‘Best of the Best’ – East and West

Excellent crowds – east and west – turned out for the ‘Best of the Best’ production workshops, sponsored by the North Dakota Grain Growers Association, North Dakota Wheat Commission,  Minnesota Wheat Research and Promotion Council, Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers, and the Extension Service at North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota. The workshops at Williston and Bismarck focused on wheat production from a western N.D. perspective, and the program at Grand Forks and Moorhead had more of a Red River Valley perspective, and included soybean production information.  Review the presentations online as a PDF or as Powerpoint at www.smallgrains.org. 

A few notes from the meetings:

Trends in planting equipment

• General movement away from air seeders and towards air drills, which offer better seeding precision.
• New ways to apply fertilizer (such as variable rate applicators)
• Side banding – using low draft double-shoot openers that place a band of fertilizer two to three inches below and to the side of the seed in a single pass. Higher rates of fertilizer can be applied while minimizing damage to seedlings.
• Mid-row banding as another method that places fertilizer to the side of the seed. The difference between mid-row banding and double-shooting is that fertilizer is placed between every second seed row using a separate knife, disc or coulter.
• Disc openers are coming back.  They’re made better these days, and allow planting smaller seeded crops while minimizing residue and moisture disturbance.
• More use of soil levelers or furrow closers that allow faster planting speeds and wider openers.
• Residue management wheels. It basically consists of a wheel that runs to the side of the opener. The wheel pins the residue beside the opener rather than pushing it up the shank and plugging up the opener.

– NDSU extension ag engineer John Nowatzki, with reference to the AgTech Centre, Lethbridge, Alberta

Tips for Direct Seeding and No-till Success

• Manage the residue, beginning with adequately cut and spread crop residue at harvest.
• Use proper seeding equipment – there is more rental or demonstration use of equipment these days before making a major capital investment.
• With elimination of tillage, know how to use herbicides that replace it.
• Recognize no-till is a system – not just a drill.
• No one year is the same as the previous year – adapt to conditions on the farm and in the market place.
• Each step in no-till sequence is dependent upon the previous step.
• A successful no-till producer understands and applies biological principles – what’s going on with and beneath the soil.
• Equipment and management used should meet the biological needs of the crop.
• Communicate – attend no-till meetings, visit with university, government, and industry representatives, visit with zero-till farmers.

– Roger Ashley, area extension agronomist, Dickinson Research and Extension Center, with information from the Zero Tillage Production Manual, Manitoba North Dakota Zero Tillage Farmers Association

Consider Moving Poorest Bean Ground to Grains
Consider using this year as an opportunity for a long term disease management strategy, and an opportunity to lengthen the soybean rotation.  However, crop placement is crucial – don’t make knee-jerk reactions like moving your best soybean ground to grains. Push the pencil on returns per acre on a farm-by-farm basis.  It may be likely that your poorest soybean producing ground should be in grains for best overall returns. Consider grains on fields that may be troubled with iron deficiency chlorosis, soybean cyst nematode, or wheat on fields that are ‘droughty.’

– Seth Naeve, U of M soybean agronomist

Apply most N before or at planting
Research at NDSU shows that splitting or delaying the application of N until the 4 leaf stage did not significantly increase yield or grain protein content.  Based on a reasonable yield goal, it’s generally best to apply all nitrogen before planting. If considering split applications, a reasonable strategy for applying nitrogen might be to apply the entire N requirement based on a modest yield goal at planting. Then, if early in the season, it appears that your crop has the potential to exceed your goal, apply additional N using streamer bars prior to the 6 leaf stage.

  – Joel Ransom, NDSU extension cereals agronomist.  See more detailed information on intensive wheat management research on the NDSU Small Grains Page, www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/aginfo/smgrains (scroll down to ‘High Profit/Intensive Wheat Production Resources’)

The Best of the Best production workshops included ‘hands on’ demonstrations, including a session in Moorhead on soybean
growth and development, led here by U of M regional
extension educator Hans Kandel.

Use Historic Yield Tendency to Guide Fertility
Certainly, cutting back on fertilizer N too much will affect yield and quality of most crops. But generally, yield response to N, and economic return compared to the cost of N, tends to level off at high N rates. Know existing soil N in fields through soil sampling analysis, and establish reasonable yield goals based on past experiences and historical average yield.  Use the historical yield average for a field and current fertilization recommendations for wheat to arrive at a base N rate.  Then from the recommended total N rate, consider decreasing the rate by about 10% for 30-cent N, and 15% for 40-cent N.

Adjusting fertility rates with wheat can be complex, given the consideration of how it can impact both yield and protein. Generally, however, as wheat prices are reduced by 50 cents, optimum economic return rates decline by about 10 lb N/acre.  And as N prices increase by 5 cents/lb N, optimum economic N rates decline by about 10 lb N/ac.  Take a look at historical yields on the farm and consider that for at least wheat, the possibility of growing greater than 10% of the average yield happens less than 20% of the time, so using this historical average as a basis for N rate decisions may be warranted.

P should always be seed-placed or placed near the seed. Broadcast P is less efficient and takes more  to accomplish similar yield increases. Application of P for both wheat and soybean to the wheat crop would be wise and would save an application trip on soybeans, which are good P scavengers.

Wheat is not responsive to the application of most micronutrients. An exception would be copper. In a survey of soils in ND, Cu was highest in depressions (higher in OM) and lowest

 in hilltop and slope (even in the Valley). Copper was studied extensively on wheat between 1996 and 2000. Responsive sites were very sandy, low in organic matter. Still, among soils studied in this category, only about 15% of sites were responsive.

Chloride levels in the Valley are generally high, although less in sands and may need periodic attention and at least soil testing. Look for soil test levels less than 40 lbs, and an application of 5-10 lb Cl is sufficient for yield increases.

Soybean should receive no N regardless of soil test. The higher the residual nitrate content, the higher the risk for increased incidence and severity of iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC).

On low testing soils, in narrow rows, some band-applied P in soybeans is better than no P. On medium soils and higher, soybeans would do OK without P in that year, but soil test for P more frequently to prevent soil P levels from decreasing.

The only Fe fertilizer that has consistently helped alleviate the IDC problem is FeEDDHA. A new formulation is out that is reasonably priced, and may have some value to aid in reducing soybean yield losses.

– David Franzen, NDSU extension soils specialist.  NDSU fertility recommendations on the web: www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/soilfert.html