Organic Grain Crop Archives - Department of Soil and Crop Sciences

Organic grain, soybean study establishes early production recommendations

14Dec

Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, skledbetter@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Nithya Rajan, 979-845-0360, nrajan@tamu.edu
Dr. Muthu Bagavathiannan, 979-845-5375, muthu@tamu.edu
Dr. Ronnie Schnell, 979-845-2935, ronschnell@tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION – After one year of studying organic grain and soybean cropping systems, Texas A&M AgriLife scientists say they know more about what not to do moving forward.

Organic grain sorghum under conventional tillage planted in College Station. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Dr. Nithya Rajan)

Three Texas A&M researchers are using a $475,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant to study organic grain and soybean cropping systems over a three-year period.

The project leaders are Dr. Nithya Rajan, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research crop physiologist; Dr. Muthu Bagavathiannan, AgriLife Research weed scientist; and Dr. Ronnie Schnell, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service cropping systems specialist – all in the Texas A&M department of soil and crop sciences in College Station.

Year one, they said, was a learning year, as there is very little information about organic farming in Texas both for researchers and producers.

“Producers in Texas interested in organic farming have limited information on best management practices, especially for large-scale grain production,” Rajan said. “Our goal is to identify organic cropping systems and management techniques for successful production of organic grain crops in Texas.”

Rajan said they will first identify species of cover crops and planting regimens. Other goals with this study include a greater understanding of the influence of organic management practices on nutrient cycling, greenhouse gas emissions, weed population dynamics, water-yield relations and soil health.

“We knew there would be challenges meeting the nutritional needs of the crop due to restrictions on nutrient sources in organic systems,” Schnell said. “We had a plan to use legume cover crops as a nitrogen source, but we struggled to get good production from these, and that snowballed into more problems.”

He said the timing of cover crop plantings was not optimum, and some of the cover crop species selected were not adapted to the production systems in the region.

“Cereal rye is not ideal for our systems here in Texas,” Schnell said. “When it began to grow and put on biomass, it was too late to plant grain crops and the ability to mechanically terminate the crop was reduced.

“We typically plant corn near the first of March, and sorghum and soybeans in late March. The rye didn’t mature until April, which ended up being competitive with the grain crops and became more like a weed.”

Diana Zapata kneeling in field looking at plants

Diana Zapata, doctoral student, checks plant growth in rye-vetch plots. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Dr. Nithya Rajan)

Hairy vetch also didn’t produce a lot of biomass on a timely basis, he said.

“Weed management was a big challenge,” Bagavathiannan said. “The cover crops provided some help in this respect, but because of a lack of good biomass production, they didn’t provide enough weed suppression.

“Inter-row cultivation was very effective for corn and grain sorghum,” he said. “No-till systems were the ones suffering the most with weed pressure. Johnsongrass is our No. 1 weed problem in the plots. Because they (Johnsongrass) are perennial, inclusion of more strategic tillage in the summer and fall is important for effective management of this species.”

Schnell said the second year of their NIFA grant study will shift cover crops, including alternative cereal crops and legumes, with the same goal of supplying nitrogen and providing weed control for the spring grain crops.

“We are going to try a spring wheat instead of cereal rye,” he said. “We are fall planting it in hopes that it will be nearing maturity when we need it, late winter, so we can successfully terminate it.

“We need a dense, mature biomass from cover crops to plant into during the spring,” Schnell said. “The cover crop biomass should compete with early season weeds, but not be actively growing at that point so that it doesn’t compete with the corn, sorghum and soybeans.”

Rajan said the trio of scientists recently has also been awarded a USDA Sustainable Agriculture and Research Education grant on organic systems to specifically look at cover crops better adapted to Texas’ planting schedule.

“The other big learning experience of the first year of study is that since weed control is a problem, particularly in the no-till systems, it is important to consider some kind of minimal tillage as needed,” Bagavathiannan said.

Rajan said this study is designed to answer questions about organic practices and provide growers more information about what is normal and help them be more successful as they transition from traditional farming to organic systems.

She said there are organic feed mills that will provide good demand and a market for the crops once they are raised, so that is not the primary concern. Raising the crops successfully and understanding the best management practices are the limiting factors at this time.

“We hope with strategic management, we can bring yields up and make these crops profitable for them,” Schnell said.

He said the field research is currently ongoing on the research farm near College Station, but in the final year of the three-year project, they plan to conduct demonstrations with producers around the state.

Organic Rice Research

11Aug

By: Kathleen Phillips

Soil and Crop Sciences Contacts:

Dr. Fugen Dou, f-dou@aesrg.tamu.edu

Dr. Muthu Bagavathiannan, muthu.bagavathiannan@tamu.edu

A market niche for organic rice has a potential to yield premium prices for farmers, but it’s more involved than simply planting the seed and forgetting it until harvest time.
That was the message from a team of researchers at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center-Beaumont during a recent field day at which experimental plots were showcased for area growers.
Rice scientists are conducting a three-year, multi-state, $1 million project exploring which rice varieties will yield best in an environment with no chemical treatments against diseases, weeds or insects. The idea is to be able to give farmers a “recipe” for growing rice organically, according to Dr. Shane Zhou, Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant pathologist in Beaumont and project leader.

Rice scientists are conducting a three-year, multi-state, $1 million project exploring which rice varieties will yield best in an environment with no chemical treatments against diseases, weeds or insects. This field is at Beaumont, Texas. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Kathleen Phillips)

“Currently, less than 2 percent of the total U.S. rice crop is organically produced,” Zhou said. “And most of that is grown in California and Texas.”
Six acres at the Beaumont facility are planted with rice varieties commonly grown in Texas. They’ve been subjected to a variety of treatments to determine how best to establish, grow and yield suitable harvests. Initially, the project started with 20 varieties in the tests. Half of those have since been cut from the project for not performing well enough.
This year, 10 varieties are showing varied quality of growth in experimental plots. Early indications show that cover crops of white clover, crimson clover and annual ryegrass performed best in Texas. Some of the varieties received a biocontrol seed treatment prior to planting to help control disease potential. The team is also exploring how much seed is needed for planting to establish an optimal stand.
“The higher the seed rate, the lower the weed count in the field,” said Dr. Fugen Dou, AgriLife Research integrated cropping systems nutrient management scientist, Beaumont. “Weeds are a major challenge because the grower can’t use any herbicides. There are also problems with seed rot and seedling diseases, and the grower can not use any seed treatment fungicides.”
For example, brown spot, a fungal disease, can occur on organic rice plants, due to a lack of nitrogen, which cannot be applied in its chemical form, Dou said.
“We have very limited options for providing enough nitrogen compared to conventional rice farming,” Dou said. “The soil typically does not have enough nitrogen to support the rice reaching its yield potential.”
That’s why nitrogen-containing cover crops, also referred to as “green manure,” like clover can be a boost, he said.
Winning the battle against weeds has focused on flooding the rice fields at certain times as the most important tool, according to Dr. Muthu Bagavathiannan, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agronomist, College Station. He found that applying 3 inches of water to the test plots reduced germination of the most common species of weeds.
The worst insect pest for organic operations is the rice water weevil, according to Dr. Mo Way, AgriLife Extension entomologist, Beaumont.
“It lays its eggs underwater, then the eggs hatch and the larvae move down to the roots, where they feed,” Way explained. “The larval stage can do a lot of damage. When water is applied much earlier on organic rice to control weeds, that means the rice is much smaller and it only takes a few larvae to do a lot of damage.”
Way and his team have taken soil core samples from each of the variety plots, washed the roots over a fine mesh and counted the number of larvae present. This data will be analyzed to help determine control methods in organic production.
Bagavathiannan said finding the best practices for growing organic rice could pay off for farmers, because though the yields are usually much lower than conventionally grown rice, the price is often double.

Texas A&M leading organic grain crop study

24Oct

Writer: Kay Ledbetter, 806-677-5608, skledbetter@ag.tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Nithya Rajan, 979-845-0360, nrajan@tamu.edu
Dr. Muthu Bagavathiannan, 979-845-5375, muthu.bagavathiannan@tamu.edu
Dr. Ronnie Schnell, 979-845-2935, ronschnell@tamu.edu

COLLEGE STATION – Dr. Nithya Rajan and her colleagues believe organic grain and soybean crops have an enormous opportunity to satisfy demand for specialty feed for a growing niche livestock industry in Texas.

Dr. Nithya Rajan (right), a Texas A&M AgriLife Research crop physiologist, and Diana Zapata, a graduate student, are setting up chambers for measuring carbon dioxide emission rates from the project field. (Texas A&M AgriLife Research photo)

Rajan, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research crop physiologist in the soil and crop sciences department at College Station, recently received a three-year, $475,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant to study organic grain and soybean cropping systems.

Joining Rajan on this project are Dr. Muthu Bagavathiannan, AgriLife Research weed scientist, and Dr. Ronnie Schnell, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service cropping systems specialist, all in the Texas A&M department soil and crop sciences department in College Station.

Sam Houston State University will also be involved with the economics and social survey work, she said.

“Pathway to Organic: A Research, Extension and Education Project in the Southeast U.S. on Transitioning Cropping Systems” came about after the group’s discussion with an organic feed mill owner who described difficulties sourcing organic grain to meet the demands for certified organic feed products.

Dr. Muthu Bagavathiannan (left), a Texas A&M AgriLife Research weed scientist, and Prabhu Govindasamy, a graduate student, are collecting soil samples for estimating weed seed banks in soil. (Texas A&M AgriLife Research photo)

Texas lags behind in organic crop production, she said, and that has become a problem for the organic livestock sector of the state that is looking for grain crops such as corn and sorghum.

“Limited information on organic farming practices is available to producers in Texas, especially for large-scale grain production,” Rajan said. “Our goal is to identify organic cropping systems and management techniques for successful production of organic grain crops in Texas.”

Rajan said they have other specific goals with this study, including a greater understanding of the influence of organic management practices on nutrient cycling, greenhouse gas emissions, weed dynamics, water-yield relations and soil health.

“One goal of the project is to determine if there is an advantage for climate change mitigation by migrating to cropping systems that utilize cover crops and conservation tillage,” she said.

Weed control and nutrient management are major concerns for organic grain producers, Bagavathiannan said.

A cowpea crop was planted in the organic study field for late summer cover. (Texas A&M AgriLife Research photo)

“We aim to develop best management practices for weed suppression and nutrient management through sound integration of fall-planted cover crops such as cowpeas and cereal rye-hairy vetch mixtures,” he said. “A unique treatment is double-cover cropping with a 60-day cowpea, followed by the cereal rye-hairy vetch mixture.”

Bagavathiannan said with a long growing season after crop harvest in southern Texas, “these cover crops will help reduce seed production from pigweeds and other summer-annual weeds that emerge after crop harvest, in addition to their value in weed suppression during the main grain crop production.”

The cowpea also is the first component of an intensive cover crop system to meet nitrogen demand, he said. The team hopes these practices optimize both productivity and profitability of organic grain cropping systems, specifically corn, grain sorghum and soybeans.

The final step will be for Schnell to develop an educational and outreach program for efficient transfer of project results to the various stakeholders. He will organize training efforts on the certification process, farm plan development, environmental benefits and best management strategies.

The project will include conducting a three-year field study and a two-year demonstration in a farmer’s field.