Blogger change

     Google is changing Blogger's appearance.  My understanding is that the new look will make the Blogs more user friendly for devices like cell phones and pads pads.   It's one of those advancements required of the times, but it's making me learn some new process' that I don't really want to do.  I guess it's not an option if I'm going to continue with this blog, so, will persevere.  I need to do some updating and posting new items since harvest is completed for us.

ROD WEEDER VS PLANT HEALTH

This post relates to an earlier post [TILLAGE VS NO TILLAGE 3/2/20].   I had a very rare opportunity to compare crop response between using the rod weeder and not using the rod weeder.  In the pic to the left, everything is the same except seeding date and use of the rod weeder.   The yellowish tint (background) is the result of the crop roots growing in a low oxygen environment created by the the rod weeder.  The crop in the foreground did not have a rod weeder used prior to seeding.  The rod weeder, a regularly used tool with conventional tillage systems, creates a compaction layer where the bar presses and smears the soil it comes in contact with under the bar, while at the same time fluffs and loosens the soil that goes over the bar.  Compaction layers slow the movement of water into (through) the soil profile which can, and in this case, did, cause the moisture content to remain above the field capacity for a significant amount of time.  This excess moisture replaces oxygen in pore spaces and leads to an anaerobic condition.  An Anaerobic soil condition increase growth of organisms normally associated with decreased plant health.  Aerobic soils increase growth of organisms normally associated with promoting plant health.

    [Feb. 10th pic]  This pic (from the yellowish field) shows a very wet root ball.  I could not remove the dirt for a decent pic of the root structure.  The roots were bunched with few roots extending deeper into the profile.   If you enlarge this pic, and compare with the one below,   you can detect more yellowing of the plant leaves associated with oxygen deprivation compared to the pic below.
     How this condition will effect overall yield compared to the crop in the pic below will be hard to assess because of so many variables inherent with two different operations and the weather from now to harvest.   An example, --two recent events of very cold nights, one on April 13th @ 10ºF and the other April 17th @ 19ºF, and since then, many mornings with temps in the mid to upper 20's.  When scouting on April 14th, the crop in the pic above was not jointing, while the crop in the pic below was jointing.   The seed head associated with jointing could be vulnerable to freeze damage.  During these events, the younger crop was showing serious leaf damage with color change and laying flat to the ground,  while the older crop showed no leaf damage.  Symptoms of cold damage in the area were reported as related to cultivar type, and plant size.

     [Feb. 10th pic]  This plant shown on the left is from the crop in the foreground of the pic at the top (dark green).  The roots are quite  damp but I was able to knock the dirt ball loose, exposing the root structure.  The roots extended deep into the profile with no root mass near the crown of the plant.  It was obvious the moisture was draining more quickly into the profile.

     There is one more point related to water infiltration that I want to make, --that is, comparing the conventional fallow based system (the three pic's above), too a bordering field with a long history of direct seeding shown in the pic below.

[Feb. 10th pic]
    The pic on the left shows winter wheat growing in a long term ultra-low disturbance direct seed field with surface armor well above the 100% NRCS residue chart.   Notice how much dryer the roots look in this pic compared to either pic above.  The wet dirt was easily removed, leaving much of the root system intact.  The roots are growing and elongating very well.

    This post brings up another subject, --fall tillering compared to spring tillering.  I'll address that subject in another post.

   

EFFECTS OF FIRE ON SOIL HEALTH

     Fire has always been controversial.  In the past I have used it, and may, in a rare circumstance use it again.   With the equipment we have available to us now, fire is an outdated, archaic practice.
     It has been obvious to me for many years that fire was destructive to soil health.  Denuding a field by any means, negatively impacts soil.  Fire not only removes the litter that, at some point in time will become part of the organic component of the soil, but it also burns some of the SOM already present.  The soil, losing its cover, is exposed to the natural elements and become warmer in the summer and colder in the winter.  Bare soil effects natural processes, some associated with temperature extremes, that impact moisture available to the soil as well as moisture in the soil.  This in turn effects the soil biota, that effects nutrient cycling, which has an effect on raising crops.  This is not linear as the statement may insinuate, but is a complex interrelationship of many elements.  We are slowing gaining the understanding that processes resulting from less tillage, and more cover is basic to improving soil health.



   
   

TILLAGE vs NO TILLAGE

      We have recently taken on some land with conventional fallow to seed this fall.  We have not dealt with conventional fallow for 25 years, and are no longer equipped for that condition.  This field has well over a 100 year history of tillage.  In our area, do to the geological history, that includes the Great Missoula Floods, most fields have several soil types.  [ Missoula Floods is a 3:50 minute animated video showing some history of our Palouse Hill landscape. ]  By the time fall seeding takes place, a cultivated field has had several tillage operations, and it's usual to have areas that powder and flow down slope in front of an implement.  It's hard to hold seed at the desired depth in that situation.  The pic shows a raindrop impacting bare soil.  When rain falls, soils on cultivated fields tend to seal up due to poor structure left by impacting raindrops and tillage.  With these conditions, the most successful tillage systems I have observed, are those that reduce the number of tillage passes to reduce aggravating powder development, and for the last pass prior to seeding, use a spiral packer to firm up the ground for the drill opener gauge wheel.
      A decision had to be made on how to get this cultivated fallow field seeded.  Rather then take the time to round up equipment to prepare this field for conventional seeding practice, Kye decided to take his chances with our heavy no-till CrossSlot drill, follow it with a tine harrow, and hope for the best, --expecting to do some reseeding later.  Conditions allowed the crop to emerge and reseeding was unnecessary.  Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.
       Some fields, or areas within fields, may require 3-5 years of no tillage to stop the seal over effect of the soil left from years of intense cultivation.  We hope with our no-till experience, we can shorten that time frame without giving our landlord a hemorrhage.
      When we started no-tilling there were problems that needed to be worked out.  In our early no-till years there was no path for success developed through many years of experience, as there was with the conventional tillage system.  That is behind us now, and transition can be shortened by years.
      Now, --what do I see as significant between the two systems (tillage - no tillage) that exist side by side sharing a 3/4 mile long border, in our Palouse Hills region.  We have had only a few months to deal with the cultivated ground but a few things have stood out.
      ---The no-till fallow ground is firm with good armor and operations create little or no dust.  There was no dust coming off the field during windy conditions.
      ---The tilled fallow ground has deep (2-4") soft dirt with no armor and it was very dusty from any operation performed.  The exposed surface did produce dust from wind when it blew before the surface sealed.
      ---This mild winter, allowed us to walk all over our no-tilled field without sinking.  With care, I seldom got mud up the side of my boots.  That was not the case with the tilled/winter wheat field.  Walking in that field always left your boots a mess and you left deep tracks where you walked.
      ---The no-till fallow/winter wheat ground did not seal the surface when rainfall occurs.
      ---The tilled fallow/winter wheat ground sealed over immediately from light rainfall.  Fortunately most of the winter wheat had emerged by the time measurable rain events arrived, and what wasn't emerged, was very shallow and able to push through the thin weak crust that formed on the soil surface.
      ---In early February, when scouting the fields, as I walked down our steep (20-40% slopes), there was no noticeable increased squishiness in the no-till fields.  Our no-till fields have a very high infiltration rate and no tillage pan to restrict water movement through the upper profile.  There was noticeable squishiness as I progressed down the slope in the conventional fallow/winter wheat field.  This condition is when water moves slowly under the surface, on or near the restricting tillage transition zone from high to low elevations.  Surface erosion was expected, but did not show in the conventional tilled field.
      There is much that I could say to support no-tilling over tillage; however, this post is to utilize the rare opportunity to compare side by side effects between no tillage and tillage as we experienced them.

Climate & Water Vapor

     Throughout this past year there has been numerous reports of rainfall in excessive amounts in many different locations throughout the US.  It seems like reports have come in from everywhere except the Inland Northwest, --us.   In October there were reports of flooding along the Snoqualmie river in western Washington.  Now it is no surprise to hear that the Snoqualmie floods.  That's an annual spring event when the snow pack starts melting off the western slopes of the Cascade Mts, --but in October!!!(???), that's most unusual.  Last fall I read where there were 10's of thousands acres of farmland flooded along the Missouri River this past year and that currently there are thirty thousand acres of farmland still under water and expected to stay underwater until April when the 2020 flood season normally starts.  In recent years I have been watching/listening to reports of heavy rainfalls throughout the US.  They use to be associated with thunder storms on the Great Plains and the areas around the southeast and the gulf hit with the occasional hurricane.  Not any more.  Heavy rainfall events are now being reported west of the Rockies with southern California receiving heavy rainfall events as well as along the Oregon coast and now maybe the Washington coast. West of the Cascade Mts., particularly Seattle (the Emerald City) is noted for it's rainy weather, and of coarse, the Olympic Rainforest is a historical feature of Washington, so rain is not a new phenomenon; however, the amounts and in the time received may be changing.  I can't even imagine the damage to our farmland should we start receiving rains that measure in the inches per hour.  These thoughts  play a part for the passion I have to armor our fields and increase moisture infiltration.  How long will it be before we have to endure one of these high volume rain events?  There was a time that I thought our location between the Rocky and Cascade mountains would shield us from any devastating weather event, but, I'm not so sure any more.
      Atmospheric rivers (of water) seem to be more prevalent around the globe.  We mostly hear about what is going on in the US, but other places are getting similar weather events.  In one of her presentations, Dr. Christine Jones, makes reference to the excessive atmospheric moisture, and questions why more attention is not given to that greenhouse pollutant.  I did a quick google search of atmospheric pollutants and found that neither CO2 or moisture was listed as a pollutant.  There are caveats, to these and other elements, depending on the authors specific mindset.  The media gives us the impression that the debate is over, but what I see in the weeds, is that the debate is anything but over.  There is a lot more than CO2 involved with our climate and we don't understand what that is.

TOO TOUGH TO SEED --(??)

      What a disappointment to have this outfit on our property.  The only thing good about this is that they came quickly and sucked up acres fast with three swathers and four balers.    They wanted this long (stripper headed) straw.  When the main field was baled, they estimated 3000#/a.  We are getting $10/t, but that's about a third to a half of the value of the nutrients that we are losing through this removal process, plus the loss of carbon from the removed residue.  We will have to put up with stacks of bales for 90 days while they age and ready for the mushroom industry.  A constant reminder of failure.

This was an extra ordinary year in many aspects.  Generally, this year, the spring crops were good to excellent for potential.  The late spring start ended up with a late harvest for many operators.  Even though most everyone has crop insurance, this is not going to be a good year for those that still have crop to harvest (now it is moving into the latter half of October).  There are thousands of acres of garbs, spring wheat, and even some winter wheat still in the field.  In my 65 years of being in the field I don't remember ever seeing harvest in this area this late.  Our spring wheat crop averaged ~65b/a, with a range of 40-130b/a across the fields.  Even the heavy high yielding areas, as pictured here, only produced  ~ 4k#/a residue, which is nothing compared to the 20k#+/a that we had successfully drilled with the CrossSlot, the spring of 2014.  We never expected to have any trouble drilling into this residue, but after several fitful days of adjustment, and even putting all new coulters on the drill, we admitted defeat and looked at alternatives, --either bale or fire.  We chose bale, as the lessor of two evils.  Fire, although the ground and surface residue was damp, may have caused more damage by burning into the soil where partially decayed residue resided.  Cultivation was never considered due to it's lasting destructive effect on soil health.  We are too far along the path to a healthy soil to revert back to that destructive practice.
     WHY ARE WE HAVING THIS TROUBLE?   We were convinced the CrossSlot was a foolproof drill capable of drilling any field condition where crops are grown without any field preparation?  One caveat we knew was that the residue needed to be dry so the notched coulter could cut at least most of the residue it encountered.  This residue appeared dry, but it was tough.  My serrated clipper struggled cutting the residue at ground level, and you could ring a shock of stubble in your hands and not break it apart.  Our rational then became, --we had never drilled into spring or winter wheat stubble that had not first gone through a winter, hence, some decomposition had taken place prior to any attempt to seed into the residue.
     THEN CAME ANOTHER SURPRISE!  The pic above is part of a 3ac, three cornered patch that was not baled.  This was one of our higher yielding areas.  The day after the remainder of the field was swathed and baled, Kye was able to drill this patch without any issues,--WHY???  The simple answer is: --The residue became cut-able!  Time had given us enough dry days to lower humidity to the point the residue could be broke apart.
     Well, we lost this years residue on these fields but it is worth the knowledge gained, being,--one, we don't necessarily have to wait for wheat stubble to deteriorate by going through a winter, and, two,  it was once again shown that the CrossSlot needs dry residue to be successful.
     What a whiplash this past week has been, --going from no expectation of trouble, to a revelation that we can't seed this field, and back to OK, it's seeding just fine.
   

MAN and CLIMATE

    I have been skeptical about man being able to influence the climate, but I have become a believer.  Increasing atmospheric CO2 and NO3 levels are just a part of what I see as being influenced by man.  Desertification appears to me to be a bigger problem, and we, in the worldwide agricultural community, are a major part of the problem, -- along with the spatial needs generated by 7.9 billion people.  (In my lifetime world population has more than tripled from 2.2b)
 
      The earth's climate is dynamic, changing continually.  Natural cycles resulting from the earth's tilt, relationship to other planets, their orbits, and earth's position to the all important sun and our moon, have powerful influence on the earth's climate.  Thirty years of lecturing by Dr. Art Douglas has left no doubt in my mind on the importance of these cycles.
      Our use of fossil fuels probably is contributing to CO2 buildup that so many are claiming to be the major cause of climate change.   It's the goto energy source for 7.9b people with an infrastructure that gradually developed over more than a 100 years, and we probably ought to change, --but to what?  I hope I'm wrong but it seems that we have taken a hiatus on working out the problems with fusion reaction, and  fission waste disposal is a nasty issue.  I view wind power  as nothing more than a scam, a money pit that has fleeced the public.  It is horribly inefficient, extremely high maintenance, and a low life expectancy (It was recently reported that 20yrs is current expectation, down from the original 50yrs), and the eventual removal of these dinosaurs will be equally expensive as when they were installed.  Solar Energy holds a lot of potential.  It is something that can be built into building construction, and not rely total on huge solar farms.  There is also geothermal, wave action, hydrogen fuel cell technology that can be improved and brought into the mix, and, who knows what new technologies the future will hold.
      Recently, all the information I access that relates to soil health makes reference to "taking cues from nature in developing farming practices", or "work with nature, not against it".  In my striving to learn about soil health I ran across a presentation that was intriguing.  It gave a pretty impressive picture and narrative on global desertification and it's implication.  DESERTIFICATION by Allen Savory.  The pic in this post is from that presentation.  Notice the light colored areas contrasted with the green areas.  The light colored areas are associated with "desertification".  The more I watch this video the more connected I become with the message.  The reasoning behind our operations move to a ULD farming system is incorporated in Allen Savory's message, but he goes farther.  Being a grain producer, I'm resisting the introduction of livestock into our operation; however, I understand the reasoning, their potential, and it's possible they will show up on our operation sometime in the future.

      My statement above, about agriculture worldwide being part of the problem stems from the fact that in any given year we leave a lot of ground in a nonproductive state that is radiating energy instead of capturing energy and converting it through photosynthesis to a crop.  Our practice of fallowing is an example of a poor land management practice.  The global increase of wild fires, along with the ever increasing number of people and their related spacial needs, are factors that influence desertification.  These man caused influences are gradually changing air currents related to high and low air cells across the globe, concentrating energy.  This concentrated energy is effecting the strength and location of storms.  Each of us, with our relatively small farming operation think that we are insignificant, so, what we do will not have any effect on the climate.  I'm beginning to realize that the mismanagement of our tiny amount of global resource combined with millions of other independent operations doing the same thing adds up to be a huge potential impact.  We need to rethink our attitude on how we manage our land so as to make a positive contribution to sequestering carbon, and reducing practices that promote desertification!!