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Project Title: Small Scale Conservation Tillage: Strip-till of
select annuals intercropped with a continuous cover to improve soil
health.
Project Leaders: Stanley J. Hildebrand and Chadwick G. Knepp
Address: Sandhill Farm
RR 1 Box 155
Rutledge, MO 63563
County where farm is located: Scotland
Have you previously received a Missouri Sustainable Agriculture
Demonstration Award? Yes, titled Evaluation of Echinacea as a
sustainable and profitable crop on marginal land (completed 1999).
Was the project completed successfully? Yes.
Please indicate how many years it will take to complete your project,
starting in January 2002. Project length: 3 years.
1. Describe the problem your project will address. Please include
objectives of your project and how this will help you farm more
sustainably. Sustainable farming is ecologically sound (it reduces
your reliance on non-renewable resources), economically viable (it
helps you make a good living on your farm), and socially responsible
(it helps support family farms and rural communities).
Our project's primary objectives are to demonstrate the feasibility,
ecology, and profitability of small scale conservation tillage
systems applicable to traditional crops in our area; wheat, soybeans,
and corn (although we intend to use sweet sorghum in our study).
We expect to see direct benefits in improved soil fertility and
structure, reduced erosion, organic weed control, and in the reduction
of the amount of heavy tillage (plowing/discing/cultivating) in the
field to potentially once every two years for select annuals. We hope
to establish a system of small scale conservation tillage methods
that we can demonstrate to local farmers which would include what
combinations of primary and cover crops work well together, what crop
rotations facilitate long term continuous cover, and adaptations and
techniques of machine use for conservation tillage methods.
2. Describe in detail how you would use this grant to address the
problem. Include A. timetable and B. record keeping plans.
Project overview:
Using a variation of the conservation tillage technique know as
strip-tillage we plan to inter-crop primary row crops (soybeans and sweet
sorghum) into a continuous (biannual or perennial) cover crop with
minimal disturbance of the cover crop. To do this we plan to first
establish a suitable cover crop, then till a narrow band (6-12 inches)
spaced in rows within the cover crop, and then [trans]plant directly
into these bands. We intend to find a combination of species that
will facilitate a crop rotation that requires at most only biannual
tillage. A possible example being winter wheat over-seeded in the
spring with a suitable short growing clover inter-cropped with
sweet sorghum the following year and soybeans the year after that.
Part of this project involves locating and adapting or constructing
fairly specialized machinery to implement our variation of the
strip-till method. The Mitchell Equipment Multivator appears to be
ideally suited for use in creating the tilled strips through the cover
crop, but it's $3295 price (66" bar with two 12" heads) is beyond the
scope of this study. For this project we intend to purchase and
modify a tractor mounted rotary tiller. We also perceive a need to
control the cover crop at times via mowing to decrease competition and
facilitate harvesting. At this point in time we have not been able to
locate any sort of machine that is able to mow between rows of varying
widths. For the purpose of this study we plan on using a adapting a
heavy duty self propelled lawn mower.
Potential variables to study (see section B for ones we've selected):
- Soil fertility
- Compaction
- Erosion
- Inter-crop competition / compatibility
- Soil moisture (in and between rows)
- Crop rotations for bi and tri-annual tillage programs
- Crop yield
- Row width
- Till width
- Labor costs
- Machinery costs
- Weed control effectiveness and longevity
- Potential for use on [no till] grassland and areas prone to erosion
- Appropriate and specialized technology for conservation tillage systems
A. Timetable for work activities:
In the following all activities assume test plots in which exactly
half is used as a control which is farmed using typical organic
farming practices and the other using the described strip-till
technique.
Winter 2002 - Research suitable vigorous, low growing, shade tolerant
cover crops. Acquire tiller and modify to strip-till two rows.
Spring / Summer 2002 - Experiment with various strip-till
inter-cropping combinations in small plots in an attempt to find
suitable species and techniques that will work with soybeans and sweet
sorghum using 1 acre of soybeans and 1 acre of sorghum. Monitor soil
compaction, soil moisture, and erosion damage. Record labor and
machine inputs.
Fall 2002 - Harvest, measure, and compare yields of soybeans and sweet
sorghum. Test soil fertility. [Re]establish cover crops for next
year were necessary.
Spring / Summer 2003 - Inter-crop 2 acres of sweet sorghum and 1
acre of soybeans with tested cover crops. Monitor soil compaction,
soil moisture, and erosion damage. Record labor and machine inputs.
Fall 2003 - Harvest, measure, and compare, yields of soybeans and
sweet sorghum. Test soil fertility. [Re]establish cover crops for
next year were necessary.
Spring / Summer 2004 - Inter-crop 3 acres of sweet sorghum and 1 acre
of soybeans with tested cover crops. Monitor soil compaction, soil
moisture, and erosion damage. Record labor and machine inputs.
Fall 2004 - Harvest, measure, and compare yields of soybeans and sweet
sorghum. Test soil fertility.
B. List production and financial information you will document
(e.g. soil tests, crop yields, animal weight gains, equipment, feed,
and building expenses, sales, profits):
- Soil moisture (measured)
- Soil fertility (measured)
- Soil compaction (measured)
- Erosion damage (observed)
- Crop yields (measured)
- Labor, both operator and hand (measured)
- Mechanical inputs (measured)
3. How will you evaluate your projects success?
Finding a combination of plants (a cover crop and suitable row crop)
machinery, and techniques is a demonstratable success of the
strip-till method. Measuring soil moisture is critical to evaluating
inter-crop competition / cooperation. By comparing soil health and
crop yields of typical and strip-till methods we hope to demonstrate
increased soil health and possibly crop yields with strip-till
methods. By comparing labor, especially machine operation, we hope to
understand whether strip-till methods reduce labor inputs and/or
dependence on heavy machinery.
4. How will you share information from your project with other
producers?
We plan on submitting a paper for publication in suitable journals
such as Small Farm Today as well as making it publicly accessible on
the Internet. We also plan on presenting our findings at
appropriate conferences such as MOA/SPAN and the Small Farm
Conference. Additionally we plan on holding field days during the
growing seasons of the second and third years to share our findings
with interested farmers.
5. Describe your farm operation (including total farm acreage, amount
of land involved in project, number of head of livestock, crops
raised, etc.)
We are a communal farm of several adults and children. We grow most
of our own food and build our own structures. We have been
researching, discussing, and trying to farm sustainably for 24 years.
Sandhill Farm is certified organic. We grow and market specialty
crops: sorghum syrup, honey, garlic, tempeh, mustard, and
horseradish. Most of our income is from value added products.
We farm 135 acres, almost half of which is wooded and only 15 acres is
in annual crops. Some of the land was very eroded when we purchased
it and we've been building soil fertility in many different ways. Our
farm equipment is small scale and we adapt it to specialty products.
We routinely choose crops and production methods that use our labor
rather than capital inputs. We are ecologically oriented and
concerned about being good stewards of our land.
Internet references and resources:
Conservation Tillage
Cover crops
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