2016 SPRING CROP UPDATE

      SUMMARY:  Nothing compares to the CrossSlot for direct seeding into adverse seedbed conditions.  Our 2016 crop consists of WW, WP, DNS, SB, SP, M.  All the crops emerged well with good populations, and growing.  Our crop year is starting out 1-4 weeks early, depending on what indicator you use.  The lilacs are 4 weeks early, cheatgrass is ≈1 week early,  The Iris are 3 weeks early.  Our moisture gain faltered in April with only 0.5"and nothing is showing in May to this point.  Warm weather is upon us, and stored moisture is depleting.  This may be another year that will tell us more about the moisture saving aspects of tall residue, ground surface cover, and using a ULD seeding system compared to the bare soil with conventional tillage.  I have been watching different operations in the area.  Conventional tillers have gone over the fields with 5 trips, and some with as many as 7 trips to get their crop in the ground.  We have sprayed and seeded.  Our crop stands are better than most, and comparable to the best.  With CT and the closer drill row spacing those fields (in their better ground areas) look fuller; however, studies have not shown yield increase with that system, --everything else being equal.  The closer row spacing normally will canopy quicker offering the potential of lower moisture loss from evaporation on bare soil.  With all this being said, there are times that I wonder if 8" row spacing would have been better for spring cropping, even with the CS.

WINTER WHEAT (WW):

       We are very pleased with the progress of the crop at this point in time.  We have two ages of cultivars in the field.  One emerged on time near the end of September and is tall and a good dark green color.  The other emerged in November. It has good growth and a dark green color but is 6-8" shorter (this includes the CC winter wheat which has the same height, but a little lighter in color).  Very surprising is that both cultivars are in the 8 leaf stage.  What did the older cultivar gain in the 6 weeks extra growth other than longer internodes?  We will check the head size and fertile meshes when the time comes.

         The cover crop area WW has good height and color for it's late start in the fall.  It will be interesting to see what the yield lag may be between the CC and CF winter wheat.  We have a long border between the two that will give us some indication as to yield difference on comparable soils.  The CC field generally has much shallower soils than the CF field.

         Another question without an answer:  --Our small wheat, which went into the winter in a similar condition to most of the other WW in the area came out of the winter in better condition.  Ours came out of the winter growing, while most of the crops around us did not (and in some cases, have not), --why?  With a relatively open winter and significant rainfall, it was expected that N would have converted and leached down into the 2-3-4 foot level of the profile.  Most of the little wheat in the area acted as if that were the case.  Ours did not, --why?   I can only assume that our years of no-till played a role; however, our soil tests don't show the qualities that would lead to that conclusion.  Recent discussion with Dave Huggin's from WSU, reinforces my belief that there is a lot about soil tests and their interpretation that we don't understand for soils in our environment.  The biological tests I have taken show our soils in poor condition including it's structure; however, the Slake test shows great aggregate stability from our years of no-tilling.  Experience has shown me that our infiltration is much better, than the soils around me that are conventionally tilled.  Other than the Feb. 2014 thaw, we have had no water leave our fields for years, while the conventional tilled fields regularly have water running down the slopes and into the ditches during storm or winter events.  There is something going on here that is not explained by our normally accepted testing procedures.

AUSTRIAN WINTER PEAS (WP):

[Update: May 13]  We are applying Bassagran on the WP field that will be harvested.  Jim Hill Mustard has bolted and blooming.  A few purple winter pea blossoms are showing on the south exposures.  Our earlier application of Select II for grass weeds did not work well on the borders.  Downey Brome will be with us in the next crop.  The Rattail Fescue under the CRP, eyebrows and some area on our borders was missed as well.  Next year we will post seed/pre emerge Sharpen and Tricor 4F for weed control.  I have spotted two areas damaged from a cold night at the end of April.  Neither weeds or WP's have regrown.  Because of the poor growth of  the mustards, I have some concern there may be chemistry reaction rather than frost.

      We seeded WP (winter peas) last November in what was termed dormant seeding.  You want them seeded deep.  Austrians are a dark speckled little thing and I found them difficult to locate in all the duff.  The ones I did find were much shallower than our intended 2-3" which was cause for worry.  Our understanding at the time was that the peas needed to break germ before freeze up, but not emerge before spring.  We seeded them at 100#/ac.  They came up thick this spring.  For insurance purposes, since they were seeded beyond the closing date last fall, we had to have the stand evaluated to qualify for insurance.  The count was 3 times more than needed and were calculated at 4200#/ac for yield (under perfect growing conditions).

       The Austrians on SW stubble look great with few weeds.  The Austrians planted into garb ground  are not salvageable.  Between volunteer garbs and a heavy population of several varieties of wild mustard, those acres will not go to harvest.  They were reevaluated by the insurance company so that we could destroy the stand prior to harvest.  Our understanding of how the insurance works is, --since we applied for insurance and the stand was accepted we will pay the premium on all the planted acres.  The yield was recalculated showing the garb ground had the potential of ≈2100#/ac.  At harvest this yield calculation will be added to the harvested amount for yield history.  We now are free to do whatever we wish for those garb/austrian acres but those acres will not be eligible for insurance in 2016.  The garbs are starting to bloom, and the austrians are in the thirteenth node, standing about 6-8 inches.  Both legumes are forming an abundance of root nodules.  What to do???  Our current thought is to manage the acres as a cover crop.  We have a fair diversity of plant material, --garbs, peas, and several varieties of mustards that are rooting deep in great abundance.  There is some dog fennel, a few fiddle neck tar weed, some lambs quarter, some prostrate knotweed, very few russian thistle, some china lettuce, and few if any grass plants.  We don't want the weeds to seed out, nor the peas to go beyond early podding for maximum N development.  Since this acreage is planned for a spring cereal in 2017, we are not concerned about the required destruction by June 1st for summer fallow yield protection for 2017 WW.  Current thought is to max N development from peas and garbs.  If weed development comes on faster than the legumes we'll mow the acreage and manage for the regrowth.  If the legumes reach the proper stage prior to the weeds, we'll apply chemical and hold as CF until spring of 2017.  These acres won't look pretty because we will leave the residue stand.  We're hoping to have a mat of pea vine but the austrians appear to be growing slowly.  We had a frosty night a few days ago and the top node of the peas turned yellow, slowing them up.  The wild mustards are having a banner year.  Since we have been killing them for 100 years and the population doesn't seem to decrease, I'm not worried about them developing some seed.  They are easy to kill in any grass type crop. 

       SURPRISES:  ---after years of clean CF through timely applications of Rt3 and Valor, and having clean appearing grain crops, mustards have populated most of the garb/austrian ground with high populations. Russian thistles and china lettuce, although present, have a very low population.  That's a testament for using Valor in the fall to combat those two aggressive weed species.   ---grassy weeds are nearly nonexistent, showing that grass control chemistry for our broadleaf crops are killers, not suppressors.  Our past rotations with only small grains and CF, Downy Brome was always present in yield depressing amounts.   ---the number of billy beans (garbs) that took root and grew this spring.  Weeds are problematic, but we have chemicals, swathers, and pickup heads for harvesting that type of contamination; however, billy beans are a "grade issue" that is not manageable.  Even if they didn't mature with the peas, it's feared many would end up in the grain bin.  I don't think they would have rooted if there was good surface cover.
       With the next WP crop we will want to consider putting down Tricore 4F following the seeding for broadleaf weed control and maybe the Sharpen as well.

DARK NORTHERN SPRING (DNS) & SPRING BARLEY (SB):       

      Our DNS and SB both have great stands.  They are not perfect.  There are breaks in the rows in places, but mostly the wheat and barley emerged rapidly without winding it's way to the surface.  The stands look pretty much like soldiers shoulder to shoulder on parade,  --straight cotyledons, even color, even height, even fill.  It's difficult to tell how even the stand is from a distance because of the color differences and reflection off the residue.  We seed between 1.5 and 2" deep.  Standing stubble gives us less trouble drilling than stubble laying down.  Stubble  firmly attached to the ground is the easiest regardless of the volume.  Loose or rotted stubble will, on occasion, catch on the spring plate of the blade and drag, causing a pile.  We have a few of these in some of the fields.  They are unsightly.  We'll eliminate most of them over time as we gain experience on setting the drill for the field condition.  We are trending to the long blades for both sides of the disc.  They allow us the most space between the ground and the spring plate when we go for depth.  Currently CS doesn't provide a long blade for the left side with a fertilizer tube.  We hope that becomes available soon.

MUSTARD (M):

      Mustard was seeded next and it has taken longer to see the stand establishment than I expected.  We seeded about 6#/a.  We couldn't find any of the seed except at the opener when stopped.  We trusted that the CS put the seed where we wanted it.  It did.   The bare ground (truck roads, ridges) showed early, while the heavy residue (90u WW stubble) took longer to show.  Stand is good, measuring 6 plants per foot of row on 10" row spacing.  It's not as even a stand as I would like (void, then clump of seedlings).  The plants are not standing like soldiers in line, shoulder to shoulder as with the wheat and barley.  Unless we put a planter together with it's singulation capability, this is probably what we have.

SPRING PEAS (SP):

     Spring Stand Up Peas were the last crop seeded.  Seeded 160#/ac.  Excellent stand in heavy residue.  We applied Sharpen and Tricor 4F, as a premerg application for weed control.