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Ontario Grain Farmer Magazine

Economics of long-term tillage rotation platforms at Ridgetown and Elora

Principal Investigator: Dave Hooker and Bill Deen  

Research Institution: University of Guelph

Timeline: April 2017 – March 2022  

Objectives:

  • To measure crop performance annually for yield assessments and stability over time, and to compile this information for use in other projects and for extension purposes.
  • To perform a comprehensive economic analysis of a systems approach with tillage, crop rotation, cover crop, and nitrogen (N) rates at both locations, and to revise the current CashCropper App version with this new information.

Impacts:

  • The continuation of the long-term rotation trials will provide growers with accurate information for making the best decisions regarding economic potentials of various crop rotations, tillage systems, feasibility of underseeded red clover, and optimizing fertilizer N rates.
  • The various cropping systems over time have generated varying levels of soil health; soil data can thus be used to develop the tools for robust measurements of soil health, which can be used to evaluate and compare the soil health status and improvements on growers’ fields.

Scientific Summary:

The factors driving cropping system decisions are numerous and complex. Growers synthesize the best available information for making cropping system decisions, but usually with a focus on economic performance of individual crops in the short-term. The current trend for less diverse crop rotations in Ontario has been driven, in part, due to the lack of quantifiable data available to growers to make informed cropping systems decisions. Long-term cropping system studies are critical to generate the data needed to address economic and crop productivity over the long-term rather than individual years. Current long-term rotation trials were established in 1995 (Ridgetown) and 1981 (Elora) and are uniquely designed and managed to answer economic and environmental questions. They have served as platforms for multiple objectives across disciplines: including the training of students and disseminating knowledge of soil and cropping system responses through scientific journal publications, farmer-focused field days, the CashCropper App, extension materials, and articles in the media. To affect change in farmer practices data are required that show economic benefits of more complex rotations, reduced tillage systems, improvement of fertilizer nitrogen use efficiency, and cover crops.

The overall goal of the project was to have a comprehensive economic analysis of yield data and stability over time and to maintain the trials to serve as a platform across multiple disciplines. The economic analysis involved determining the impact of cropping system strategies on profits and the return on investment. The level and variation of returns was assessed within and across years, taking into account the influence of weather.

In addition, the trials served as platforms for further multi-disciplinary research, including an examination of how crop rotation treatments align with treatments in the lysimeter project at the Elora Research Station. Further soil microbiological profiling is being done, and crop nutrient uptake and grain quality effects on soil health are being measured.

Results have demonstrated the importance of rotation diversity for increasing yield, drought resiliency and soil health. The long-term trials have been instrumental in raising awareness of the importance of crop rotation diversity. Anecdotally, numerous individuals have credited data from the long-term trial for maintaining and increasing wheat acreage in the province of Ontario.

Key Findings:

  • Corn and soybean yields are higher in systems with a small grain cereal (e.g., winter wheat) or a forage crop.  These crop rotations also help ease the transition to reduced tillage and enable the inclusion of cover crops. Thus, the impact of the wheat enterprise affects the value of corn and soybean enterprises. Enterprise budgets need to include the effect of other crops in rotation, including cover crops.
  • Wheat makes corn and soybean more resilient during dry years: This research shows that during dry years, corn and soybean yields are higher and more stable when they are part of a rotation with cereals or forage crops. There is also a lower risk of crop failure when these rotations are practiced. You cannot predict the weather, but you can increase your farm’s resilience to drought.
  • Wheat improves soil nitrogen use efficiency: Reduce your dependence on nitrogen fertilizer for corn by adding a small grain cereal (e.g., winter wheat) to your farm’s corn-soybean rotation and underseed it to red clover. Research shows that rotations with wheat and red clover have more available soil nitrogen for your corn crop.
  • Improve soil health and soil quality by adding a small grain cereal (e.g., winter wheat) or a forage crop to your farm’s corn-soybean rotation. Research shows that these rotations increase overall soil health. When you add winter wheat into your rotation and combine it with reduced tillage, it leads to higher levels of total nitrogen and organic carbon in the soil and benefits soil microbes. Make your farm more resilient and improve soil health for the future of your farm by diversifying your rotation and reducing tillage.

External Funding Partners:

This project was funded in part by the Governments of Canada and Ontario through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (the Partnership), a five-year (2018-2023), federal-provincial-territorial initiative.

Project Related Publications:

Bagnall D.K., Morgan C.L., Bean G.M., Liptzin D., Cappellazzi S.B., Cope M., Honeycutt C.W. 2022. Selecting soil hydraulic properties as indicators of soil health: Measurement response to management and site characteristics. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 86(5): 1206-1226.

Bittman S., Hunt D., Grant C., Deen W. 2018. Sustainable Cropping Systems. In Encyclopedia of Ecology 2nd Edition. Bastianoni S., Vymazal J., Martins I., Svirejeva-Hopkins A., Liu X., Fath B., Wertheim B., and Scharler U., editors. Elsevier. 2780pp.

Chahal I., Hooker D.C., Deen B., Janovicek K., & Van Eerd L.L. 2021. Long-term effects of crop rotation, tillage, and fertilizer nitrogen on soil health indicators and crop productivity in a temperate climate. Soil and Tillage Research. 213: 105121.

Congreves K.A., Hooker D.C., Hayes A., Verhallen E.A., Van Eerd L.L. 2016. Interaction of long-term nitrogen fertilizer application, crop rotation, and tillage system on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics. Plant Soil. 1-15.

Congreves K.A., Smith J.M., Németh D.D., Hooker D.C., Van Eerd L.L. 2014. Soil organic carbon and land use: Processes and potential in Ontario’s long-term agro-ecosystem research sites. Canadian Journal of Soil Science. 94(3):317-336.

Deen W., Martin R.C., Hooker D., Gaudin A. 2016. Crop Rotation Trends: Past, Present and Future Benefits and Drivers. In Bao-Luo Ma (Editor), Crop Rotations: Farming Practices, Monitoring and Environmental Benefits. Nova Science Publications.

Gaudin A.C.M., Janovicek K., Deen B., Hooker D.C. 2015. Wheat improves nitrogen use efficiency of maize and soybean-based cropping systems. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 210:1-10.

Gaudin A.C.M., Tolhurst T.N., Ker A.P., et al. 2015. Increasing crop diversity mitigates weather variations and improves yield stability. PLoS One. 10(2).

Janovicek K., Hooker D.C., Weerseek A., Vyn R., Deen B. 2021. Corn and soybean yields and returns are greater in rotations with wheat. Agronomy Journal. 113:1691-1711.

Jarecki M., Grant B., Smith W., et al. 2018. Long-term Trends in Corn Yields and Soil Carbon under Diversified Crop Rotations. Journal of Environmental Quality.

King A.E., Congreves K.A., Deen B., Dunfield K.E., Simpson M.J., Voroney P.R., Wagner-Riddle C. 2020. Crop rotations differ in soil carbon stabilization efficiency, but the response to quality of structural plant inputs is ambiguous. Plant and Soil. 1-18.

Linton N.F., Vitor Ferrari M.P., Deen B., Wagner-Riddle C., Dunfield K.E. 2020. Long-term diverse rotation alters nitrogen cycling bacterial groups and nitrous oxide emissions after nitrogen fertilization. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 149.

Machado P.V.F., Farrell R.E., Bell G., Taveira C.J., Congreves K.A., Voroney R.P., Wagner-Riddle C. et. al. 2021. Crop residues contribute minimally to spring-thaw nitrous oxide emissions under contrasting tillage and crop rotations. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 152: 108057.

Man M., Tosi M., Dunfield K.E., Hooker D.C., Simpson M. J. 2022. Tillage management exerts stronger controls on soil microbial community structure and organic matter molecular composition than N fertilization. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 336: 108028.

Munkholm L.J., Heck R.J., Deen B., Zidar T. 2016. Relationship between soil aggregate strength, shape and porosity for soils under different long-term management. Geoderma. 268:52-59.

Munroe J.W., McCormick I., Deen W., Dunfield K.E. 2015. Effects of 30-years of crop rotation and tillage on bacterial and archaeal ammonia oxidizers. Journal of Environmental Quality. 948:1-31.

Renwick L.R., Bowles T.M., Deen W., Gaudin A.C.M. 2018. Potential of increased temporal crop diversity to improve resource use efficiencies: exploiting water and nitrogen linkages. In Agro-Ecosystem Diversity, 1st Edition:  Reconciling Contemporary Agriculture and Environmental Quality. Lemaire G., Carvalho P., Kronberg S., and Recous S. Elsevier., editors. 474pp.

Renwick L.L., Deen W., Silva L., Gilbert M.E., Maxwell T., Bowles T.M., Gaudin A.C. 2021. Long-term crop rotation diversification enhances maize drought resistance through soil organic matter. Environmental Research Letters. 16(8): 084067.

Stoeckli J.L., Sharifi M., Hooker D.C., Thomas B.W., Khaefi F., Stewart G., Motaghian H.R., et. al. 2021. Predicting soil nitrogen availability to grain corn in Ontario, Canada. Canadian Journal of Soil Science. 101(3): 389-401.

Tong H., Man M., Wagner-Riddle C., Dunfield K. E., Deen B., Simpson M. J. 2022. Crop rotational diversity alters the composition of stabilized soil organic matter compounds in soil physical fractions. Canadian Journal of Soil Science.

Tosi M., Deen W., Drijber R., McPherson M., Stengel A., Dunfield K. 2021. Long-term N inputs shape microbial communities more strongly than current-year inputs in soils under 10-year continuous corn cropping. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 160: 108361.

Vitor Ferrari M.P., Farrell R.E., Deen W., Voroney R.P., Congreves K.A., Wagner-Riddle C. 2021. Crop residues contribute minimally to spring-thaw nitrous oxide emissions under contrasting tillage and crop rotations. Soil Biology & Biochemistry 152.

Van Eerd L.L., Congreves K.A., Hayes A., Verhallen A., Hooker D.C. 2014. Long-term tillage and crop rotation effects on soil quality, organic carbon, and total nitrogen. Canadian Journal of Soil Science. 94(3): 303-315.

Wepruk E., Diochon A., Van Eerd L.L., Gregorich E.G., Deen B., Hooker D.C. 2022. Identifying rotation and tillage practices that maintain or enhance soil carbon and its relation to soil health. Canadian Journal of Soil Science.

Wentian H., Grant B.B., Smith W.N., VanderZaag A.C., Piquette S., Qian B., Jing Q., Rennie T.J., Belanger G., Jego G., Deen B. 2019. Assessing alfalfa production under historical and future climate in eastern Canada: DNDC model development and application. Environmental Modelling and Software 122.

Winstone B.C., Heck R.J., Munkholm L.J., Deen B. 2018. Characterization of soil aggregate structure by virtual erosion of X-ray CT imagery. Soil Tillage Research. 185: 70–76.