18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Water Use Efficiency in Northwest Kansas Dietrich Kastens Herndon, Kansas

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 A little about us: Farm in Rawlins & Cheyenne Counties in Kansas and Hitchcock County, Nebraska Eco-Fallow rotation starting around % notill on some acres in % notill across the farm in 2003 Deep, silt-loam soils with ASW of 10” Currently our base rotation is Wheat-Corn-Milo-Peas (WCMP). Alfalfa in bottoms. Dabbling with soybeans Heavy emphasis on science and technology Lots and lots of on-farm research

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14,

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Same field in 2001

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Source: U.S. Census of Agriculture years --

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, years already in our area and still lots of iron in the ground………

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Notill Adoption is a slow-moving technology (like tractors were) Requires a huge investment in time, education, money and research so folks will move at whatever speed is comfortable to them. The folks farming with horses yet in the 1950’s were too late in the adoption curve and most of those farms didn’t go on another generation. That is the risk for adopting a new technology too slowly.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 OK, so let’s look at some water stuff from our farm…..

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 This past dry winter we had lots of internal discussions about water storage and usage on our farm. Specifically, we were looking at better understanding profitability trade-offs and risks for planting corn vs. milo in Unlike the corn belt who harvests sunlight, we out here in the west harvest water.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 For our own farm we have a long-term primary goal and that is to always have yields be water limited. This assumes proper management around water (nutrients, operation timing, harvest, etc.,) Question: How good are we actually doing with the water we get?

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Terraces allowed us to keep the water on the field during the old days but it didn’t do much good though.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, ” of Rainfall Annually

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Not truly this high as peas are shallow rooted and do not harvest full water profile

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Let’s force everything to be 50% efficient

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Let’s force everything to be 75% efficient

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Let’s force everything to be 100% efficient

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Where are we losing Water from the system? Evaporation –Significant losses here, especially due to fallow periods in the warm months (long or short fallow) Run-off and Drainage –Not much of a problem today with continuous cropped notill Transpired through non-crop species (weeds) –We all know that weeds can use a lot of water,

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Evaporation Let’s borrow from Dwayne Beck and “Take the E out of ET”. –Or at least lets try to make it a small “e”. Fallow periods in warm months are a major problem. –Long summer fallow (traditional summer fallow) –Short summer fallow (after spring crop harvest) –Short spring fallow (before fall crops have canopied)

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Evaporation Traditional long summer fallow is very inefficient –25% water storage efficient (WSE) in Tribune, KS in 2010 Short summer fallow is not a lot better –30-35% WSE with straight cut wheat stubble –35-40% WSE with stripper cut wheat stubble Short spring fallow has losses as well –Without adequate surface residue, lots of water leaves before crop canopy

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Stripper harvest of small grains provides uniform residue distribution and more stubble height to hold back wind, but after chaff breaks down, lots of soil exposed until stubble falls down over winter.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Evaporation for 35 days after a rain -Decatur Co, KS Haag, L.A. and S.A. Staggenborg Impact of Stubble Height on Soil Moisture Dynamics International ASA-CSSA-SSSA Meetings. ASA Presentation No Madison, WI.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Corn Planted into stripper stubble

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Emerging corn in stripper stubble

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Only soil exposed to sunlight

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Stripper stubble requires different management Lucas Haag -2008

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Surface conditions at wheat planting time in long fallow.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Surface conditions at wheat planting time in pea stubble.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Emerging wheat in pea stubble.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Emerging wheat in soybean stubble in Dry conditions at planting followed by a week of high winds.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Emerging wheat in soybean stubble in It’s going to take a few years to recover this ground!

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Evaporation Short Summer Fallow –Probably too short of a season to grow another cash crop –Could we grow some cheaper nitrogen and not hurt water? On-farm research looking at cover crops after wheat starting this year. Must be careful not to harvest “Too Much” water or break down too much residue (hurt us during the spring fallow). At Dakota Lakes they have been experimenting with planting their summer cover crops on 30” rows instead of 10” rows for residue preservation.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Evaporation Short Summer Fallow –Could we grow something else beneficial to the system while (at a minimum) not reducing WSE for the next crop? –Bern’s brothers at Green Cover seed actually have some data from 2010 that showed a specific cover crop cocktail was able to grow without any measurable loss in ASW accumulation. Are they just trying to sell us seed? This is where the on-farm research comes in.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Run-off and Drainage Cropping Intensity (100+%) Avoid too many low residue crops in rotation Residue & micro-pore distribution & canopy closure Narrow row spacing –10” rows wheat, peas and milo With milo this results in a 10x10 grid of plants Should we be thinking about 20” corn?

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Transpired through non-crop species (weeds) We all know weeds are bad, but full control carries some economic trade-offs, thus often is a “gut-feel” decision. We all have examples where we spent too much or too little on weeds, but it’s hard to find the middle ground. Where’s the science?

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Lost wheat stand due to lack of kochia control.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Volunteer RR corn in fallow taps a lot of water

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, Managing for high residue helps

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Transpired through non-crop species (weeds) According to experts, like Canadian Dr. Neil Harker, the best IWM program involves a diverse and intense crop rotation with emphasis on: –Seeding and Fertilizing –Growing competitive cultivars –Rotational diversity –Optimal agronomics –Harvesting Many weed seeds won’t germinate without sunlight.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Wrap-up We’ve made huge gains in water use efficiency over the past 20 years through: –Increasing cropping intensity (from 50% to 100%) –Eliminating tillage –Focusing on surface residue management Volume and distribution (think uniformity)

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Wrap-up Still have a ways to go when I see that we’re only 40% WUE for corn in wheat stubble or 52% WUE for milo in corn stalks. How much more can we push intensity? –Can we squeeze another cash crop in somewhere? –How might cover crops fit into our mix?

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Wrap-up These are all questions whose answers must be found on our own farms. Notill management makes finding “answers” a moving target as relationships change along with the soil. More on-farm research needed

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Wrap-up University systems can provide some answers but there are too many specific questions for them to cover everything. Private consultants can help steer folks in the correct direction, but you are the one spending the money and new technologies have to be evaluated on your farm.

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, 2011 Wrap-up Excellent Notill organizations out there –Notill on the Plains ( –Colorado Conservation Tillage Assoc. ( –No-Till Farmer ( Excellent on-farm research groups out there as well –Kansas Ag Research and Technology Assoc. –Nebraska Agriculture Technology Association

18th Annual National No-Tillage Conference Des Moines, Iowa * Jan , No-till on the Plains No-till Expo Wallace, NE June 14, Questions? Decision Making in the Field is STILL important!