Backyard Orchard News
Long-term study: Conservation tillage saves oil, soil and toil in cotton
A 12-year study published in the July-September 2012 issue of the University of California’s California Agriculture journal demonstrates that cotton grown in rotation with tomatoes — using lower-impact conservation tillage — can achieve yields similar to standard cultivation methods and at lower cost.
Conservation tillage seeks to reduce the number of times that tractors cross the field, in order to protect the soil from erosion and compaction, and save time, fuel and labor costs. Cotton crops are planted directly into stubble from the previous crop in the rotation.
In the study, conducted from 2000 to 2011 at the UC West Side Research and Extension Center in Five Points (southwest of Fresno), the number of tractor passes for a cotton-tomato rotation grown with a cover crop was reduced from 20 in the standard treatment to 13 with conservation tillage.
By the final years of the in the San Joaquin Valley study, cotton lint yields were statistically equivalent and even higher (in 2011) than with standard cultivation methods.
“The UC studies have consistently shown that conservation tillage can yield as well as standard tillage in a cotton-tomato rotation,” lead author Jeffrey P. Mitchell, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, and co-authors wrote in California Agriculture journal. Mitchell is based at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center.
Their study, "Conservation tillage systems for cotton advance in the San Joaquin Valley," as well as the entire July-September 2012 issue of California Agriculture journal, can be viewed and downloaded online at: http://californiaagriculture.ucanr.edu.
Mitchell is a founder of Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation (CASI), a diverse group of more than 1,800 farmers, industry representatives, UC and other university faculty, and members of the Natural Resources Conservation Service and other public agencies (http://CASI.ucanr.edu). CASI defines conservation tillage as a suite of cultivation practices — including no-tillage, minimum tillage, ridge tillage and strip tillage — that reduce the volume of soil disturbed and preserve crop residues in the field. Conservation tillage is common in other regions of the United States and parts of the world and is beginning to gain acceptance in California agriculture.
Technological upgrades to tillage implements have been critical to the advancement of conservation tillage systems. These include equipment that can target operations to just the plant row rather than the whole field as well as accomplish several operations at the same time.
Fuel use was reduced by 12 gallons and labor by 2 hours per acre in the conservation tillage plots. This amounted to savings of about $70 per acre in 2011 dollars.
Mitchell noted that more research is needed on the adequate development of cotton stands and the prevention of soil compaction under different conditions, but that the benefits of conservation tillage are becoming increasingly obvious. “Provided that yield performance or more importantly bottom-line profitability can be maintained and the risks associated with adopting a new tillage system are deemed reasonable, conservation tillage systems may become increasingly attractive to producers and more common in San Joaquin Valley cotton-growing areas.”
Conservation tillage can achieve yields similar to standard cultivation methods and at lower cost.
Here Come the Sun(Flowers)
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Honey bee heads for a sunflower in a field off Pedrick Road, Dixon. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of honey bee foraging on a sunflower. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Row of hives along sunflower field on Pedrick Road, Dixon, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What's Peering Over the Petals?
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Honey bee nectars a zinnia, unaware of a predator eyeing her every move. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Coming up empty, the praying mantis stares at where the bee had been. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A Honey of a Visit
When youngsters meet Alyssa Fine, the first thing they ask is “Do you ever get...
Beekeeper Brian Fishback shows Alyssa Fine the bee sculpture in the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
American Honey Bee Queen Alyssa Fine watches a honey bee forage in the zinnias at the Haagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Share Your Harvest
In the summer when people have extra tomatoes, zucchini, peaches, apricots and their neighbors won't answer the door when you arrive with some to share- that's when they should check Community Food Bank's pantry list for the closest food pantry in their zip code. The food bank has a website - communityfoodbank.net or people can call them at 237-3663.
Fresno has been part of the nationwide effort called Plant A Row to Feed the Hungry since 2000. Plant a Row encourages home gardeners to plant an extra row in their garden and share their bounty with food pantries and soup kitchens. Locally we collect more than 30,000 pounds of fruit and vegetables for the food bank and provide several free classes at the Garden of the Sun.
**Our next free class is Square Foot Gardening on 9/29/12 about gardening in small spaces, taught by Master Gardeners at the Garden of the Sun.
I have donated to Hope Lutheran, the Pinedale Good Neighbor Center, and the Evangel Home. People's faces light up when you arrive with fresh fruit or produce.