Kennewick, WA. January 2015: Over 500 pre-registered.
This location is a great venue, with plenty of lodging, good food, and a meeting facility that is particularly suited with exhibit areas, breakout rooms and main meeting room. The organizers do an excellent job of weaving formal presentations, informal presentations, and break time where producers can get together with other producers, and researchers to clarify points given in the presentations or pick up information specific to their operations
The meeting consisted of updated information by growers and researchers on raising oil crops on soil health, and about cover crops. Most of the presentations on cover crops included a livestock component. As informative as they are, managing livestock does not address my reason for introducing cover crops into our cash crop rotation. I want to know how to use the cover crops to build the nutrient base, increase SOM, feed the soil biological life, and maintain seed zone moisture for successful emergence of a fall planted winter wheat crop. There were bits and pieces that I gleaned from the presentations that I found helpful.
Some salient points that I gleaned from the conference:
---The closer the growing point of canola is to the soil surface the better the winter survivability. That is a challenge for us that are working to build a mat of residue on the soil surface. Our CrossSlot will slice through a heavy mat. Will the slot clearance be adequate to establish the growing point near the soil surface?
---Canola needs 300 GDD going into winter. (A good number to have for reference.)
---Highest survival comes from successful emergence of a mid to late August planting.
---Planting the first week of August seems to provide best emergence of canola in eastern Wa.
---Canola will die if the ground is frozen 4" deep and there are single digit temperatures? Some say definitely yes, and some say not necessarily.
---Semi-dwarf canola cultivars are becoming available. (Will they yield similar to the tall varieties and be short enough for our stripper header to cut?)
--- Cover crops use moisture similar to what fallow loses through evaporation --until flowering. (There are caveat's to this, so don't take at face value!)
--- To maximize the biological activity in the soil, live roots need to be present at all times of the year. (The green bridge has kind of fallen off the radar. The last three years we have had two opportunities for "green bridge" to bite us and it hasn't -- what's happening?)
--- We harvest light energy, so holes in the crop canopy causes losses.
--- 75% humidity is threshold for rapid decay of residue. (Our region is well below that level, even under irrigation except for the time water is being applied.)
--- Cover crops will raise humidity level and increase decomposition of stalk and stems.
--- 18 pounds of pelleted compost from Royal Organics LLC (wheat grain size) added to seed row showed significant yield increase in wheat and canola. (maybe some potential here? Their compost apparently is dead not very dead since their claiming active biological activity. I'm thinking it's holding a little more moisture(?))
--- In general, crops utilizes only 2% of the soil profile. (?) (We need to improve the rooting of our plants to occupy more of the profile and harvest more of the moisture and nutrients that are available.)
--- The first 4" of moisture builds the plant. Every inch above that has yield potential.
--- water efficiencies (bu/in) have been measured in the range of 3-12 bushels of wheat per inch of moisture. Most efficiencies are in the 5-8 bushels per inch. A high management level is required to approach the 12 bushels per inch, and higher inputs will be required.
