A36—Uncaxtor Farming, Saturday, August 25,1984
Rodale tour stresses reducing input costs
BY ROBIN PHILLIPS
Staff Correspondent
Kutztown “The Rodale
Research Center is primarily
aimed at helping farmers become
more self-sufficient . . . reducing
input costs,” explains William C.
Liebhart, assistant RRC research
director. Liebhart, along with Jim
Morgan, executive director,
welcomed farmers from across the
nation to the third annual farmers
tour at the research center
Hosting over 300 farmers, the 320-
acre study farm between Kutztown
and Maxatawny provided morning
and afternoon tours viewing
ongoing research on reduced cost
farming methods.
Farmers were able to view
growing crops providing data on
overseeding, soybean inoculation,
manure compost studies, and
conversion trial crops used when
switching over to this type of
farming. Research dwelled on
using less or no herbicides,
pesticides, and fertilizer unless it
was naturally produced by farm
animals or a certain rotation of
crops. Crop yields, soil nutrient
levels, soil loss rates, and crop
production costs are documented
and studied through five-year
plans using crop rotations and
animal manures to provide
ingredients necessary for
profitable crops. On the tour,
farmers rode hay wagons from
field to field viewing the trials as
well as the conventional crops
planted as comparisons.
R.F. Hofstetter, agronomy
researcher, introduced the group
to the overseeding studies. In these
studies a legume or grass sod was
seeded into an existing field of corn
or soybeans to provide a living
mulch, reducing soil erosion, in
creasing water holding capacity,
and decreasing weed competition.
Also, legume sods may supply
sufficient amounts of nitrogen to'
the crops.
“The idea is to grow your own
nutrient for the crops,” Hofstetter
stated. He added that they are
currently studying many different
species of legumes and grasses to
see how they perform. They found
that under the good growing
conditions that are plentiful this
year, nothing would grow under
soybeans because of the big
canopy of the leaves. In a drought
year, according to Hofstetter, it
could be different. He also said
that many species rotted out
because of the wet conditions this
year. Used mainly for ground
cover, the overseeding crops will
be plowed under to retain their
nutrients for the soil.
“You have to control the weeds
before you overseed,” he con
tinued. He suggested “timely
In soybean trials, R.F. Hostetter, agronomy researcher, points out difference between
the powder and granular inoculum fields.
cultivation.” “If you have a really
weedy situation, forget it,” he said.
The trial patches at Rodale were
cultivated two, three, and
sometimes four times. No syn
thetic fertilizers or herbicides
were used. Overseeding was done
by hand but Hofstetter said that
larger areas should be done with a
plane.
The researchers found that to
date, medium red clover is doing
the best A southern variety of clover
also is growing well. Ac
cording to Hofstetter, annual rye
grass always does well and is a
good choice to use. Experiments
using hairy vetch also proved
satisfactory to date. On the ex
perimental plots of com, 30 inch
rows with a 20,000 population were
used. Plots were overseeded in late
June. “You’re not going to
eradicate the weeds, but you can
suppress them,” Hofstetter con
cluded.
Hofstetter also reviewed the
com population trials for the many
com farmers on the tour. “We
found that at low populations, the
quality is much better,” he stated.
The literature from the RCC stated
the rationale for these trials.
“Although an optimum population
has been found for com planting in
conventional farming systems,
there is some evidence to indicate
that the optimum com population
for organic systems may be dif
ferent.” Resulting grain yields
from organically grown com
planted under four different
populations were compared.
Hybrid corns were used and
according to Hofstetter, the type of
com had a lot to do with the yield
rates. Fresh manure was applied
and moldboard plowed down
immediately. The ground was
disked twice and packed. Sandra
Rieger, agronomy researcher, was
also on hand to further explain the
trial. To date no clear trends have
been found and further results will
be available from the RCC during
the winter of 1984.
Rieger was also responsible for
the results of the manure compost
trials and explained them on the
tour. Increasingly used to replace
expensive fertilizers, manures and
composts were studied to deter
mine effective application
methods and rates, management
strategies, and differences in
manures produced on the farm.
Results are ongoing and because of
the drought in 1983, crops will be
replanted and studied again this
fall. Corn was the crop used. The
trial consisted of fresh cattle
manure, dehydrated chicken
manure, composted horse manure
with leaves, and standard
(nitrogen) fertilizer- urea,
the next stop on the crop tour
Sandy Reiger, agronomy researcher, outlines corn population trials during field day
tour at Rodale Research Center
was to view soybeans planted for
the soybean inoculation study.
“When a field is without a crop of
soybeans for over five years, the
indigenous bacteria found in the
soil are so few in number that the
soybeans require an inoculation of
bacteria for proper growth. The
standard means of supplying the
bacteria is with a powdered form
of bacteria being applied directly
to the seed, A new product,
(Nitrogen’s Soil Implant) has
shown evidence of providing
“more bacteria per soybean seed”
than dry inoculant by use of its
granular, furrow applied
inoculant,” the research center’s
handout explained.
In this study, soybeans were
planted using no inoculum,
powdered inoculum, and then the
granular inoculum.
Farmers were able to view some
shading differences in the leaf
color of the soybeans and also
some height differences. Although
yields were increased almost 18
percent in 1982 with the use of the
granular inoculum, due to the
drought in 1983 and inconsistant
findings, the study has been
repeated in 1984 for more con
clusive findings. “The yield is
definitely better on the granular,”
Hofstetter explained. “But, we
don’t know how long this would
be.”
Soil testing studies were also ex
plained by Kate Showers, resear
cher, who is completing a standard
manual for uniform tests and
measurements. “An awful lot of
soil testing is not precise,” she
stated. “We’re trying to get this in
formation to farmers so that they
can make their own recommenda
tions.” According to Showers,
most farmers rely on biased in
dustries to make their soil recom
mendations. These companies
usually have something to sell and
make recommendations to their
benefit, not the farmer’s or the
soil’s.
The conversion project was ex
plained by Martin Culik, resear
cher. Using five-year crop rotation
plans, weed control and soil
nutrient levels are compared to
conventional farming methods.
Three basic treatments were used;
organic farming with animals,
organic farming without animals,
and conventional cash grain farm
ing.
In the fourth year of the project,
the agronomists expect decent
yields. Weed control proved to be a
severe problem, and the weather
often worked against them. A
rotary hoe was used to cultivate
plots two and three times as the
weather permitted and decent
yields were harvested.
In conversion trials this plot of soybeans shows numerous
weeds.
“Soybeans are a good crop for
starting crop rotation,” according
to Culik. “We don’t like to see the
weed in there, but there may be a
tolerable limit,” he added. “Crop
rotation may be a good tool to con
trol weeds.”
When the tour arrived back at
the research barn, farmers heard
about the Kutztown study farm of
the Brubakers from Liebhart.
“The Brubakers basically farm in
what we would call a low input
farm,” he stated. Studied for five
years, this Kutztown livestock and
crop farm uses crop rotations in
their 95 fields on 300 acres to con
sistently produce higher than
average yields. “The farm from a
nutrient standpoint is basically
self-sufficient,” Liebhart stated.
“The environmental impact is
minimal,” he added.
After the tour and discussions
ended, farmers dispersed to view
the displays around the bam and
personally talk with the resear
chers. As one participant noted,
“this may not be the ideal way to
farm, but it may be the answer to
saving our soils and reducing syn
thetic materials that farmers need
to use.”