Page 24—Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 12, 1996
RYE, MANURE
AND, NO-TILL
IN CORN SILAGE
DEMONSTRATION
Dr. Greg Roth
Penn State Agronomy
Asociate Professor
Mel Brown
Centre County
Extension Agent
Many dairy farms face the
same dilemma. They need to
grow com silage, they need to
spread manure, and they would
like to plant no-till com to con
serve soil and labor resources.
For many, results with no-till
com silage production have
been less than satisfactory,
while some others make the
system work quite well.
A field demonstration con
ducted in Centre County during
the past year addressed some of
the management considerations
necessary to make the system
work more effectively.
The demonstration was con
ducted on the farm of John and
Todd Ishler in Spring Mills and
was sponsored by Centre Coun
ty Cooperative Extension, Penn
State Department of Agro
nomy, and the Pennsylvania
Sustainable Ag Association
(PASA). Agway and Pioneer
Hi-bred also contributed to the
project.
Two 8-acre third and fourth
year com fields were used to
demonstrate rye cover crop
management effects and to
assess the practical problems
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from using a rye/com silage
system in Centre County.
In late September, rye was
no-tilled into % of each strip.
Fall rye growth was excellent
and in November the fields
received 6,000 gallons of dairy
manure. The rye was complete
ly and uniformly covered with
manure at that point. Almost
immediately, the field was cov
ered with snow for most of the
winter, except for the January
thaw.
fhe rye and manure
appeared to limit erosion fairly
well, since, during the winter,
runoff caused some erosion in
the bare strips but not in the
areas seeded to rye. By spring,
the manure had decomposed to
the point that it was difficult to
see much evidence of it.
Based on this experience, it
appears that com stubble fields
with a good rye cover crop arc
excellent candidates for fall
applied manure. They limit ero
sion and provide a good no-till
seedbed in the spring.
In the spring, the rye was
killed at two different dates
with an application of Roundup
Ultra with 2,4-D added for
broadleaf weed control. The
herbicide was applied on April
18, when the rye was 4-5 inches
tall or on May 4 when the rye
was 8-10 inches tall. Because of
wet weather, planting was
delayed until May 15.
The soil under the late rye
kill dried out more slowly
because of the mulching effect
and was marginal at planting.
Soil conditions in the early kill
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and no rye plots were excellent.
The rye residue from the early
rye kill decomposed rapidly
and was minimal at planting.
Stands were good in all trcat
ments, averaging
24,000-26,000 plants per acre.
Plant growth was good as well,
except that the late killed rye
was slightly yellow for about
two weeks early in the season.
We concluded from this that
the early kill treatment gave us
the best compromise of the
three treatments: good over
winter erosion control, a
reduced potential for possible
allelopathic effects from the
rye, and minimal residue to
interfere with planting and soil
drying.
In mid-June, we used the
PSNT to estimate the N
requirement on the field. The
test called for 75 units of N,
which was applied at the eight
leaf stage. By this time most of
the rye residue from the late
planting was decomposed.
Growth was good in all plots
throughout the season. Two
row strips were harvested from
the middle of each plot for the
length of the field. The late
killed rye treatment averaged
27.1 tons/acrc, the early killed
rye averaged 26 tons/acre, and
the no rye treatment averaged
24.6 tons/acre. all at 65 percent
moisture.
We speculate that some of
the advantage of the rye treat
ments may have been that they
helped to conserve some of the
manure nitrogen that was lost in
the no rye treatment This was
probably more important this
year than usual because of the
excessive rainfall that occurred
during the season.
Wc concluded from this
demonstration that no-till com
can be successful in a manured
rye cover crop system, but care
ful management is important.
Avoiding soil compaction,
spreading manure in fall rather
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than late spring, timely rye
planting and kill, and careful
nitrogen management are all
components of the system that
need to be addressed to make it
work well.
Producers who attended the
field day indicated that they
often encounter problems with
late spring manure applications
New Products
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ST. LOUIS, Mo. The
National Com Growers Asso
ciation’s list of research initia
tives target new products that
could potentially utilize up to
100 million bushels of com a
year.
“Com growers want signif
icant growth and meaningful
results,” said Russ Williams,
chairman of the organization’s
research and commercializa
tion committee.
The Leaf River, 111., farmer
addressed more than 300 scien
tists and researchers who at
tended the NCGA Com Utili
zation Conference in early
June.
The NCGA facilitates
research that will bring new,
corn-derived products to maik
et. One of those products could
be commercialized as early as
this fall.
Numerous companies are
racing to convert corn-derived
polylactic acid into 100 percent
biodegradable plastic products.
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that make no-till com silage
production difficult. Conse
quently, not all com fields may
be candidates for this system.
On those that are candidates,
however, we can take advan
tage of the labor savings and
reduction of soil erosion and
runoff that the no-till system
provides.
Markets
Todd Werpy, director of
research and business develop
ment for the NCGA, said using
the corn-derived chemical is
more economical than using
chemicals derived from
petroleum.
“It’s headed toward com
mercialization,” said Werpy.
“The only issue now is
volume.”
Werpy expects compost leaf
bags to be the first product con
sumers see from plastic made
using corn-derived polylactic
acid.
Other promising areas of
research include using corn
derived butanol as a solvent in
such things as brake fluid and
lacquers, using corn-derived
acetic acid to preserve food,
converting com-derived car
bohydrates into non-toxic
printers ink and anti-freeze,
and converting com-derived
pentose which could lower the
cost of producing ethanol.
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