked twice. The stalk shredded corn was followed by one pass with a disk and Landstar.
Preliminary study summary results, based on biomass production and cost of operation, indicate that wheat planted into hailed corn that was disked twice, will produce the most economic animal feed at $0.75/AUD, which is significantly cheaper than buying alfalfa at the current price of $90-145/ton ($1.17-1.89/AUD).
Eberle emphasized that these results are preliminary and final budgets and cropping system values will be reported at the end of the study next fall.
Fall 2016 activities will include grazing crops this fall and winter, then corn will be planted next spring after the termination of each cover crop. Economic analysis will continue for each cropping system.
Forage clippings will be taken this fall and winter to measure feed productions, and livestock will be grazed. Aerial imaging will also be used to measure crop preference. Soil fertility will be tested and ground cover will be measured to estimate the erosion control value of each system.
In the spring, ground cover will be measured again to determine how persistent erosion control was, and soil samples will be taken again at planting to measure fertility.
In the fall of 2017, corn yield will be used to measure the impact of each cropping strategy on corn production.
Other SAREC staff involved in the project are Steve Paisley, beef cattle specialist; Brian Lee, economist; Kevin Madden, farm manager; John Tanaka, director; and Kelly Greenwald, administrative associate.
Source - http://www.starherald.com
