No Till Notes: 'Tour of the High Plains Ag Lab'

One of our visits during the Panhandle No-till Partnerships field days included a morning tour of the High Plains Ag Lab located near Gurley. Cody Creech and Karla Jenkins took the time out of their busy schedules to show our group the exciting research they are conducting at the University of Nebraska research farm. I really appreciate all the hard work Creech and Jenkins do to help agricultural producers in our region. I also want to thank them again for taking our group for a tour of the research farm.

I found the yellow field pea variety trials to be very interesting. Dipak Santra, the UNL Panhandle Research and Extension Center’s assistant professor of Agronomy and Horticulture, is in charge of the yellow field pea trials throughout the Panhandle. We had one of Santra’s variety trials on our farm but a hail storm already harvested our trial.

There were many yellow pea varieties that looked very good for yield and height of pod set at the HPAL variety trial. Many of the varieties were loaded with pods and still flowering. With the unusually wet spring and early summer we have had this year I’m a little cautious about the results. We may see some varieties yield real well this year that may not handle the stresses of a more normal year in the Panhandle.

Over time, these variety trials will give producers in our area a good idea of which yellow field pea varieties perform best in our environment. We may find some varieties perform better in certain parts of the Panhandle due to our diverse soil and moisture conditions. I think having variety trials placed in different locations around our region will give producers valuable information as these trials are planted for several consecutive years.

Jenkins also spoke to our group about some of the research she has conducted on feeding yellow field peas in various livestock rations. The yellow field peas have proven to be an excellent source of energy and protein in livestock rations. The yellow field peas are also excellent binders being used in making cake for cattle feed. Jenkins has applied for a federal grant to research calculating the value of yellow field peas as a livestock feed source. Yellow field peas are very diverse as they supply energy similar to corn and are also a high protein feed source. Finding the true value of the yellow field peas as a livestock feed source will help yellow field pea producers and marketers as the yellow field pea industry continues to develop in our region.

Creech showed us some very interesting trials he is conducting on the research farm. One trial that caught my attention was the addition of a seed treatment on corn to improve the colonization of mycorrhizal fungi on the corn plant. Mycorrhizal fungi colonization helps the plants access nutrients and water that may be unavailable to the plants roots. It will be interesting to see if using the seed treatment actually improves the performance of the corn plants and improves the yields of the treated plots compared to plots without the seed treatment.

Another interesting trial was the wheat variety trials. I found the solid stem wheat varieties especially intriguing. Creech said that the solid stem wheats typically have about 10 percent less yield than more traditional wheat varieties. The advantage of these varieties is less yield loss from wheat stem sawfly due to the solid stem characteristic of these varieties. The solid stem wheat varieties also seem more resistant to some of the rusts that have been problematic in winter wheat production.

Creech will also begin a continuous no-till rotational research trial next year. The research will involve using different continuous no-till crop rotations to determine how winter wheat yields compare to the traditional winter wheat/summer fallow rotation that is the predominant rotation used in our region. I would again like to thank Cody, Karla and Dipak for the research they conduct which improves agriculture in our region.