A3B-Lmcaster Fanning, Saturday, September 5, 1992
(Continued from Pago Al)
Experts in their field spoke next
to fields specifically plotted,
planted, and prepared for Field
Day observations and demonstra
tions. District manager for the
Juniata Conservation District,
Ann Harshberger, kept the prog
ram moving under graying skies
while the speakers packed as
much workable information as
possible into their talks, allowing
time for questions.
By 1:30 p.m., drizzle set in, but
most field tours at Wilbur and
Doug Brubaker’s Double “B”
Grain Farm were completed, and
the three touring hay wagons
headed back to Brubaker’s
machine shed to finish up.
Field Day sponsors Wilbur and
Doug Brubaker, The Juniata
County Conservation District, The
Juniata Valley Crop Management
Association, The Pennsylvania
Forage and Grassland Council,
The Pennylvania State Coopera
tive Extension Service, and the
USDA Soil Conservation Service
hope to improve upstream soil
conservation efforts that will
reduce soil loss and eventually
help restore the Chesapeake Bay.
Residue Management
Joel Myers, state agronomist
for the Soil Conservation Service,
urged farmers to look at crop
residue as a sod a soil cover to
prevent erosion.
At one site, Myers offered two
methods for measuring residue
visual observation by looking
straight down rather than across a
field to compare the ground you
see per residue you see, and by
line transect method.
Later on, Myers referred to a
green handout with these
considerations:
• Residue levels using no-till in
the entire rotation will build up,
providing a more uniform level of
residue throughout the season and
from year to year. This layer will
protect the soil to prevent erosion
during intense rainfall.
• Continuous soil cover will
reduce potential for extreme ero
sion during high intensity rainfall
periods and more closely align to
meet Pennsylvania Clean Streams
Law.
• Farming higher levels of
residue will provide the operator
with more cropping options, may
also reduce the need for some
additional conservation practices,
and should reduce labor and
expenses by reducing the number
of practices which are carried out
with tillage equipment.
• Tips on maximizing crop
residue levels after planting
include even distribution of
residues after harvest and to till
only when needed to solve a real
problem, such as shallowing up
tillage operations unless compac
tion is a serious problem.
Tilling 3-6 inches deep will
reduce fuel costs, wear and tear on
equipment, may reduce stone
picking, and will increase the
amount of surface residues.
Another tip was to select the
proper tillage equipment/-
attachments and the sequence of
ullage operations. Use primary til
lage equipment only for primary
tillage operations.
Some field cultivators may be
used as the only tillage operation
performed where residue amounts
are already low and the soil is not
too hard. Disks cause compaction
and also bury residue. Use only on
lighter textured soils in a situation
where a field cultivator can be
used to follow the disk.
Field Day Attracts
Equip field cultivators and
chisels with sweeps or straight
teeth. No-till planters and drills
not only are essential for no-till
planting, but they can reduce the
need for extensive seedbed prepa
ration by leveling the preparing
the seedbed for each row that is
planted in mulch and conventional
planting operations.
The first step in determining
surface residue after planting is to
know how much residue is pro
duced by the crop in question
(based on crop yield) at the time of
harvest.
Carry out actual measurement
of residue under different condi
tions to leant how to achieve the
desired levels of residue to meet
your plan requirements.
Charts for calculating tillage
effects on residue levels are only
guidelines. Actual measurements
will provide better information
under individual farm conditions.
Plan ahead to supplement crop
residues with cover crops as
needed when residues are
removed or crops are grown that
do not produce adequate levels of
residue or during adverse growing
conditions such as drought. Cover
crops may be harvested in the
spring to provide livestock feed.
Compaction
Lynn Hoffman, senior research
associate and manager of
Rocksprings Research Farm,
wants farmers to think in terms of
conservation tillage, leading to
no-till to relieve soil compaction,
which then produces better crops.
"If it doesn’t affect corn
growth, why are we worrying
about it?” Hoffman said.
Symptoms of compaction
include:
• Patterns of poor crop growth
in fields as opposed to entire
fields, usually due to machinery
traffic patterns.
• Crop stunting.
• Fertilizer deficiency symp
toms in fields where roots cannot
get to available fertilizer.
• Crop stress.
According to Hoffman, com
paction is caused by;
• Heavy axle loads - manure
spreaders, fertilizer, and lime
spreaders.
• Wet soils. The price paid for
working wet soils is compaction.
“The big reason for seeing more
compaction nowadays is we’re
using bigger tractors with a cab
that keeps you nice and warm and
dry, and years ago, you’d have fig
ured something else to do that day
when it was too miserable to be
out there. We tend to be out there
anyway. We’ve taken the mold
board plow out of the program and
chisel that doesn’t show the sin of
working wet soil as obviously as a
moldboard plow.”
• Excessive traffic. 75 percent
of compaction occurs the first
time out on a field in the spring.
Further field traffic increases the
problem.
• Tillage equipment. A disk pan
at 4-5 inches from an offset disk
can cause enough compaction
that, under stress conditions, the
roots have a tough time getting
through.
Avoid compaction by:
• Reducing axle weights. Hoff
man urges farmers to put tandems
on equipment, not duals. Duals
can be used for traction, but do not
reduce compaction. They spread it
over a greater area.
• Reduce number of trips across
fields.
• Reduce amount of tillage.
• Wider tires do not reduce
John Baylor, Agronomy,
professor emeritus, believes
fall alfalfa management is
important to healthier plant
growth in the spring.
compaction. They reduce depth
and spread it out.
• Timing. Stay off wet fields.
“A lot easier said than done,”
Hoffman said. “Especially in
spring, or worse, in the fall if it
needs to be combined in a wet
field. Anything we can do to stay
off the wet fields will help, espe
cially if you’re going to no-till.”
To correct compaction, Hoff
man urges fanners to first identify
the problem, then decide what to
do about it
Hoffman used a 'A -inch iron
rod with a handle to determine the
depth of soil compaction. “I’m
finding a tight spot in the soil at
about that depth,” Hoffman said,
referring to a 6-inch mark.
Hoffman explained that farmers
do not need sophisticated equip
ment to correct compaction. “Pay
close attention to what your crops
are telling you and find the rea
sons for the distress,” he said.
Alfalfa Management
John Baylor, professor emeri
tus, agronomy at Penn State,
described alfalfa as a deep tap
rooted perennial plant whose fall
management is essential to total
seasonal management.
“If we have a multiple pest
resistant variety, if we maintain a
good fertility program, and if we
Joel Myers, state agronomist for the Soil Conservation
Service, explains the Importance of determining residue
that can act as a sod to prevent erosion.
Farmers
Lynn Hoffman, senior research associate and manager
of Rocksprlngs Research Farm, told farmers that we tend
to work soils wetter than our forefathers did and that we
pay for it with compaction, which affects plant growth.
have carried out a reasonably
good cutting schedule (about 35
days) during the growing season,
we have more flexibility with how
we manage that crop in the fall as
far as taking it into winter in good
shape,” he said. “But we’re still
better off if we could maintain 4-6
weeks before freeze-up to give
that plant a chance to build up
reserves before it goes into the
winter.”
Baylor added that not many
varieties are resistant to leaf dis
eases. While leaf diseases do not
affect the life of the plant, they do
affect quality by causing exces
sive leaf drop.
Nitrogen Quick Test
Crop Management Association
technician Greg Hostetter said the
importance of a nitrogen quick
test is to identify the level of nitro
gen in the soil at a time when you
might be considering a sidedress,
when com is about 12 inches high.
Crop Management Association
member Art Zug offered his
observations in relation to his 380
crop-acre farm.
“We use a lot of manure in our
situation and don’t know the value
of the manure until we test for it,”
he said. “We do have an injection
system. In previous years, we
have used it to incorporate the nit
rogen between the com rows. It is
a very economical system and, as
Greg said, you use it if you have
to , and if you don’t, you don’t
It’s also an environmental
safeguard.”
Later in the program, Hostetler
described his year, month by
month, as crop technician for the
Brubaker farm. Hostetler, who
covers 37 farms in Juniata, Perry,
Huntingdon, and Mifflin counties,
works with farmers to save them
as much money as possible, using
chemicals only when needed.
Hay samples were judged by
John Baylor after Lynn Hoffman
discussed the value of various til
lage methods. Jim Huber of Triple
H described the drill demonstra
tion.
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