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On September 23, 2017

This year has been marked by lots of moisture. As harvest proceeds running heavy equipment over wet soil has the potential to create major compaction issues. A recent meeting on soil compaction in Ontario, Canada was sponsored by the Innovative Farmers Organization and offered insight into managing the compaction issue.
As reported by Certified Crop Advisor Thomas Kilcer, the event featured Dr. Matthias Stettler from Bern University in Switzerland. He is a world authority on soil compaction and he gave a background seminar and then ran field trials with a wide range of everyday farm equipment. As the equipment rolled over the sensors, Stettler and his team evaluated the compaction impact of tractors, grain carts, sprayers and manure tankers, and also compared tires versus tracks. Each was driven over sensors buried at 6, 12, and 20 inches. The results were stunning.

Governments limit road weight to 10 tons/axle to prevent the roads from being destroyed. Yet we think nothing of running 18 to 20-ton chop-pers, or 38 ton loaded combines, with nearly all the weight on the front axle and tire pressure 35+; on living soil that deforms under pressure. This is permanent damage to your yield. With the wet soils this year it could be worse. Adding insult to injury, the trucks with road tires fully inflated are driving alongside the chopper.

Dr. Stettler found with compaction from tires that were over 15 psi at surface, you lose 15% yield the next year. It never reaches full yield again over the 10 years. Dr. Hakansson in Sweden found repeated compaction drove yield down 20% over 7 years. “Soil compacts within seconds and takes decades to recover” (Dr. Stettler). Our equipment today is turning the soil into bricks and then we buy very expensive deeper tillage tools to break up the bricks. Instead of soil we have fields of broken bricks. This is showing in real life as Canadian and US farmers are putting tile lines between tile lines trying to remove water from fields that are evermore compacted by larger equipment running on the wrong tires that are inflated wrong. Tire pressure controls top soil stress, the total load affects the more permanent subsoil stress. Total weight affects deep compaction (20 inch) which is a permanent 3% loss per each occurrence.

Tire footprint is critical for reducing surface compaction below threshold. Canadian farmers are switching to on the go tire pressure change. They drop below 15 psi when they pull in the field, and boost to 35 psi on the road. The bottom line is to prevent compaction you need field tire pressure less than 15 psi and wheel load pressure less than 5 ton/axle.

A real surprise was that tracks were not the answer as they added several tons to the total weight. The compaction pressure is NOT spread uniformly over the track but concentrated at the big wheels and each of the smaller roller wheels. What a number of farms in Canada are installing on their tractors, chop-pers, and combines is an on-the-go tire pressure. As they pull into the field the pressure is dropped to less than 15 psi to make a wide flat tire. On the road, it quickly brings it up to road pressure. Yes, this is a cost but not as much as permanent compaction yield loss and less than tracks. (Note: for packing bunks do the exact opposite of this; narrow tires with high pressure for com-paction.)

To Plan For A Healthy Wheat And Barley Crop

As you make decisions for your winter small grains, take actions that will enhance your crop’s health from establishment through harvest. Extension Plant Pathogist Alyssa Collins explains the first step is be sure to ask your dealer about lines with genetic resistance to some of our important diseases. Most seed companies have offerings that include some level of resistance against powdery mildew, scab, and others. This should be your first consideration in the fight against small grain diseases. This is absolutely critical when it comes to managing head scab, as the best way to get satisfactory control of scab and toxin is to combine the use of a resistant to moderately resistant variety with proper fungicide application.

So how do you find out this information apart from a seed company? Visit the small grain variety trials reports that make the most sense for your area. Start with the Penn State Winter Wheat and Barley Variety Trials data https://extension.psu.edu/2017-winter-barley-and-winter-wheat-performance-trials

This will help you begin the selection process based on yield and quality, but to get more information about disease ratings, you’ll need to seek information from one of the trials of a neighboring state that rates for powdery mildew, scab, or DON (vomitoxin). In northern PA, you’ll want to check out the trials done by Cornell <https://plbrgen.cals.cornell.edu/sites/plbrgen.cals.cornell.edu/files/shared/Small%20Grains%20Publication10Feb2017.pdf> or in Ontario<http://www.gocereals.ca/2017_WW_Public_20170825.pdf>.

If your climate is more like the mid-Atlantic, browse the material from Maryland <http://blog.umd.edu/agronomynews/2017/08/31/2017-small-grains-wheat-trials/> and Virginia<http://www.grains.cses.vt.edu/>. Second, take care that the seed you select is clean, undamaged, certified seed. If you choose to use stored seed, avoid seed lots that have not been thoroughly cleaned and those from fields with a history of glume blotch, smut, or scab. Low test-weights, discoloration and poor germination rates are also causes for concern.

Thirdly, if you are using saved seed, give some thought to fungicidal treatments for your seed. These treatments do a good job against pathogens that can be carried over on or in seed like the bunts and smuts, glume blotch and scab. Treatments are also effective at reducing stand and yield loss from seed rots and early season diseases like those caused by Fusarium, Pythium and Rhizoctonia. This can be especially important if planting is delayed and the seed bed is cool and wet. Fungicidal treatments will not provide control of bacterial diseases or viruses. Seed treatment will also not protect your wheat and barley from the head scab that occurs in the spring, it only provides protection for the damping off that may occur at germination as the result of planting some scabby seed. Seed treatment will not make up for bin-run seed quality issues, although it may help a bit. It is best to select multiple seed treatments to provide activity against the range of pathogens and added protection from insects.

Use Summer Annuals To Provide Fall Grazing

Grazing both cool season and warm season annuals can be an effective way to extend the grazing season on a livestock operation and ensure that animals have access to the quality of forages needed for their stage of production. Warm season annuals can be an excellent way to mitigate the summer slump and provide additional forages during a time of the year when cool season perennial pasture growth is lagging. These forages, when managed correctly, can provide numerous grazing events into the fall.

Cool season annuals – such wheat, rye, ryegrass, and oats – can provide extended grazing into the fall when permanent pastures run out of forage and stop growing. These small grains should be managed differently than if they were planted for grain and it is important to remember that the earlier in the fall they are planted, the greater the potential for yield. Small grains work well when following corn silage harvest and if they will be utilized as forage, they should be planted at a greater seeding rate than if planted for grain.

Overseeding cool season annuals into established pastures when land or fencing around crop fields is limited has been shown to have success in extending the grazing season. Oats and ryegrass have been successful at being established in permanent pastures, with a few key management points. Pastures should be grazed to less than 3” so that a no-till drill can easily penetrate the soil to the desired depth, and the established forages will be set back enough to allow for decreased competition with the newly seeded forages.

Oats should be seeded at a rate of 60-80 lb per acre and ryegrass should be seeded at 30-40 lb per acre. Nitrogen application will help the annual forages to boost their fall growth. If not overgrazed, oats can be grazed more than once in the fall but will winter kill. However, annual ryegrass will come back in the spring when the established forages green up and could provide a cumulative effect for the overall forage availability. Forage oats will not provide as prolonged of a grazing season as ryegrass, however they will be much less in cost per acre.
When attempting to extend the grazing season, annual grasses can be an excellent addition to a livestock operation!

Quote Of The Week: “I am entirely a farmer, soul and body, never scarcely admitting a sentiment on any other subject.” – President Thomas Jefferson