Long-term farming systems research in the central High Plains

2002

ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS. soil quality, geographic information systems, interdisciplinary, largescale, research, agroecosystems, organic, sustainable agriculture

Agronomy Journal, 2007

Opportunities to integrate crops and livestock are abundant throughout the southeastern USA due to a mild climate and a rich natural resource base that can produce different crops throughout the year. Although not currently common, integration of forage and grazing animals with cropping systems could benefit both production and environmental goals. This report summarizes research from some of the key components that could produce viable integrated croplivestock production systems: sod-based crop rotation, cover cropping, intercropping, and conservation tillage. Sod-based crop rotations have been effective in breaking pest cycles and restoring soil organic matter, which critically controls a wide diversity of key soil and plant properties and processes. Cover cropping by itself has many agronomic benefits, but its adoption appears to be limited, because of cost without immediate economic benefit. Grazing of cover crops could provide an immediate economic benefit to producers, especially with the development of conservation tillage technologies to avoid deterioration of soil and water quality. The potential for advancement of integrated crop-livestock systems is exemplified in a few current research projects in the Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions. With greater integration of crops and livestock, new management guidelines and experiences will be needed, but the quantity and quality of production and economic return could increase, while at the same time placing less degrading pressure on soil and water resources.

Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2008

Crop production on the Llano Estacado of the Texas High Plains has used precipitation and supplemental irrigation with water pumped from the Ogallala aquifer at rates that have far exceeded recharge for many years. Over 20% of the U.S. cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) crop is produced currently in this once vast grassland. Most of this cotton is produced in monoculture systems that are economically risky and contribute to wind-induced erosion and depletion of ground water resources. Although large numbers of cattle are found in this region, little integration of livestock and crop production exists. Integrated crop-livestock systems could improve nutrient cycling, reduce soil erosion, improve water management, interrupt pest cycles, and spread economic risk through diversification. Two whole-farm scale systems compared (1) a cotton monoculture typical of the region; and (2) an alternative integrated system that included cotton, forage, and Angus-cross stocker beef steers (initial body weight 249 kg). Steers grazed the perennial warm-season grass 'WW-B. Dahl' old world bluestem [Bothriochloa bladhii (Retz) S.T. Blake] in sequence with rye (Secale cereale L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) from January to mid-July when they were sent to the feedyard for finishing. Grass seed were harvested from bluestem in October. Cotton in the alternative system was grown in a twopaddock rotation with the wheat and rye. Cotton was harvested from both systems in October. At the end of 5 years, the alternative system reduced needs for supplemental irrigation by 23% and for nitrogen fertilizer by 40% compared with the conventional cotton monoculture. Fewer chemical inputs including pesticides were required by the alternative system. Soil with perennial grass pasture was lower in predicted soil erosion and was higher in soil organic carbon, aggregate stability, and microbial biomass than soil where continuous cotton was grown. Profitability was greater for the alternative system until cotton lint yields reached about 1500 kg ha À1 for the continuous cotton system. Differences between the systems became larger as depth to ground water increased. Systems that are less dependent on supplemental irrigation and less consumptive of non-renewable resources and energy-dependent chemical inputs appear possible, but further improvements are required to ensure sustainability of agricultural systems for the future in the Texas High Plains. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Agronomy Journal

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY Over the last century, many agricultural producers have become specialized and highly efficient at producing specific crops or livestock to meet the demand of global population growth (MacDonald and McBride, 2009). Societal and population changes are continuing to increase food demand, necessitating intensification of existing crops and livestock production systems (Godfray et al., 2010). However, intensification can result in soil and ecosystem degradation, unsustainable resource use, and agrochemical, antibiotic, and hormone contamination (Herrero et al., 2009; Reganold et al., 2011; Tilman et al., 2001). Integrated crop-livestock systems can provide an alternative management strategy that purportedly sustainably intensifies food production while benefiting producer income, soil, and the environment (Franzluebbers, 2007). An agricultural system that manages crop and livestock production on a single farm or among farms such that products are used to support each other is an ICLS (

Agronomy Journal, 2005

2013

T following six papers were presented at the integrated systems. Westfall et al. (1996) emphasized symposium entitled “Continuous Dryland Cropping the importance of N management in more intensive in the Great Plains: What Are the Limits?” held during systems where the yield loss resulting from underfertilizthe 2003 ASA–CSSA–SSSA annual meetings in Denation is greater than in winter wheat–fallow systems. ver, CO. The symposium was organized by Division S-6 Integrated pest management concepts, as they relate to and cosponsored by Divisions A-8 and C-3. dryland cropping systems, were presented by Holtzer The Great Plains is a vast interior region of North et al. (1996). Lyon et al. (1996) discussed the important America with a temperate, semiarid climate that is subrole of herbicides in dryland weed control systems and ject to wide fluctuations in precipitation, temperature, the need to maintain their usefulness through the impleand wind speed. The most common cropping system in mentat...

ii Acknowledgements First, I thank my wife, Wesley, for her love, support, encouragement, and faith in my abilities throughout the project. Next, thanks to our daughter, Lydia, for keeping my lap and heart warm while typing and not complaining too much about having to fall asleep to the sound of keystrokes. Thanks to my parents for the person they made me into and the many things they taught me. The more I learn, the smarter they seem.

Field Crops Research, 2014

Previously published research reported a "synergistic effect" of corn (Zea mays L.) on winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) water use efficiency (WUE) when corn (C) was the preceding crop for dryland cropping systems in the central Great Plains, i.e., less water was required to grow a unit of wheat (W) or proso millet (M) when corn was the preceding crop. A similar synergistic effect of field pea (Pisum sativum L.) for seed (P) or forage (FrP) on winter wheat water use and yield has also been reported. The purpose of this study was to examine a long-term cropping systems yield and water use data set in order to determine if WUE is altered by rotational sequence (i.e., previous crop). Yield and water use data (computed by water balance using neutron probe and time-domain reflectometry measurements) were acquired from a crop rotation study conducted at Akron,

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports

This study was conducted from 2008-2020 at the Kansas State University Southwest Research-Extension Center near Tribune, KS. The purpose of the study was to identify whether more intensive cropping systems can enhance and stabilize production in rainfed cropping systems to optimize economic crop production, more efficiently capture and utilize scarce precipitation, and maintain or enhance soil resources and environmental quality. The crop rotations evaluated were continuous grain sorghum (SS), wheat-fallow (WF), wheat-corn-fallow (WCF), wheat-sorghum-fallow (WSF), wheat-cornsorghum-fallow (WCSF), and wheat-sorghum-corn-fallow (WSCF). All rotations were grown using notillage (NT) practices except for WF, which was grown using reduced-tillage. The efficiency of precipitation capture was not greater with more intensive rotations. Length of rotation had little effect on wheat yields. Corn and grain sorghum yields were approximately 50% greater when following wheat than when following corn or grain sorghum. Grain sorghum yields were approximately 40% greater than corn in similar rotations.

Climatic Change

CITATIONS 26 READS 78 7 authors, including:

Frontiers in Environmental Science

Climate-friendly best management practices for mitigating and adapting to climate change (cfBMPs) include changes in crop rotation, soil management and resource use. Determined largely by precipitation gradients, specific agroecological systems in the inland Pacific Northwestern U.S. (iPNW) feature different practices across the region. Historically, these farming systems have been economically productive, but at the cost of high soil erosion rates and organic matter depletion, making them win-lose situations. Agronomic, sociological, political and economic drivers all influence cropping system innovations. Integrated, holistic conservation systems also need to be identified to address climate change by integrating cfBMPs that provide win-win benefits for farmer and environment. We conclude that systems featuring short-term improvements in farm economics, market diversification, resource efficiency and soil health will be most readily adopted by farmers, thereby simultaneously addressing longer term challenges including climate change. Specific "win-win scenarios" are designed for different iPNW production zones delineated by water availability. The cfBMPs include reduced tillage and residue management, organic carbon (C) recycling, precision nitrogen (N) management and crop rotation diversification and intensification. Current plant breeding technologies have provided new cultivars of canola and pea that can diversify system agronomics Pan et al. Win-Win Scenarios for Farm and Climate and markets. These agronomic improvements require associated shifts in prescriptive, precision N and weed management. The integrated cfBMP systems we describe have the potential for reducing system-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by increasing soil C storage, N use efficiency (NUE) and by production of biofuels. Novel systems, even if they are economically competitive, can come with increased financial risk to producers, necessitating government support (e.g., subsidized crop insurance) to promote adoption. Other conservation-and climate change-targeted farm policies can also improve adoption. Ultimately, farmers must meet their economic and legacy goals to assure longer-term adoption of mature cfBMP for iPNW production systems.

2013 Second International Conference on Agro-Geoinformatics (Agro-Geoinformatics), 2013

Over 23 million hectares (233 thousand km 2 ) of U.S. croplands are irrigated and there was an overall net expansion of 522 thousand hectares nationally from 2002 to 2007. Most of this expansion occurred across the High Plains Aquifer (HPA) in the central Great Plains. Until recently, there has been a lack of geospatially-detailed irrigation data that are consistent, timely, geographically extensive, and periodic to support studies linking agricultural land use change to crop yields, aquifer water use, and other factors. We employed a modeling approach implemented at two time intervals (2002 and 2007) to map irrigated agriculture across the conterminous U.S. at a subcounty spatial detail (250 m 2 spatial resolution). The model integrated U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) county statistics, satellite imagery, and a national land cover map. The geospatial model output, called the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Irrigated Agriculture Dataset for the United States (MIrAD-US), was then used to depict detailed spatial patterns of irrigation change across the HPA from 2002 to 2007. Spatial changes in irrigation may result in shifts in local and regional climate, groundwater depletion, and higher crop yields and farm income. A closer investigation of irrigated corn across the HPA from 2000 to 2012 revealed even more variability through time, underscoring the need for more frequent periodic mapping of irrigated agriculture.

2020

1989

Long-term crop management plots are designated as follows. The year each plot was intitiated is indicated in parentheses. Crop residue management (1931) Annual-crop wheat and barley (1931) Tillage fertility management (1940) Wheat-pea tillage (1963) Mixed grass pasture (1928) v Aerial photo of Pendleton Agrkultural Research Center in May, 1987.

2018

Considering different scenarios of future trends in climate, several authors have found that the impact that climate change will have on agriculture will most likely be negative. Most of these studies consider regions with low level of irrigation and do not control for purchased farm inputs. An important step towards understanding the evolution of agricultural production is to carefully estimate the effect that different temperatures and precipitation have on agricultural productivity considering also inputs under farmers control and the farmers profit-maximizing behavior. This research develops a county level biomass production function for an 800-mile climatic gradient from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River (41N). Our results quantify the critical effects that high temperatures have on agricultural productivity in the region, after controlling for irrigation, other managed inputs, soil characteristics, precipitation, and technological change. We find a negative and incr...