REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE - (1 of ?)

    Regenerative Agriculture has many definitions, and in some part depends on ones understanding of what makes plants grow and why plants are not growing to their potential when left to the vagaries of the soil they are growing in.  Within my lifetime science has expanded knowledge from four  critical nutrients (NPKS) for plant growth to more than 40.  Most of these are used in very small, amounts by the plants.  As time passes, science will probably identify additional elements critical to plant growth.  This is important knowledge if you are planning to maximize plant growth through nutrient additives.  Is there an option?  Yes, I believe there is!  Research is advancing on many fronts.  This includes the microbial life that lives in soil and the functions they perform.  Along with this we are learning more about plants, and how they access elements they need.   

Water management is basic to Regenerative Agriculture, and in my opinion should be added to the list of principles generally considered (surface cover, minimal mechanical disturbance, diverse cultivars, keeping living roots in the soil, introduce livestock).  One - four - twelve - eighty three, are the significant numbers to consider as you adopt Regenerative Agricultural practices.  These numbers represent how rain water is used in dryland agriculture in the Inland Pacific Northwest according to a 10 year study that ran in the mid 70's to mid 80's by a collaboration of Robert Pappendick and Robert Ramig of Washington State University and Oregon State University. This study was on a two year rotation of winter wheat - fallow.  If that study was done today the numbers may change slightly but the concept wouldn't.  1% goes to surface runoff, 4% goes to deep percolation,  12% goes to transpiration, and 83% evaporates off the soil surface.

--How do you reduce the 1% runoff loss:  1)keep the surface covered, 2)no tillage 3)grow plants.  Item one intercepts and absorbs the high energy associated falling rain drops.  Item two maintains natural channels for water to enter the soil profile.  Item three

--How do you reduce the 4% deep percolation:  1)grow plant cultivars.  This item will intercept rain water before it moves below the depth of plant roots.

--How do you increase the 12% transpiration:  1)grow plant cultivars for a longer period in a year, 2)grow cultivars for more compete ground cover.  These two items reduce the amount of high energy rain water impacting the soil surface.  The more complete the surface cover the more photosynthesis that takes place and that translates to more transpiration.

--How do you reduce the 83% evaporation:  1) have an insulating residue mat, 2)grow plant cultivars, 3) grow cultivars for more compete ground cover, 4) don't till.  These four items combine to modify soil surface temperatures and intercept energy from the rain drop.   The combination of surface residue and growing plants slows water movement across the soil surface allowing time for the water to be absorbed into the soil profile where plant roots can access it. 

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  The current five principles for developing a healthy soil, that translates to Regenerative Agriculture are, -- 1) near zero mechanical soil disturbance, 2) maintaining surface cover, 3) maintaining growing roots in the soil, 4) developing diversity of growing plant cultivars, and 5) introducing livestock.

CLIMATE - FARMING PRACTICES ARE IMPORTANT

   

This intended 2023 post was lost in the mix and never completed; however; I find it's musing still germane to the discussion, so I am posting it now, mid 2026.

 2023: -->  As this harvest nears completion I look over the landscape and see gold and brown.  There is only a small fraction left of the green that dominated the landscape a couple of months ago.  As I reminisce over the year, I realize that gold and brown dominates the landscape most of the time.  The time from when we recognize a green tint to an emerging crop, through the lush green stage, then receding to gold/brown is a relatively small portion of any given year.

    Anyone who has done a study on soil health has come across a number of articles explaining the relationship between farming practices and climate.  A "very" short summation is: -->There is no carbon neutral farming  practice.   Farm land is either giving up Carbon or taking in carbon, and our farming practices directly affect this process .  For the earth to take in carbon from the atmosphere, plants have to be actively growing.  In all other situations, earth gives up carbon to the atmosphere.  Farming practices effect the rate that the earth gives up it's carbon, and how long the ground gives up carbon.  Even in the presents of plants,  we are talking about a net balance of carbon being put into the ground or being released into the atmosphere.  Carbon, at the same time it is being put into the ground, is also being released from the ground through respiration from biology in the soil.  Plants take in CO2, and respire O2, while the supporting soil biology takes in oxygen and respires carbon dioxide.  The best scenario possible, is for the ground to be untilled, and solidly covered with growing plants, where the bottom side of the leaf is intercepting the CO2 leaving the ground surface while the top of the leaf is pulling CO2 from the atmosphere through the photosynthesis process.   Soils contain several gases, that include a large amount of CO2 and O2.  When soils are not disturbed, these gas elements are at a level of equilibrium that are exchanged at low rates between soil and atmosphere.    SOoooo! how do our farming practices effect CARBON.  

     Farmers are traditionalists, and creatures of habit,--with tillage being one of those habits.   A primary effect, when we till, is the burst of CO2 that has been stored in the soil and suddenly released into the atmosphere, whether it is from a moldboard plow, a disc drill, or tine harrow.  It's just a matter of scale.  The initial burst is followed by a continuous release of CO2, diminishing over time until the soil environment reaches a new stable soil condition.  The deeper, more aggressive the tillage the more CO2 that is released.  During the early 70's there were studies on CO2 release from various tillage tools done by Washington State University (WSU) that showed these effects.  A secondary effect of a tillage operation, is the introduction of air (oxygen) to the soil profile.  This added air (O2) combines with available moisture(H2O) and fuel (OM) to accelerate the manufacture of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is released into the atmosphere.  It's like stoking a slow burning fire to get it to flare up and burn hotter.   A third effect of tillage is drying of the soil.  Tillage loosens soil which exposes more soil particle surfaces with its attached moisture.  Most of this exposed moisture evaporates directly into the atmosphere along with the carbon lost in the acceleration of the biological process. 

SHELBOURNE CVS32 vs AGCO 8200 Header

This a reconstruct of a 2019 post that I lost in an attempt to update after I recently noticed that the videos would not run.  This is four years out of sync with the post, (below), titled " STRIPPER HEADER -- YES/NO", August 6, 2023.

Because of CANOLA we upgraded our combine from a 1985 Gleaner N7 to a 2013 Gleaner S77.  The N series did not have enough room in the threshing area to allow canola stems to pass through blocking the area leading to the accelerator rolls.  The S series has an enormous amount of room allowing free flow.  S77 came with a 30' AGCO 8200 flex header with a Crary Air Reel.  The auger has exceptionally deep flighting and retractable fingers the full length of the auger.  It is very aggressive in moving bulky crop material to the feeder house of the combine.

When mounting the Shelbourne 2012 CVS32 on the N7, we upgraded the feeder house mounting that included tilt control.  This allowed us to direct mount the header on a 28 year newer combine.  To this point in time we have been harvesting canola and mustard with the CVS32 and putting up with the blockage issue because the standard head on the N7 did not move bulky material well.  Since we now have the 8200 with the ability to harvest bulky crop material we decided to compare the two headers for harvesting canola.  We liked the CVS32, but had some concern about rotor finger wear from processing the branch material associated with canola/mustard.

The 20 second video above is of the AGCO 8200.  The 38 second video below is of the CVS32. 

 The results of our comparison are:  The measured AGCO 8200 loss was 60% of the CVS32.  There are caveats to this however.  First of all, I was surprised how little seed was in the catch pan with the AGCO even though the reel was deep in the crop as shown in the video.  On the other hand the AGCO was missing a significant number of pods on low branches that didn't show in the pan.    These pods were being pushed down under the cutter bar.  Adjustments probably could have been made to catch those pods.  OK!, I'll accept the idea that the AGCO header has less header loss than the CVS header in canola.   What other comparisons can we make?  The CVS does not strip green material and put it through the processor like a sickle head.  This includes green crop pods/heads, and weedy material.  There was more growling of the processor with the AGCO.  Obviously more material was being processed.   --cleaner sample with the CVS because of less processing of green material.   --faster cutting with the CVS.  The CVS will fly through canola compared to the AGCO.  Speed is limited only by shatter from the pods impacting the nose of the hood.   Less material laying on the ground with the CVS.  Although most of the branching is processed, the stalks along with some branches and weed residue are left standing.  This leaves a better field condition for low disturbance single or double disc drills to seed the following crop.   --less tire wear/damage with the CVS.  The stalks are left longer, hence tires/tracks bend the stalk over instead of spearing.   --better moisture retention.  Long stalks, although not nearly as dense as wheat stubble, does a good job of trapping snow and leaving it in place on the field.

    This year we experienced some rain while harvesting winter wheat.  Even though the amounts were light, the humidity was high and delayed harvest.  With the CVS we were able to start several hours earlier than those with sickle heads.  This condition left the standing stubble with a different look, more head material left on the stalk, but I didn't find one kernel left in a head.  The following pic's are examples.

These heads were picked from the ground.  All the kernels were removed, although they look pretty much intact.  

    We love the Shelbourne heads and use it almost exclusively; however, there are conditions where it won't work as well as a flex head with sickle cut.  Being rigid over 32' is definitely problematic with short crops in our hilly topography.  I drove the combine for the first time in years and found it difficult to keep the header leveled with the crop.  I'm surprised that Kye hasn't complained louder about the need for auto header tilt and height control.  It's critical for the crop hit the nose of the hood at the proper height, and manual tilt adds operator stress to maintain that optimum contact.  Header height is critical for hood height.  We will add the auto control for these two functions next harvest.  Auto header control for the CVS is significantly more expensive than for a regular sickle header.  We were told that more ticklers and faster data processing was needed to avoid ground strikes at speeds operators drive the CVS. 

STRIPPER HEADER --YES/NO

Harvest is upon us and we have had two inquiries about our Shelbourne Stripper Head, so I'm making a post about it.  For more head detail visit the following link.   Stripper Header

 Does a stripper head have a future in your operation?  That will depend on what you want to accomplish. 

PRO's:  --tall stubble is great for snow catch.  Tall stubble will hold yours in place and catch some of your neighbors passing by.   --tall stubble reduces air velocity across the soil surface for potential moisture savings by reducing the replacement frequency of the surface boundary layer.   --there is a significant reduction of material that the combine has to process resulting in less overall machine wear.         --there is a significant reduction in dust at the throat of the feeder house resulting in better operator vision in the evenings with calm conditions.   --generally there is an increased speed of harvesting.    --generally, heavy single disc drills work better because there is less residue laying on the soil surface.   --if you intend to remove the straw, stripper headed stubble is great for swathing and baling.    

CON's:  --stripper heads can leave the field more challenging to seed.  Hoe drills will likely be problematic.   --stripper heads are less adaptable than a conventional cutter bar head for some crop types (crops with deep podding and crops with fragile seed coats).  The adjustable hood over the rotor of the stripper head is restricted to approximately 18"maximum opening for efficient crop intake.  An example, winter canola will set pods ~24"  down the plant compared to wheat at ~8"-12".    --ground hugging crops like lentils subject the rotor to more potential damage from ground strikes.  The stripper head rotor will fling rocks long distances with great force.  --there is a greater concern of starting a fire from vehicles in tall grain stubble.

NARRATIVE:    The Shelbourne Reynolds Company make three models of stripper heads (RX, CVS, RSD) that range from 12' to 42' wide.  Our head is a 2012 CVS32.  They all require an adaptor plate specific to the type of combine it is being mounted on.  We have found that auto tilt and auto height control are good investments to lower crop loss and reduce operator fatigue.  Hood position and rotor speed is operator controlled.  Correct settings of both are important to minimize crop loss, and may need adjusting to match different field conditions through out the day.  Notice that the rotor fingers have an elevated edge forming a cup like shape.  When that elevated edge is gone we consider the finger worn out.  We change out the fingers more frequent than Reynolds representative's told us.  When we inquired about the wear, we were reminded that wear is a function of volume processed.  Our crop yields generally are significantly higher than midwestern yields where the data is developed.

    The WSU dry land research station at Lind, WA. shows no advantage in moisture saving with the stripper head.  This 8"- 12" rainfall site has very little crop residue to work with on light (near powder) soils, exposed to a lot of wind on a relatively flat open landscape.   That station is a challenging site, so I'll revise any statement I may have made on earlier posts in this way, --soil surface armor (cover) is very important for moisture savings when compared to bare soil.  Any crop residue height that can be developed or maintained beyond soil surface cover will have beneficial effects on saving additional moisture.  Thin standing residue with no soil surface cover under it, exposed to blistering sun, will pull moisture fast.

    The stripper head excels in small grains (wheat & barley).  We have harvested wheat-barley-garbs-spring canola-mustard and dry peas.  We currently own a Gleaner S77 and it came with an model 8200 30' auger header with an air assisted reel.  We use the 8200 head for dry peas and brassica (mustard and canola) crops.  With brassica's, most of the plant is processed, hence we found excess wear on the rotor fingers compared to small grains.  Although stripper head loss is low when harvesting brassica's, loss was still approximately twice that of the 8200 air assisted head.  We had excessive seed coat damage when harvesting dry peas.  That may have been do to bad rotor speed adjustment, but the Gleaner 8200 head also has a floating cutter bar for closer cut to the ground, along with deep flighting on a full fingered auger to mover bulky crop material to the feeder house.  We have never harvested lodged wheat that hugs the ground.  We are told that it will recover that type of lodged grain very well.

Stubble can end up taller than the crop after harvesting grain with heavy seed heads .  We mostly notice this phenomena with barley where heads with heavy grain pop up when the grain is removed.  I don't recommend leaving a patch of unharvested crop in the field unless you have the capability of machine mapping to show where you have cut, and where you haven't.

A sign of a farmer with a stripper head.  Avoid going into stripper headed fields when conditions are conducive for fire.  

At the right side of the blog click on "stripper head" under "label".  This brings up all postings on the Shelbourne Reynolds Stripper Header that I have made over the years.

Below are two videos from 2019 showing the Shelbourne stripper head and the AGCO 8200 harvesting canola.  These videos wouldn't play on the 2019 posting and I tried to update, and I think I have botched the whole posting, and maybe more.

2023 WSU Dryland Research Station (Lind, WA)

        WSU's Dry Land Research Station at Lind, Wa. is recognized as having the lowest annual precipitation of all the State and Federal dryland research facilities in the US.  It has a 105 year existence.   The 101 year average is 9.61" per year.  The lowest annual rainfall was 4.36 in 1977, and the highest annual rainfall was 22.71" in 1948.  The 2023 crop year (Sept--May) total is 7.42".  The take home points for me this year (June 15th) are the following:

    --Staff:  The Lind Station has a new Director, Dr. Surendra Singh, a new scientist, Dr. Shikha Singh, and a new Technician, Steven Jaurez.

     --Winter Peas:   There is an attempt expand the normal rotation of (winter wheat - fallow), by introducing winter peas into the rotation.  Current research has shown:  -- providing inoculant increases the yield an average of 6.6%, --discovery of a bacterium that surpasses diseases in peas,  -- discovered a bacterium that develop super sized nodules on pea roots,  -- pea pod weevil are present with no past history of growing peas in the area.  As a result research is ongoing to find resistant varieties to the pest, -- the plots were very short on residue.  The researcher stated that even a small amount of residue in row with the pea made a significant improvement in winter survivability, -- the microbial community was different for different pea varieties,  -- all variety trials were moment seeded in late October.

    -- Endangered Species Act (ESA):  New forms of regulation are being foisted on farming activities in the state.  Some of them may effect agriculture in our area.  I'm including two pic's of a brochure handed out offering some explanation.  It includes a website that we need to become familiar.  

-- Russian Thistles:  are a major pest in low precipitation growing areas.  Currently all control applications of Spartan, Charge, Fierce, and Metribuzin on the plots looked good.  Researchers will be looking for control differences when rain arrives.

2023 McGregor Research Tour

    I always find this to be an interesting tour.  Cat and her crew do a good job.  Take home points for me this year (June 13th)  are the following:

    --Canola:  A large trial plot with a number of different cultivar from different companies.  The plots all looked good, well into flowering.  The plots, visually, looked significantly better than the canola field that bordered the plots.  The field was streaky with, generally, thinner stand with fewer flowers, and the streaks being shorter and flowers turned white, and I didn't notice pods developing.  The cooperator prepared the field and plot area the same, applying 80ppa N, 10ppa S.  The field was seeded at 5ppa of canola seed.  The plot was seeded a week later and had an additional 5gpa of Kickstart for fertility, and was seeded at 6ppa of seed.  That is a lot of seed.  My preliminary information indicates that the Kickstart was the only difference, other than the type of drill used.  I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of Kickstart showing that much difference, but it was obvious right to the border that encircled the plot site.  Maybe waiting a week later helped the plot site.  Foliar feeding has shown some potential benefit, with the best timing being early rosette stage before rapid biomass increase.   [ Earlier, I conversed with Brian Caldbeck, of Caldbeck Consulting.  A couple of useful comments were: --1) he likes 6-7 established plants/sf, and not to count emerged plants because some will not survive.  --2) space the seed out.  When seed clumps together only one or two seeds will germinate.  The others just sit there doing nothing.  --3) hybrids tend to divide out as tall with slender branch spread and shorter with wider branch spread.  He prefers tall/slender on 7"-10" spacing and short/wide on 10"-15" row spacing.

--Wireworm:  They infest a lot of crop acreage and can do damage to yield.  Wireworms are the larva form of the Click Beetle.  They emit a clicking sound, and are highly attracted to the color of white.  An easy check is to park a white pickup in/by the field you are scouting, --if they are there, they will be all over the pickup.  Wireworms prefer soil temperatures in the 55-75ºF range with moisture.  They dive deep when soil temperature reaches ≥ 80ºF.   McGregor has found that a lot of perceived chemical damage is actually wireworm damage.  Wireworms are more widely spread then we realize.  Click Beetles survive in grasslands and crop residue.  Natural predators are: rodents, birds, bats, frogs, lizards, predatory beetles, predatory wasps, predatory mites,  Lacewings, spiders, and preying mantises.  Seed treat with Terassa is quite effective for control.  

--Seed Treats:  Terassa seems effective for wireworm control.  Systiva seems effective for Rhizoctonia.  Relenya seems effective for Bunt Smut.   The Guardian Blend controls 20 diseases, but not wireworm.

--Fertility:  Zinc is best applied to seed compared to in row, side band, broadcast.  Zinc is the #1 limiting micronutrient in Pacific Northwest.  Nitrogen applied at Tillering stage is best timing; however, stabilized N applied at time of seeding has given best yield.    Use foliar feed for needed elements found through SAP testing at flag leaf stage.

--Wheat:  Early-Late seeding.  Best yields appear to develop when seeding early with a late maturing cultivar, and when seeding late, choose an early maturing cultivar.  Winter wheats:  Shine is highly susceptible to dryland foot rot while Blackjack is tolerant to dryland foot rot.  M-Pire has high tolerance to grassy herbides.  --with an awned wheat, awnes indicate developing kernel.  A stubby(short) awn is questionable for development.  An exercise Cat had us do related to early-medium-late seeding of winter wheat.  Seeding dates for the same cultivar was Sept. 15th, Oct. 15th, Nov. 15th.  In all cases the heads were very similar in development.  The main difference was the number of tillers.  The lesson here was, plant higher seed rate as you go farther into late fall to compensate for lack of ability to tiller.

--Herbicide treatments:  This trial consisted of some common herbicides with different mixes and sprayed across several cultivar types to see the crop reaction.   Effectiveness of the treatments varied.  It was pointed out that Clethodim, Paraquat, and Glyphosate needed water conditioning to improve effectiveness.

--RO Water:  Like last year, I think Cat used distilled water in 2023 and called it RO (reverse osmosis) water, but it's not!  McGregor's interest in RO water came about because of the buzz around a few operations using processed water and cutting chemical rates.  The trials looked poor and their warnings about escapements and potential for developing resistance are valid.   In 2023,  there are 9 active water processing units serving ~ 14 farm/ranch operations in eastern Washington and northern Idaho.   Since 2020 a group of us have been looking into the Pursanova Water System.  This system first filters the water, then run it through a reverse osmosis (RO) unit, and then on through "structure" tubes containing beads of specific types of ores.   These are not random rocks.  For more information about water see my posts on "Pursanova -- RO/S Water" by clicking on the "water" label.  There is a lot more to water than we generally recognize.

DWAYNE BECK - CROP DIVERSITY & INTENSITY

      THESE  SHOULD  BE  VIEWED  SEVERAL  TIMES  FOR  AN  UNDERSTANDING

Click on the URL for topics of  NEW AG!    ---->    D. BECK 55:34 Presentation

 No-Till Guru  (Dwayne Beck)  55:34min presentation at the 2019 National No-Till Conference is a great audio/video on making new agriculture practices profitable.  I brought this up from a December 2020 post.  Everything said in this presentation is current today, June, 2023, and more meaningful for some of us who are trying to follow the principles for successfully regenerating our soils and maintaining yields.  The first ~ 18 minutes are about South Dakota, and the Pierre Research Farm.

Click on URL for, "Cover Crop Estabishment and Grazing".  --->  D. BECK 48:08 Presentation  

        No-Till Guru (Dwayne Beck) 2017 presentation talks about Cover Crops and factors to consider when raising them like purpose, and cultivar selection.   Some repeated information in different words.  If I would have found this earlier, I would probably have done better, and be farther along with cover cropping.