2017 SWCS Annual Conference July 30-August 2, 2017 Monona Terrace Convention Center

1. This image cannot currently be displayed.

2.  Provide locally relevant demonstrations of soil
health promoting practices
› Practices driven by producer, conservationist, and
extension educator interest.
 Develop Framework and lab methods for soil
health assessment.
› Focused on methods that could be inexpensive and
high throughput

3. This image cannot currently be displayed.

4.  6 million acres of wheat
 Most continuous wheat
 Approximately 75% is in western half of OK
 Let see what continuous cropping will do???

5.  Wheat after summer cover produced yields
equal to or less than standard fallow
 Cowpeas provided the most positive response
 Grasses and mixes with grasses often preformed
poorly
› Water and Nitrogen deficient

6.  Wheat‐fallow‐sorghum
 3 year 2 crop rotation
 Transition between rolling red prairie and high
plains
 Doubled wheat yields
 Grain sorghum shows potential
 Loss of residue is problematic
 But must be careful with cover crops

7. Sorghum Fallow
This image cannot currently be displayed.
Spring Cover Crop
This image cannot currently be displayed.
Continuous Wheat
26.7 bu 57.5 bu28.8 bu
 Much greater winter grassy weed pressure in
continuous and cover crop wheat

8. This image cannot currently be displayed.
spring cover
after sorghum
Fall cover after wheat
2015
30 bu loss
against fallow
2016
Equivalent yield
to fallow

9.  August Planted, winter
killed going to corn
 No yield impact
 Abandon by farmer
This image cannot currently be displayed.
T
This image cannot currently be displayed.

10.  Evaluate cover crops after corn
 Average rainfall =45 inch
 Resistant weeds are becoming a significant
challenge
 Covers planted after corn harvest in Mid Sept.

15.  Haney test gives reccomendations for P and K
that are comparable to OSU.
 N recs are grossly lower than OSU based on Soil
test, However:
 We currently recommend in‐season NDVI based
recs.
 Current and future efforts are focus on high
throughput aggregate stability and regional
spatial variability

16.  Cover crops in wheat summer fallow are equally
or less productive than continuous wheat
 Legumes are only option
 Long‐term trials show benefit after 4.5 years but
costs is ????
 Winter cover prior to soybeans shows promise for
weed control but not consistent

17.  De‐intensification of cropping systems increases
yield but profit is still under question???
› Cover crops appear to have merit but the rotation is
so long we need more time to evaluate productivity

18.  Multi‐species cover crops complicate manage and
don’t show benefits beyond single species
 Cover crop concept has generated a great deal of
alternative grazing strategies that increase rotation
options
› We need to focus on balance between cost of gain and
soil health benefits
 We are also trying to optimize weed and nutrient
management strategies with cover crops (System
Health vs Soil Health)

20.  Jason.warren@okstate.edu
 @oksoilwater
 405‐612‐9843
 www.notill.okstate.edu
This image cannot currently be displayed.
This image cannot currently be displayed.
March 7 and 8, Grand Casino,
Shawnee, OK
Funded by NRCS-CIG