scholarly journals Linking Space Observations with Ground Surveys to Better Understand Wisconsin’s Conservation Agricultural Landscape

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alana Herro
Keyword(s):  
Satellite Data ◽  
Cover Crops ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Farming Practices ◽  
Minimum Tillage ◽  
Cover Cropping ◽  
No Till ◽  
Conservation Farming ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Expert Classification

Cover cropping and no-till or minimum tillage are conservation farming techniques that have numerous benefits for the environment but are not always adopted by farmers because of risks of reduced yield and/or reduced profits. Precise and accurate methods of tracking conservation farming would improve the ability of researchers to maximize benefits and minimize risks. In this paper, satellite data is processed using an expert classification intended to identify cover crops in Wisconsin from the years 2009/2010 to 2018/2019. The results of a survey about farmers’ experiences with conservation farming practices is also summarized. The locations of cover cropped farms, identified in the survey, are used to assess the accuracy of the 2018/2019 map produced using the expert classification. The map was found to have an accuracy of only 51%. The survey results found that cover crops and no-till or minimum tillage did not tend to negatively affect yields or profits.

scholarly journals Demonstration of Conservation Farming Practices in Improving Sorghum Yield at Tanqua-Abergelle Wereda, Ethiopia

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Guesh Assefa ◽  
Meresa Weleslasie
Keyword(s):  
Grain Yield ◽  
Cover Crops ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
Conservation Agriculture ◽  
Sowing Date ◽  
Conventional Tillage ◽  
Soil Disturbance ◽  
Yield Response ◽  
Farming Practices ◽  
Conservation Farming

Conservation agriculture (CA) technologies involve minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover through crop residues or cover crops, and crop rotations for achieving higher productivity. Today tillage is seen destroying activity that leads to decline in organic matter and destruction of soil structure. Hence, the objective of this study was then to improve soil moisture and structure through minimizing soil disturbance which can be explained by the obtained yield response of sorghum. The research was undertaken at twenty one (21) interested farmers’ piece of land (10 m x 10 m) at Tanqua Abergelle Wereda in specific sites called Sheka Tekli and Agbe tabias’, it was successful only at thirteen (13) farmer’s land at Sheka Tekli. The conservation farming practices such as basin was prepared two weeks earlier from its sowing date. Grain yield and farmers perception on each practice of conservation agriculture were collected and subjected to simple descriptive statistics. Accordingly, the grain yields obtained from tied-ridger and basin technologies were 1.6 t/ha and 1.31 t/ha, respectively. However, conventional tillage revealed the lowest grain yield of sorghum. Farmers have shown great interest and promise to adopt tie ridger than basin due to lower yield. Therefore technology promotions and popularization on the study and similar agro ecological areas should be carried out in collaboration with stakeholders.

Effects of Cover Crops and Tillage on Sweet Corn Production

HortScience ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 476d-476
Author(s):  
Gary R. Cline ◽  
Anthony F. Silvernail
Keyword(s):  
Cover Crops ◽  
Sweet Corn ◽  
N Fertilization ◽  
Winter Rye ◽  
No Tillage ◽  
Corn Production ◽  
Total N ◽  
No Till ◽  
Winter Cover ◽  
Winter Cover Crops

A split-plot factorial experiment examined effects of tillage and winter cover crops on sweet corn in 1997. Main plots received tillage or no tillage. Cover crops consisted of hairy vetch, winter rye, or a mix, and N treatments consisted of plus or minus N fertilization. Following watermelon not receiving inorganic N, vetch, and mix cover cropsproduced total N yields of ≈90 kg/ha that were more than four times greater than those obtained with rye. However, vetch dry weight yields (2.7 mg/ha) were only about 60% of those obtained in previous years due to winter kill. Following rye winter cover crops, addition of ammonium nitrate to corn greatly increased (P < 0.05) corn yields and foliar N concentrations compared to treatments not receiving N. Following vetch, corn yields obtained in tilled treatments without N fertilization equaled those obtained with N fertilization. However, yields obtained from unfertilized no-till treatments were significantly (P < 0.05) lower than yields of N-fertilized treatments. Available soil N was significantly (P < 0.05) greater following vetch compared to rye after corn planting. No significant effects of tillage on sweet corn plant densities or yields were detected. It was concluded that no-tillage sweet corn was successful, and N fixed by vetch was able to sustain sweet corn production in tilled treatments but not in no-till treatments.In previous years normal, higher-yielding vetch cover crops were able to sustain sweet corn in both tilled and no-till treatments.

scholarly journals A Place-Based Approach to Agricultural Nonmaterial Intangible Cultural Ecosystem Service Values

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy R. Petway ◽  
Yu-Pin Lin ◽  
Rainer F. Wunderlich
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Ecosystem Service ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Farming Practices ◽  
Environmental Characteristics ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Service ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Landscape Biodiversity

Though agricultural landscape biodiversity and ecosystem service (ES) conservation is crucial to sustainability, agricultural land is often underrepresented in ES studies, while cultural ES associated with agricultural land is often limited to aesthetic and tourism recreation value only. This study mapped 7 nonmaterial-intangible cultural ES (NICE) valuations of 34 rural farmers in western Taiwan using the Social Values for Ecosystem Services (SolVES) methodology, to show the effect of farming practices on NICE valuations. However, rather than a direct causal relationship between the environmental characteristics that underpin ES, and respondents’ ES valuations, we found that environmental data is not explanatory enough for causality within a socio-ecological production landscape where one type of land cover type (a micro mosaic of agricultural land cover) predominates. To compensate, we used a place-based approach with Google Maps data to create context-specific data to inform our assessment of NICE valuations. Based on 338 mapped points of 7 NICE valuations distributed among 6 areas within the landscape, we compared 2 groups of farmers and found that farmers’ valuations about their landscape were better understood when accounting for both the landscape’s cultural places and environmental characteristics, rather than environmental characteristics alone. Further, farmers’ experience and knowledge influenced their NICE valuations such that farm areas were found to be sources of multiple NICE benefits demonstrating that farming practices may influence ES valuation in general.

Progress towards no-till organic weed control in western Canada

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. Shirtliffe ◽  
Eric N. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Weed Control ◽  
Faba Bean ◽  
Cover Crops ◽  
Green Manure ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
Organic Production ◽  
Field Pea ◽  
Western Canada ◽  
No Till ◽  
Green Manure Crops

AbstractOrganic farmers in western Canada rely on tillage to control weeds and incorporate crop residues that could plug mechanical weed-control implements. However, tillage significantly increases the risk of soil erosion. For farmers seeking to reduce or eliminate tillage, potential alternatives include mowing or using a roller crimper for terminating green manure crops (cover crops) or using a minimum tillage (min-till) rotary hoe for mechanically controlling weeds. Although many researchers have studied organic crop production in western Canada, few have studied no-till organic production practices. Two studies were recently conducted in Saskatchewan to determine the efficacy of the following alternatives to tillage: mowing and roller crimping for weed control, and min-till rotary hoeing weed control in field pea (Pisum sativum L.). The first study compared mowing and roller crimping with tillage when terminating faba bean (Vicia faba L.) and field pea green manure crops. Early termination of annual green manure crops with roller crimping or mowing resulted in less weed regrowth compared with tillage. When compared with faba bean, field pea produced greater crop biomass, suppressed weeds better and had less regrowth. Wheat yields following pea were not affected by the method of termination. Thus, this first study indicated that roller crimping and mowing are viable alternatives to tillage to terminate field pea green manure crops. The second study evaluated the tolerance and efficacy of a min-till rotary harrow in no-till field pea production. The min-till rotary hoe was able to operate in no-till cereal residues and multiple passes did not affect the level of residue cover. Field pea exhibited excellent tolerance to the min-till rotary hoe. Good weed control occurred with multiple rotary hoe passes, and pea seed yield was 87% of the yield obtained in the herbicide-treated check. Therefore, this second study demonstrated that min-till rotary hoeing effectively controls many small seeded annual weeds in the presence of crop residue and thus can reduce the need for tillage in organic-cropping systems.

Legume Cover Crops as a Nitrogen Source for No‐Till Corn and Grain Sorghum

1990 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 769-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. L. Blevins ◽  
J. H. Herbek ◽  
W. W. Frye
Keyword(s):  
Nitrogen Source ◽  
Cover Crops ◽  
Grain Sorghum ◽  
No Till ◽  
Legume Cover Crops

Influence of Weed Management Practices and Crop Rotation on Glyphosate-Resistant Horseweed (Conyza canadensis) Population Dynamics and Crop Yield-Years III and IV

Weed Science ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vince M. Davis ◽  
Kevin D. Gibson ◽  
Thomas T. Bauman ◽  
Stephen C. Weller ◽  
William G. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Crop Rotation ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Cover Crops ◽  
Weed Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Plant Density ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
No Till

Horseweed is an increasingly common and problematic weed in no-till soybean production in the eastern cornbelt due to the frequent occurrence of biotypes resistant to glyphosate. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of crop rotation, winter wheat cover crops (WWCC), residual non-glyphosate herbicides, and preplant application timing on the population dynamics of glyphosate-resistant (GR) horseweed and crop yield. A field study was conducted from 2003 to 2007 in a no-till field located at a site that contained a moderate infestation of GR horseweed (approximately 1 plant m−2). The experiment was a split-plot design with crop rotation (soybean–corn or soybean–soybean) as main plots and management systems as subplots. Management systems were evaluated by quantifying in-field horseweed plant density, seedbank density, and crop yield. Horseweed densities were collected at the time of postemergence applications, 1 mo after postemergence (MAP) applications, and at the time of crop harvest or 4 MAP. Viable seedbank densities were also evaluated from soil samples collected in the fall following seed rain. Soybean–corn crop rotation reduced in-field and seedbank horseweed densities vs. continuous soybean in the third and fourth yr of this experiment. Preplant herbicides applied in the spring were more effective at reducing horseweed plant densities than when applied in the previous fall. Spring-applied, residual herbicide systems were the most effective at reducing season-long in-field horseweed densities and protecting crop yields since the growth habit of horseweed in this region is primarily as a summer annual. Management systems also influenced the GR and glyphosate-susceptible (GS) biotype population structure after 4 yr of management. The most dramatic shift was from the initial GR : GS ratio of 3 : 1 to a ratio of 1 : 6 after 4 yr of residual preplant herbicide use followed by non-glyphosate postemergence herbicides.

scholarly journals No-tillage sorghum and garbanzo yields match or exceed standard tillage yields

2022 ◽  
pp. 112-120
Author(s):  
Jeffrey P. Mitchell ◽  
Anil Shrestha ◽  
Lynn Epstein ◽  
Jeffery A. Dahlberg ◽  
Teamrat Ghezzehei ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cover Crops ◽  
Cover Crop ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
San Joaquin Valley ◽  
Agricultural Water Use ◽  
No Till ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
Crop System

To meet the requirements of California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, there is a critical need for crop production strategies with less reliance on irrigation from surface and groundwater sources. One strategy for improving agricultural water use efficiency is reducing tillage and maintaining residues on the soil surface. We evaluated high residue no-till versus standard tillage in the San Joaquin Valley with and without cover crops on the yields of two crops, garbanzo and sorghum, for 4 years. The no-till treatment had no primary or secondary tillage. Sorghum yields were similar in no-till and standard tillage systems while no-till garbanzo yields matched or exceeded those of standard tillage, depending on the year. Cover crops had no effect on crop yields. Soil cover was highest under the no-till with cover crop system, averaging 97% versus 5% for the standard tillage without cover crop system. Our results suggest that garbanzos and sorghum can be grown under no-till practices in the San Joaquin Valley without loss of yield.

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