Project Field Work:
A demonstration site comparing three tillage systems will be established at the CSU Agricultural Research, Development and Education Center (ARDEC) north of Fort Collins, Colorado on a dedicated 14 acre field. We will use strip-till, modified no-till, and conventional tillage equipment in field-length plots (>1000ft), replicated twice within the field to control for variability.
To demonstrate that tillage systems under furrow irrigation are possible with high amounts of residue, the plots will be managed under continuous corn using appropriate fertility, insect, and weed best management practices for the area. Crop measurements during the growing season will include emergence date, population count, and crop growth stage progression.
Runoff during irrigations will be quantified using furrow flumes and recording pressure transducers. Irrigation advance time will be quantified for all systems using an average of the first five furrows progressing to the end of the row. We will collect water samples during at least four irrigations each growing season.
Two composite water samples will be collected, one during the first 15 minutes after runoff begins, and one at the end of the irrigation. Samples will be analyzed for total soluble N and P, ortho-P, nitrate-N. We will quantify sediment in water samples using Imhoff cones.
We will schedule irrigation timing and amount according to soil moisture tension measured using WaterMark resistance blocks and crop evapotranspiration (ET) from the Colorado Agricultural Meteorological (CoAgMet) weather station located on ARDEC. Grain yield will be quantified from each system using a combine with a GPS enabled yield monitor.
In order to conduct an economic comparison of the systems considered, input costs will be tracked throughout the cropping season. These include, but are not limited to, labor requirements for all field work, fuel, and fixed and variable equipment costs for tillage operations, fertilizer, pest control and harvest.
The farmer-managed demonstration site(s) will be used for field days, educational video production and crop production according to their rotation. Crops in the rotation may include corn, sugarbeets, or drybeans. Watermark sensors may also be installed in this field for soil moisture monitoring to aid in irrigation scheduling and track soil moisture through-out the growing season.