AlB—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 4,1981
Local farmers can double small grain yields
LANDISVILLE Contending
that northeastern farmers could
readily double yields of wheat, oats
and barley, Penn State and federal
researchers are growing ex
perimental wheat on 10 Centre and
Lancaster County cooperating
farms
They are led by Harold G
Marshall, adjunct professor of
plant breed and coordinator of the
Center for Cereals Research
Supported by the U.S Department
of Agriculture, the reseachers aim
to dispel a ‘’defeatist” aura that
has made small grains the poorly
managed, low priority crops of a
farm-rich region
"Our own findings that yields
easily can be doubled - as well as
routine harvests almost double
those of the Northeast in European
areas with similar growing con
ditions-have convinced us,” says
Marshall
■ With intensive ciop
management and genetically
improved varieties, we believe
small grains rapidly could become
major crops in Pennsylvania, New
York and Maryland - resulting in a
mini-agricultural revolution,
which would help transform a f ood
and feed gram-deficit area into a
variable breadbasket
Moreover, wheat alone easily
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F.H. KREIDER
could compete with corn as a cash
crop This would i educe, or
hopetully reverse, a dangerous
trend toward genetic vulnerability,
due to increasing dependence on
corn as the gram crop of the
region ”
Taken together, he says, yield
bonanzas for wheat, oats and
barley would greatly benefit the
region’s farmers, consumers and
agribusiness And should yields
e.\< ivJ . '
farmers, with easy access to
seaports, potentially could
capitalize on worldwide lood
demands
Looking only at the future, the
monetary gams could be enor
mous Thus, the Northeast an
nually harvests about 650,000 acres
of wheat - of which 260,000 acres
are in Pennsylvania The average
yield is 65 bushels pei acre, though
top producers are getting much
more
Assuming only a very con
servative five bushel-per-acre
average increase tor the region,
says Marshall, and given the
current wheat price of $4 40 a
bushel - the annual value of the
region's wheat crop would go up by
$l4 3 million, and that of Penn
sylvania by $5 7 million
In oats, Pennsylvania annually
2400 Dairy Rd.
Lancaster, PA 17601
717-898-0129
harvests about 55 bushels-pei
acre, on 650,000 acres. At $2 40 a
bushel, an inciease ot five bushels
would give farmers an extra ?4 2
million With a similar yield hike,
the rest of the region would get an
additional $l6 6 million. For
barley, the respective gains tor
Pennsylvania and the region from
a five-bushel increase would be
?1 7 million and $7 million
Keep in mind,' Mai shall
emphasizes, that these estimates
are very conservative and
achievable m a couple of years ’
Seeking to make such predic
tions a realty, Marshall, a USDA
lesearch agronomist, sought, and
in 1979 received, federal support
tor the establishment at Penn State
of the CCR Today, working full or
part-time, 14 agronomists, plant
breeders and pathologists, weed
scientists, crop physiologists and
agricultural economists have a
two-told goal.
They are trying to prove to
farmers that, using current crop
varieties - as well as more in
tensive cultural practices and
coordinated pest management
strategies - enormously largei
small-grains harvests are possible
now
Also, looking to the future,
they re developing new cultivars.
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' Seeing is believing!
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NO OF BEEF DAIRY HOGS
to achieve still greater yields, by
buiiling in outei Lsistuice to
diseases, insects, weeds and
diverse other environmental
stresses peculiar to the region
For the moment, the CCR team
is engaged in a three-yeai pilot
project, aimed at developing and
demonstrating optimum
management practices
Last October, the researches
planted soft red wheat (mainly
used tor cookies, cakes and
pastries ) on s'ix Lancaster and tour
Centre County farms While the
researchers try 48 intensive
treatment” combinations on 12-by
-100 toot test strips, farmers will
use conventional management
practices on sun oundmg land
Alter haivest, the experimental
and normal ciop, will be com
pared tor yields, as well as toi
incidence ot disease, insects,
weeds and lodging , a common
problem where wheat stalks, too
tall and weak, break readily
The outcome is predictable,
says Marshall For 30 years,
northeastern small giain yields
have been stagnant Farmers still
giow such grains largely because
they’re necessary for livestock
feed and bedding
However, discouraged by low
yields, tarmeis have lacked an
incentive to manage small grains
as intensively as they do corn and
altalta Likewise, they haven l had
the know-how to use innovative
growing techniques
Part ot the pioblem has been
low research priorities This has
led experts to neglect the region s
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small gram s problems, and to tail
to develop varieties designed tor
the region’s basically cloudy,
humid weather A major cause ot
low yields is the tact that cultivars
used here were developed tor the
sunnier, drier clime ot Ohio,
Illinois and Indiana <’
Thus, it is not surprising that, in
1978, tor example, Pennsylvania
wheat farmers averaged J 8
bushels-per-acre-while their
English counterparts got 77
bushels
Moreover, while Pennsylvania
wheat yields barely have changed
since 1950, Britain s have doubled
The ditteience. use ot improved
vaiienes and mtensive uop and
pest management systems
Because intensive gi owing
systems wei e used by Penn Sidle s
CCK learn in 1979, then ex
peiiinenlat wheal plots averaged
up to 9& bushels-pei -act e
Actually, Mai shall explains,
they only used two intensive
pioceduies a high seeding idle
and a large amount ot mtiogen
tertilizei
What are other components ot
intensive management' Basically,
intensive' means using com
binations ot cultuial and pest
management practices which, in
the absence ot genetic icsislence,
will do two things yield densei
giain stands and cut losses due to
plant pathogens
Other main intensive techniques
aie caietul crop lotation and land
preparation and unitoim seeding
depth
(Turn to Page A 22)
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