PROCEEDINGS 2017 Crop Pest Management Short Course & Minnesota Crop Production Retailers Association Trade Show

Transcription

1 PROCEEDINGS 2017 Crop Pest Management Short Course & Minnesota Crop Production Retailers Association Trade Show Institute for Ag Professionals Do not reproduce or redistribute without the written consent of author(s).

2 Cover Crops, Nutrients, and Water Quality WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT NEEDS WORK Melissa Wilson Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist Department of Soil, Water, and Climate University of Minnesota Sabrina Badger Ph.D. Candidate Land and Atmospheric Science University of Minnesota 1

3 TOPICS What s going on with water quality? How can cover crops help? What do we already know? What are we working on? Future research needs

4 WATER QUALITY ISSUES National issue: Dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico 2014 Size: 5,052 square miles EPA Northern Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone. 33

5 WATER QUALITY ISSUES National issue: Dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico 2015 Size: 6,474 square miles EPA Northern Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone. 44

6 WATER QUALITY ISSUES National issue: Dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico 2017 Size: 8,776 square miles EPA Northern Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone. 55

7 WATER QUALITY ISSUES National issue: Dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico NOAA Environmental Visualization Lab The Dead Zone. 66

8 WATER QUALITY ISSUES Minnesota contributions to a national issue MPCA Nutrient reduction strategy. 77

9 WATER QUALITY: SURFACE WATER Minnesota Nutrient Planning Portal MNSU. 88

10 WATER QUALITY: GROUNDWATER Nitrate Concentrations, Phosphorus Concentrations, MPCA The Condition of Minnesota s Groundwater,

11 WATER QUALITY AND ROW CROPS MN Geospatial Information Office

12 WATER QUALITY AND LIVESTOCK Montgomery

13 WATER QUALITY Tile drained field Non-tiled field Sources of nitrate to surface water MPCA Nutrient reduction strategy. 12

14 WATER QUALITY AND TIME OF YEAR Surface Runoff Soil Loss Phosphorus Loss Nitrogen Loss Nonfrozen 53% Frozen 47% Nonfrozen 92% Nonfrozen 56% Frozen 44% Nonfrozen 38% Frozen 62% Frozen 8% An important period of runoff in the Upper Midwest is during frozen soils and snowmelt Discovery Farms

15 WHAT CAN WE DO TO PREVENT NUTRIENT LOSS? Nutrient planning and management 4R Stewardship Use practices to control erosion Keep the land covered with growing crops 14

16 WHAT DO COVER CROPS DO? Fill the gap between cash crops Hunter M Mar. Cover crop cocktails. In: Cover Crops for Soil Health. Dover (DE): NE SARE. 15

17 WHAT DO COVER CROPS DO? Provide ecosystem services es/wq-am1-06.pdf Image from: SARE Cover Crop Image Library 16

18 COVER CROPS AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES Not all cover crop species are created equal From Hunter M Mar. Cover crop cocktails. In: Cover Crops for Soil Health. Dover (DE): NE SARE. 17

19 WHAT DO COVER CROPS DO? Think Risk Management Keep nutrients in the soil and out of our waterways! Scavenge nutrients left from previous crop Retain nutrients from manure Reduce spring nutrient losses from snowmelt and runoff 18

20 NUTRIENT SCAVENGING Nitrogen uptake values of rye: Fall: Minnesota: lb/a (broadcast in Sep) Spring: Minnesota: 1-20 lb/a (broadcast in Sep) lb/a (drilled in Sep) New York: 3.6 lb/a (broadcast in Oct) Nebraska: lb/a (drilled in Oct) 19

21 NUTRIENT SCAVENGING Practical Farmers of Iowa

22 WHAT DO COVER CROPS DO? Think Risk Management Keep nutrients in the soil and out of our waterways! Scavenge nutrients left from previous crop Retain nutrients from manure Reduce spring nutrient losses from snowmelt and runoff 21

23 COVER CROPS AND MANURE Ontario study with manure and various cover crops, at two sites Cover crops + manure had more biomass and nitrogen uptake than cover crops alone (except red clover) Cover crops took up 0-25% of manure N Did not see a yield boost from cover crops + manure, however Thilakarathna et al

24 IOWA STUDY: Cambardella et al

25 WHAT DO COVER CROPS DO? Think Risk Management Keep nutrients in the soil and out of our waterways! Scavenge nutrients left from previous crop Retain nutrients from manure Reduce spring nutrient losses from snowmelt and runoff 24

26 REDUCING RUNOFF LOSSES Runoff: Minnesota study ( ) compared winter rye interseeded at leaf drop into soybeans to fallow ground CC reduced losses by: N 80% in fall 98% in spring P 89% in fall 99% in spring 25

27 REDUCING RUNOFF LOSSES Wisconsin study from Cover crops and water quality Total phosphorus reduced in runoff by 42% Particulate phosphorus reduced by 44% 26

28 REDUCING SUBSURFACE LOSSES Tile-drainage study in Lamberton, MN Corn-ryeCC-soybean rotation reduced nitrate in tile drainage by 13% compared with no CC in rotation Strock et al study in Ontario, Canada Cover crop added to a corn-soybean rotation reduced nitrate losses by 14-16% compared with no CC in the rotation Drury et al

29 REDUCING SUBSURFACE LOSSES Tile-drainage On-farm study from in Southwestern MN Continuous corn silage Annual manure application Fallow After Corn Silage 5000 Head Dairy Krueger et al. Unpublished data. Winter Rye Seeded After Corn Silage 28

30 ON-FARM RESEARCH Nitrate Concentration vs. Date Rye Seeded Rye Killed Corn Silage Corn Silage/Rye NO 3 - -N (mg l -1 ) /27/07 06/07/07 09/15/07 12/24/07 04/02/08 07/11/08 10/19/08 01/27/09 05/07/09 08/15/09 11/23/09 Krueger et al. Unpublished data. Date 29

31 REDUCING SUBSURFACE LOSSES 100 Nitrate-N Concentration in Leachate Nitrate-N (mg L -1 ) Corn Rye-Corn 0 09/15/07 11/04/07 12/24/07 02/12/08 04/02/08 05/22/08 07/11/08 Leachate data are limited, but a decrease in NO 3 concentration of 27% was observed in one year of data Date Krueger et al. Unpublished data. 30

32 CURRENT RESEARCH Cover crops and tile drainage Started in 2016 in Waseca, MN Alternate methods for establishing cover crops Interseeding into corn and soybeans Go see Dr. Well s talk if interested! Where does the nitrogen go once cover crops are terminated? 31

33 NITROGEN AVAILABILITY AND CORN PRODUCTION IN MINNESOTA FOLLOWING COVER CROPS Sabrina Badger Dr. Daniel Kaiser Dr. M. Scott Wells Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics University of Minnesota Department of Soil, Water, and Climate University of Minnesota Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics University of Minnesota 32

34 THE EXPERIMENT Main Plot Medium Red Cover Trifolium pratense Legume Moderately winter hardy Field Pennycress Thalspi avensi Possible oilseed crop Winter hardy Cereal Rye Secale cereale Nitrogen Scavenger Highly winter hardy Cereal Rye + Radish Secale cereale + Raphanus sativus N scavenger and compaction reducer Radish not winter hardy USDA.go v Lamberton Waseca Normania loam and Webster clay loam Canisteo clay loam Sub Plot Rosemount Lindstrom silt loam 0 lb N ha-1 50 lb N ac lb N ac lb N ac lb N ac lb N ac-1 33

35 TIMELINE Summer 2015 Soybeans September 2015 Plant cover crops End April 2016 Terminate cover crops May 2016 Plant corn Apply fertilizer Install PRS probes Begin soil sampling Summer-Fall Periodically take soil samples and swap PRS probes October 2016 Harvest corn Shutterstock 34

36 OBJECTIVES Leaching-Susceptible Soil Nitrogen Growing Season Nitrogen Availability Corn Yield and Optimum Nitrogen Rates 35

37 NITROGEN STATUS AT COVER CROP TERMINATION Medium Red Clover Field Pennycress Winter Rye + Radish Winter Rye Within each location, treatments with different letters are significantly different (Fisher s LSD, α=0.05). (Lamberton: P<0.001; Rosemount: P<0.01; Waseca: P<0.01) 36

38 NITROGEN STATUS AT COVER CROP TERMINATION Medium Red Clover Field Pennycress Winter Rye + Radish Winter Rye Within each location, treatments with different letters are significantly different (Fisher s LSD, α=0.05). (Lamberton: P<0.001; Rosemount: P<0.001; Waseca: P<0.001) 37

39 NITROGEN STATUS AT COVER CROP TERMINATION Medium Red Clover Field Pennycress Winter Rye + Radish Winter Rye Within each location, treatments with different letters are significantly different (Fisher s LSD, α=0.05). (Lamberton: P<0.01; Rosemount: P<0.001; Waseca: P=0.8) 38

40 NITROGEN STATUS AT COVER CROP TERMINATION Within each location, treatments with different letters are significantly different (Fisher s LSD, α=0.05). (Lamberton: P<0.001; Rosemount: P<0.001; Waseca: P<0.001) Within each location, treatments with different letters are significantly different (Fisher s LSD, α=0.05). (Lamberton: P<0.001; Rosemount: P<0.01; Waseca: P<0.01) Medium Red Clover Field Pennycress Winter Rye + Radish Winter Rye Within each location, treatments with different letters are significantly different (Fisher s LSD, α=0.05). (Lamberton: P<0.01; Rosemount: P<0.001; Waseca: P=0.8) 39

41 SPRING SOIL NITROGEN Medium Red Clover None Field Pennycress Winter Rye + Radish Winter Rye Within each location, treatments with different letters are significantly different (Fisher s LSD, α=0.1). (Lamberton: P=0.06; Rosemount: P=0.06; Waseca: P<0.01) 40

42 NITROGEN AVAILABILITY Within each location, treatments with different letters are significantly different (Fisher s LSD, α=0.05). (Lamberton: P<0.001; Rosemount: P<0.01; Waseca: P<0.01) Medium Red Clover None Field Pennycress Winter Rye + Radish Winter Rye Within each sample time, treatments with different letters are significantly different (Fisher s LSD, α=0.05). (Day*Cover crop P<0.01; Day*N rate P<0.001; Cover crop*n rate P=0.05) 41

43 NITROGEN AVAILABILITY Medium Red Clover None Field Pennycress Winter Rye + Radish Winter Rye Medium Red Clover None Field Pennycress Winter Rye + Radish Winter Rye Within each sample time, treatments with different letters are significantly different (Fisher s LSD, α=0.05). (Day*Cover crop*n rate P=0.05) Within each sample time, treatments with different letters are significantly different (Fisher s LSD, α=0.05). (Day*Cover crop*n rate P<0.01) Within each sample time, treatments with different letters are significantly different (Fisher s LSD, α=0.05). (Day*Cover crop P<0.01; Day*N rate P<0.001; Cover crop*n rate P=0.05) 42

44 CONCLUSIONS Cereal (winter) rye significantly reduced spring soil nitrate in all locations. Field pennycress, in development as an oilseed crop, appears to also provide this ecosystem service. Medium red clover was not able to gain significant biomass by termination. Lack of a nitrogen credit from medium red clover is likely due to low cover crop biomass. Lack of a nitrogen credit from winter rye and pennycress is likely due to N losses and/or immobilization, rather than poor synchrony with corn N demand. Note: High variability between years is common in such studies. Also, results may be different after long-term cover crop use. 43

45 FUTURE RESEARCH What is the adoption rate in MN? Can we use satellite imagery to determine nutrient capture? NASA

46 FUTURE RESEARCH Manure and cover crops What are BMPs for combining the two practices? Can cover crops help reduce issues of early fall applied manure? Seeded: Sep 1 Harvested: Dec 5 45

47 Any questions? Contact Info: Follow me on The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, this PowerPoint is available in alternative formats upon request. Direct requests to