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| 1997 Accomplishments: Three dryland (no-till) rotations have been practiced at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm since 1991 and they are: | ||
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Winter Wheat - Corn - Cool Season Broadleaf | |
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Winter Wheat - Corn - Warm Season Broadleaf - Spring Wheat | |
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Winter Wheat - Warm Season Broadleaf - Corn - Cool Season Broadleaf | |
| The station hosts
numerous small plot studies by scientists from the main University campus but all of our
work is done "production scale". This means that field size equipment is
utilized with all harvest results being weighed in a 300 bushel weigh cart. Two tractors,
one 12.5’ drill, one 12.5’ row crop planter, one 37.5’ sprayer, and one
combine are used for all field work. The tractors are 85 and 105 hp. This equipment is capable of handling 600 acres per crop type. Therefore, we could farm at least 2,400 acres if all of our land was in the production enterprise (no research) and we maintained our present crop mix. We would then utilize the three dryland rotations as follows: we would plant rotation #1 (W.Wheat-Corn-Cool Season Broadleaf) on 50% of our acres and rotation #2 (W.Wheat-Corn-Warm Season Broadleaf-S.Wheat) on 25% of our acres and rotation #3 (W.Wheat-Warm Season Broadleaf-Corn-Cool Season Broadleaf) on the remaining 25% of the acres. This is assuming we are farming in a mixed grass prairie ecosystem and on soils with moderate to good water holding capacity. |
Rotation #1 |
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| Winter Wheat | Corn | Chickpea |
| 65 bu | 127 bu | 1650 lbs |
| Rotation #1 is designed for an average winter and precipitation year. This rotation is low in disease, weed, and insect pressure, due to two years between each crop type. The wheat variety would need to have average winter hardiness due to the wheat being seeded into a low residue producing crop (depending on the harvest method of the low residue crop, i.e. stripper header vs. conventional straight head and crop aftermath architecture). In this rotation the variety of wheat harvested in 1997 was Karl 92. Winter survival was good to excellent behind flax and canola stubble and fair to good behind the field pea stubble (all broadleaf crops harvested with a stripper header in 1996). The corn in this rotation was planted slightly later than desired due to the wet weather, however, still performed very well. Chickpeas or garbanzo beans (kabuli type) was the broadleaf crop. Chickpeas use more water compared to field peas, canola, flax, and lentils. |
Rotation #2 |
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| Winter Wheat | Corn | Soybean/Sunflower | Spring Wheat |
| 71 bu | 115 bu | 43 bu/1912 lbs | 49 bu |
| Rotation #2 is designed for a harsher winter (high winter kill) and/or a drier than average year. This rotation, if environmental conditions are wet in the spring wheat year and wet again in the winter wheat year, has the potential for disease pressure (tan spot or septoria leaf diseases) in the winter wheat crop. The winter wheat variety planted in this rotation could have very little winter hardiness since it is planted into spring wheat stubble. The variety harvested in 1997 in this rotation was Jagger. This variety is not recommended to be planted north of Interstate 70 in Kansas with conventional tillage, due to its low winter hardiness. However, Jagger has good resistance to the leaf spotting diseases (i.e. tan spot or septoria). In 1997, this variety averaged 71 bushels per acre. This rotation is designed to save deep "soil profile" water for two years (during the wheat years) prior to planting a high water use crop like corn. In essence, we would need three dry years in a row to have a corn crop failure. In 1997, the corn was planted later than desired due to the extremely wet field conditions and only average yields were harvested. Soybeans and sunflowers were planted behind the corn. Sunflowers can root deeper than corn to utilize the water and/or nitrates that may leach below the corn roots. Spring wheat then follows the soybean or sunflower crop. The spring wheat variety was Russ and was planted in early April. |
Rotation #3 |
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| Winter Wheat | Soybean/Sunflower | Corn | Lentil/Field Pea |
| 45 bu | 47 bu/1960 lbs | 142 bu | 0 lbs/42 bu |
| Rotation #3 is designed for a milder winter (low winter kill) and wetter than average year. This rotation contains every other year broadleaf and will develop broadleaf weed problems and disease pressure in the broadleaf crops. Therefore, this rotation will possibly need to be changed in order not to rely too heavily on technology (expense with pests resistant technology i.e. Roundup Ready hybrids, Bt resistant hybrids, etc.). The winter wheat variety in this rotation needs to have good to excellent winter hardiness due to 50% low residue crops in the rotation. There is a potential for good wheat yields in this rotation due to the three-year break between wheat crops. Jagger, Karl 92, and AP 7510 were planted late (September 30th) in this rotation in the fall 1996 and suffered some winter kill; therefore, spring wheat was planted in the spring 1997 in this rotation. Soybean and/or sunflower are planted into the wheat stubble. The wheat stubble provides the soybean and sunflower with more deep moisture when compared to planting them behind a corn crop. The corn in this rotation will be the first corn planted on the entire farm due to darker color and lower residue conditions. Therefore, a longer season variety should be planted to take advantage of the longer season. We planted Pioneer 3489 in this rotation in 1997. Lentils and/or field peas were planted into the corn stalks. Both of these crops were planted the first week of April. The lentil varieties planted were Chilean 78 and Brewers. The field pea variety was Grande and yielded 42 bushels per acre. Both of these crops are legumes. The lentils were not harvested in 1997 due to extreme disease pressure. Again, in this rotation (every other year broadleaf crop) we expect this to happen in time. The field peas are more tolerant of disease pressure when compared to lentils. |
| Rotation Information |
Performance of
Dryland Rotations | |
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