This is the first time in my farming career that we have ever seeded this late into the season, and I doubt that we ever do it again. However, with no landlords to worry about, crop insurance in place, and weather forecast of low moisture and hot temperatures, we turned down a custom operator and waited until we finished constructing our drill.
It may be a fools concept, but we believe we have the pieces put together for growing a small grain crop successfully on low moisture and warm temperatures. In general we have a lot of residue to protect the soil surface and, hopefully, that will reduce evaporation leaving more moisture for the crop. We have the drill that allows us to do ultra-low disturbance seeding which, hopefully, will reduce moisture loss allowing more moisture for the crop. I'll update this post after harvest.
WHAT'S OUR THINKING: The criteria is moisture, moisture, and more moisture. We are not in an ideal moisture scenario for the 2014 crop. The winter, early spring moisture was short of prediction. The prediction of dryer than normal summer and slightly higher temperatures appear to be a serious possibility -- so, where is the optimism in this scenario. Maybe in part is being resigned to the idea that this will be a short crop regardless of seeding date. We are already seeing some fields of winter wheat under moisture stress. That is not a good sign.
The back bone of my optimism though goes back to the 1970's unpublished 10 year research project done by WSU and OS on "where moisture goes". (click on the label of "moisture" for more detail) I think it's time has come, but how to measure it????
12% of our rainfall is what we grow our crop on. 83% of our rainfall is lost from evaporation off the soil surface. I have known about this since 1989 and think about it, a lot, --- what could our crops yield if we could shave a few percentage points (1 or 3 or maybe 5%) off the evaporation column and add it to the production (transpiration) column. Ohhhhh -- the possibilities are tantalizing. Researchers of the day, Dr. Pappendick, being one of them, as well as being the presenter of the paper, lamented at the time, that there wasn't much they could do to change those numbers.
Recent studies have shown how moisture is lost from the soil surface. It is all about micro-climates and the balance of gases. There is a micro-climate on the soil surface where humidity can achieve a balance and moisture is neither moving up or down. In fact, it is probably out of balance most, if not all of the time, and moisture is moving into or off of the soil nearly constantly. Don't bother looking for it, it's invisible to the naked eye. Our challenge is to minimize the out bound. That means, do everything possible to keep the top edge of the humidity layer intact. When conditions deplete that layer, natural forces develop that draw moisture from the soil to replace that layer. It may be micro-scopic, but it is a powerful force that will not be denied. That is what robs us of our seed depth moisture. Wind is an obvious culprit, but temperature differential will do the same thing by creating changes in air pressure which results in air movement. Warm air rises and is a powerful force on the soil surface. Dr. Pappendick's final words at that conference long ago are golden today. "There is not much we can do other than keep the soil surface as cool and calm as possible." We have the tools today that allows us to begin, and the future promises better tools.
There was a time in my youth when I observed that snow stayed about 4-6" below the top of our stubble. As I began my farming career I concluded that 4-6" of stubble was adequate to keep wind off the soil. Well, that was obviously wrong. It is better stated that the wind velocity slowed to the point that snow or dirt particles were not moving, but there was significant air velocity at that level. For years I mowed the stubble attempting to seal the surface with residue. That resulted in high wind velocity near the soil surface, and there was never enough stubble to completely cover the soil surface. Sometimes the residue blew away, and it seemed that seed depth moisture was leaving faster, and going deeper. Mowed stubble gives the illusion of surface protection. In recent years I have come to the conclusion that if you see dirt you don't have enough residue. That attitude is becoming more strongly reinforced in me every year as I observe fields.
This brings me to the stripper header. I've come to believe that residue height is the best deterrent to wind. The higher the residue the lower the wind velocity at the soil surface. Its a shame that all crops can't be harvested with it. It's also a shame that we have the put machine tracks through it. Tall grain stubble leaves a nice visual effect; however, I have observed that even spindly mustard stalks standing knee to thigh high reduces wind velocities significantly at the soil surface. Keep in mind that everything is relative. Tall spindly mustard stalks is about the same or better than thin mowed grain stubble, but not nearly as good as standing wheat or barley stubble. Tall grain stubble is better yet. If you have a thin layer of residue laying on the soil surface along with tall stubble, that is even better. If you can then add to that layer as time passes, that is even better. You finally reach a point where your surface moisture loss is low enough that you will have good seed bed moisture whenever you need it, whether that be July, August, September or October. This in itself expands your opportunities for crop diversity and the ability to build bio-mass. The stripper header is a great tool to maximize residue height in the quest to capture soil moisture, but it has an inherent problem --- how to get the cash crop seeded into good earth with all that residue on and above the soil surface. Four years ago we hit the wall with residue when it came time to seed with our hoe type DS drill at Thornton. It was time for a different drill, one that wouldn't leave piles, one that would cut through a heavy mat of residue, one that would plant small and large seed, one that didn't destroy residue, one that minimized moisture loss during the planting process.
The CrossSlot drill opener was our answer to this problem. (see the post by clicking on the CrossSlot label) We had a custom operator seed for us while we came to the decision to build our own. There have been opportunities to "seed for knowledge" but no drill was available for small acreage on short notice. We are also looking at bringing a significant number of CRP acres back into production and, hands down, the CrossSlot is the drill of choice for that job. There are several single disc drills available; however, I don't think they can match the CrossSlot in difficult seeding conditions. The CrossSlot does not appear to require any land or residue preparation to seed and develop a satisfactory stand. The future is with UltraLowDisturbance. Hoe type DS drills will never meet the demands of the future; however, they are good starter drills and I encourage their use. With the CrossSlot, Kye now has a drill that he can take that next leap of faith when the time comes. Inter-crop seeding,cover crops to enhance bio-mass, and developing systems to grow crop nutrients and reduce commercial inputs are the future. These are exciting fields of study. Research supporting organic farming will likely to be the driver for breakthroughs in fertility. This drill, I am confident will be able to accommodate that technology when it is developed, and that is probably not far off.
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