WIJDW - 2/9/2021 06:05
kscatfish84 - 2/8/2021 22:09
Mikenesd - 2/8/2021 08:54
Pvafarm - 2/7/2021 18:48
Very interesting Mike but I'm trying to read this on my phone while trying not to watch the super bowl so I should print it out to give it my complete attention. My take on this if we are going to get adoption of covers to slow nutrient losses (P or N) it will take a concerted effort and money by nrcs, etc to make it happen. Unless we show good yield improvement from covers and I don't think that will happen by farmers leading.
Tom, i can't agree more on what you are saying. What i can't understand why they can't get a yield increase with the so called extra moisture.
Maybe it has something to do with the test site soils being a loam with unknown OM
(I’m guessing 4% plus
) and the “dry year” receiving 24 inches of rainfall. When you’re farming potting soil, its hard to improve on it. Now on yellow and orange clays, i have seen, on multiple years and multiple fields, corn that followed soybeans with rye before the beans yield 30-40 bpa more than other farming practices. Here we are talking 100 bu or less in bad year and 175-200 in a good year. In a good year that bump is 15-20. It works here and makes money. Where the soils are deep and a drought is 25” or 1” in a month, it may not make sense. At least not now.
Your point about already good soils possibly not seeing the benefit of cc's to the same degree I refer to as "the law of diminishing returns," I think is a good one. I'm close enough to the river that many of my HEL fields are timber type that have benefitted from long term no-till and now cover crops, to the point that other than more wildlife damage and tree edge reduction, yield very close to what the couple prairie fields I also farm do, even in the dry years like 2012.
In my area, there has been a lot of adoption of conservation practices, with lots more residue now left, but if you're already getting consistent +250 corn and +70 bu. beans like some of my neighbors out on the prairie are, wanting to complicate the way they currently farm I think is going to be more challenging, and they often are already doing enough with their NHEL type ground to not have any obvious issues going on. From possibly their perspective, why increase your cost with risky practices that may invite armyworms, voles. etc. for ex. Many have tried cc's, then had a bad experience, but still seeing I think a modest trend with more cover crops locally.
Have also seen that some of the "prairie" farmers have learned that some of the lighter timber type fields are now worth trying to pick up and farm with conservation methods. That trend is prob 20 years old around here, and I used to have one older neighbor that blamed me for the increased competition back in the boonies, lol.
After thinking about it, i think you and catfish are on to something. I have had the same experience. What i am wondering is on our better soils that seem to have moisture left over at the end of harvest what could be done to use up that moisture during the growing season to bump up the yield? Could it be as simple as putting more N on?
Soil water improvements with the long-term use of a winter rye cover crop
