No Till Notes: 'Harvest'

After visiting with producers around the Panhandle, I would guess that the winter wheat and field pea harvests that have just wrapped up are going to be some of the best crop yields this region has recorded. We were blessed with good fall, spring and early summer precipitation around our region and the yields reflect the abundant moisture we received.

There were some areas that experienced significant hail damage from some of the severe weather in our area. Aside from these pockets of hail damage, I would guess the crops are some of the best this area has harvested. I have heard of dry land winter wheat yields in the 70 bushel per acre range and dry land field peas that yielded 60 bushels per acre. The range I have heard on the field peas is from 30 bushels per acre in the southwestern Panhandle to numerous reports of 40 and 50 bushel per acre yields around the rest of the Panhandle.

I have experienced winter wheat and field pea yields this well in previous years. On our farm what set this year apart is we didn’t receive any significant hail damage to our crops. Most years when we have abundant moisture like we had this spring there is always some hail damage somewhere on the land we farm.

Last week when I was visiting with Dr. Nielsen during our tour of Alton Lerwick’s farm, we discussed winter wheat yields following field peas and proso millet. The Lerwick family plants their winter wheat following proso millet. On our farm we plant our winter wheat following field peas in our continuous no till crop rotation.

Dr. Nielsen has researched winter wheat yields at his ARS research farm near Akron, Colo. His research has indicated a yield drag in the winter wheat yields following field peas and proso millet when compared to summer fallow winter wheat production.

Alton and Grant Lerwick feel that the winter wheat yields on their farm have been comparable to their previous yields when they produced winter wheat in a more conventional summer fallow production practice. On our farm following field peas I feel our winter wheat yields may be better than when we raised winter wheat in a summer fallow production system.

It has been so long on our farm since we produced winter wheat in a summer fallow production system that I’m sure some of our improved yields are due to better production practices than what we did 25 years ago. I also feel we are producing healthier winter wheat plants now because of the agronomic benefits our crop rotation provides.

Moisture is almost always the limiting factor in dry land crop production in our area. On our farm, my experience has been that during the dry years I think we do have some yield drag in our continuous no till crop production system when we follow field peas. I have no doubt we could have produced a better winter wheat yield if we had summer fallowed during a dry year. I’m not sure economically the higher yields would have offset the cost of summer fallowing.

I feel that in the normal to above-normal rainfall years we’ve had a significant agronomic advantage in our continuous no till crop production system when it comes to producing winter wheat. We have the benefit of producing a healthier crop because of the crop rotation and time interval between winter wheat crops.

Our advantage lies in having a legume in the crop rotation prior to winter wheat seeding. I feel this has some benefits to the microbial activities in our soil and possibly some nitrogen benefit. We also are able to break up persistent weed and disease problems associated with winter wheat production in a winter wheat/ summer fallow production system.

We assess the moisture conditions in the early spring and will fertilize for higher yields than we did when we produced winter wheat in a summer fallow system because of these agronomic benefits provided by our crop rotation. If we feel moisture isn’t a limiting factor we expect to produce a higher yielding winter wheat crop and fertilize accordingly.