Project Number: 5348-22610-002-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Oct 01, 2006
End Date: Nov 30, 2008

Objective:
The overall goal of this research is to develop cost-effective and environmentally safe integrated cropping systems and precision farming practices that manage pests, and decrease erosion and commercial inputs thereby promoting environmentally sound and economically sustainable crop production systems in the semiarid Pacific Northwest.

Approach:
Compare crop yield and economic returns from a four-year crop rotation (wheat-fallow-wheat-legume) under conventional, inversion tillage and no-tillage. Determine whether conservation tillage, and alternative cropping systems will reduce winter annual grass weed competition, wind erosion susceptibility, and maintain profitability compared to a winter wheat-fallow production system. Compare the effect of tillage and no-tillage on jointed goatgrass weed populations and seed dynamics in various wheat production systems. Determine the best integrated crop rotation for jointed goatgrass management to prevent the development and spread of resistant weeds in Clearfield® wheat systems. Determine the genetic diversity of Russian thistle (Salsola ssp.) in the Pacific Northwest in conservation reserve land and in conventional- and conservation-cropping systems. Design and evaluate the agronomic performance of low-disturbance perennial-based, annual-based and organic agroecosystems. Evaluate an alternative harvesting system that harvests the crop and sorts the grain by density. Define the critical protein level associated with maximum yield in soft white winter wheat grown in a winter rainfall environment; determine the N deficit, or amount of additional N needed to reach the critical level; and ascertain if the critical level and N deficit are consistent across cultivars and water regimes. Determine whether topographic, vegetation, and N indices computed from terrain modeling, crop yield monitors and grain quality sensors, and proximal/remote sensing can improve prediction of N use efficiency; and whether these indices can provide spatially distributed inputs for precision N management strategies. Replacing 5348-22610-001-00D (10/1/06). Associated with Pendleton project 5356-13210-001-00D.