WHEAT/BARLEY/FALLOW -- MAY BE POOR D.S. ROTATION

Summary: (updated 11/4/13)

       Our operation has been Direct Seeding for over 20 years.  The rotation for most of those years have been a three year rotation of winter wheat - spring barley or spring wheat - chemical fallow.  It appears this rotation, using Direct Seed, will lead to compacted layers near the soil surface.  Wheat and barley have a fibrous root system that don't have a lot of push.  To remove compacted layers, without  cultivation, our crop rotation needs to include a cultivar with a stronger, deeper root system.

Detail:

       The old ways I learned, which was associated with conventional farming in the 50's, 60's,70's, and 80's, like: a-- don't seed prior to Sept. 15th because of root diseases and aphids,  b--wait for rain to get one last whack at downy brome grass prior to seeding fall wheat, was costly for us in the early days of our Direct Seeding.  It took years to move past that engrained mind set.

        The winter wheat had normally been 10-15 bushels below the high yields in the area.

        One component of winter wheat yield, is, growing time.  In Direct Seeding, our yields joined the top yielding fields in the area when we started seeding early to catch the moisture for early emergence.  Our criteria now is to seed into moisture even if that is August.

        Spring barley and spring wheat crops have not made that break through for us yet; although recent information relating to compaction, and seeding depth may change that.

       We had concern about our current (2013) spring barley crop.  This crop was seeded into 90+ bushel, 40"winter wheat straw left by a stripper header. that did not get prepped properly last fall or this spring with timely applications of glyphosate.  We fully expected to find a serious soil borne disease issue (Rhizoctonia) from the "green bridge".  Two university scientists found little evidence of that; however, they did find that, at shovel depth, there were compaction layers where roots were growing horizontally instead of vertically.  Also noted was the fact that seeding depth was too shallow, which allowed wetting and drying of the seed and poor positioning of the plant crown.

Since research has not found any real problem with plants growing in heavy residue as long as the seed is positioned well in the soil, plant diseases are managed, and there is no light interference from standing stubble, we should be able to grow high yielding spring crops in heavy residue.------>   By:

1-Adding a deep rooted cultivar (chick pea, mustard, canola, alfalfa) to our crop rotation on a regular basis to remove compact areas that restrict vertical root development.

2-Being more diligent in watching field conditions and make depth adjustments for proper crown development.

3-Leave no standing stubble following seeding of the spring crop.

4-Seeing that we maintain crop rotations and field sanitation to avoid plant diseases.

2013 HARVEST -- STRIPPER HEAD

        In it's second year the Shelbourne header performed very well.  Our harvest consisted of winter wheat with excellent yields, spring barley with respectable yields, and spring mustard with below preferred yields.  This year we harvested the mustard with both the standard header and the stripper header.  Header loss was not distinguishable between the two types by observing seed on the ground.  The mustard set seed pods low on the plant this year.  The stripper head picked all of the seed pods, where the standard rigid sickle head missed a lot of pods near the ground.  We did have a field with high moisture, and the low areas grew mustard five feet tall.   This field was cut with the standard head.  This field had a high population of china lettuce, and we felt the stripper head would have received a lot of wear (damage) engaging those tough stalks.   I think that the stripper head would have had higher loss in those areas with the tall mustard because the hood would have had to be wide open.  Although, with the shatter resistants of the mustard seed pod, it's possible, ?????, that  the hood could have been lowered to an acceptable harvest position, ---the mustard would have been pushed and compressed as the stripper head engaged the crop.  We have a neighbor that had a very dense stand of mustard.  It started out tall but lodged.  I think the stripper head would have done well in that condition.
       An observation we have made: ---> immature wheat and barley heads do not strip well.
We all have experienced situations where secondary growth and head development cause problems because that under story of green heads seem never too ripen.  We notice that the stripper head leaves most of those heads intact, thus reducing the contamination in the bulk tank.  That gives you the opportunity for a second harvest, if the timing and quantity warrants it, or food for animals.